Alfred North (jurist)
Sir Alfred Kingsley North , also known as Alf North, was a New Zealand lawyer and judge. He was President of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand from 1963 until his retirement in 1972.
Biography
North was born in Christchurch in 1900, the son of Baptist minister John North. As a teenager, North contracted polio and had a limp for the rest of his life. He received his education at West Christchurch District High School, Christchurch Boys' High School, and then attended Canterbury University College, graduating LLM in 1927.He first practiced in Ashburton from 1921. After obtaining his Master of Laws, he was in partnership in Hāwera. From 1935, he was a barrister and a partner in the legal firm Earl, Kent, Stanton, Massey, North and Palmer in Auckland, replacing Erima Northcroft who had been appointed judge. In 1951, North was appointed judge of the Supreme Court. When the Court of Appeal was reconstituted in Wellington in 1957, North was one of its founding members and relocated to the capital city, where he lived in Wadestown. North was the president of the Court of Appeal from 1963 to 1972.
Between 1976 and 1978, North conducted a commission of inquiry into an alleged breach of confidentiality of the police file on Colin Moyle.
For the respective Auckland branches, North was president for Rotary and chairman of the New Zealand Crippled Children's Society.