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94 S. African L.J. 483 (1977)
Retirement of Mr. Justice G. N. Holmes

handle is hein.journals/soaf94 and id is 493 raw text is: NOTES AND COMMENTS RETIREMENT OF MR JUSTICE G N HoLMEs On 10 July Mr Justice Neville Holmes reached the statutory retire- ment age of 70 and the Appellate Division lost an outstanding jurist. In 1975 he completed twenty-five years service on the Bench and intended retiring (see the tribute in (1975) 92 SALJ 219). The tragic death of Mr Justice Botha on 28 December that year led to his selflessly agreeing to continue in judicial office (see (1976) 93 SALJ 206). Born in Howick, Natal, Neville Holmes was educated at the famous Durban High School, from which so many men of eminence have emerged. He proceeded to Natal University College, Durban, where he read for the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, in which he distinguished himself in Latin and Roman Law, and Bachelor of Laws. He had a notable sporting record, too, excelling at athletics and rugby. In 1931 he was admitted to the Natal Bar, then led by the great Graham Mackeurtan KC, for whom the young Holmes devilled. During the war he served in the Royal Durban Light Infantry. Thereafter he resumed practice, taking silk in 1947. In 1949 the third edition of Mackeurtan's Sale of Goods in South Africa was published under his editorship. In 1950 and 1951 he was an acting judge in the Natal Provincial Division, and on 2 April 1952 he received a permanent appointment. For spells in 1959 and 1960 Mr Justice Holmes was an acting judge of appeal, and in early 1960 he held the position of acting Judge President of the Natal Provincial Division. His judicial career reached its culmination on 1 January 1961, when he was appointed to the Appellate Division, the first former member of the Natal Bar to receive that honour. There is an excellent photograph in colour of Mr Justice Holmes in the frontispiece of the April 1976 issue of De Jure, the journal of the Faculty of Law of the University of Pretoria, accompanied by a curriculum vitae in his own words sent at the request of the editorial board. The short autobiographical sketch is couched in typically droll vein. A full appraisal of the contribution of Mr Justice Holmes to the exposition and development of our law must await another occasion and a more skilled hand than mine. What an extensive area of law and length of time it will have to cover! What a host of leading judgments stands to his name! One thinks of his recent decision in Standard Bank of SA Ltd v Sham Magazine Centre 1977 (1) SA 484 (AD), on crossings 483

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