Vernon Berrangé

Berrangé's forebears were in the third wave of French Huguenots who went to the Cape (via Holland) in 1775 and as history evolved became Afrikaners (Boers).

The Berrangés were essentially a family of Dutch Reformed ministers, but there were also "sick-comforters," medical doctors, public servants, politicians and advocates.

His mother was Elizabeth Theresa Krogh.

Berrangé was admitted to the South African Bar in 1924 but in 1926 he left the Bar and went into partnership with his father, James Louis Steyn Berrangé (born 16 October 1865,died 1931), as an attorney.

Berrangé's maternal grandfather, Johannes C. Krogh of Danish extraction, was Special Commissioner sent from the South African Republic to Swaziland (1894 to 1898), head of the Boundary Commission that settled the border between Swaziland and Moçambique (Maputo) in 1897 and one of the Boer signatories to the "Treaty of the Peace of Vereeniging".

Vernon Celliers Berrangé SCOT "Defender of the People" (25 November 1900 – 14 September 1983) was an eminent South African human rights advocate (QC)

He received his primary education at the Falk Real Gymnasium in Berlin (1907–1910) and at the German School in Johannesburg (1911).

His secondary school was Hilton College, Natal, where he is commemorated on a plaque as "Scholar of the Year'".

On leaving school (1917) he enlisted as one of Major Miller's recruits and became a Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, being trained in Kent, UK.

After demobilisation (1919) he returned to South Africa and worked briefly for the Institute for Medical Research before going to the University of Cape Town from which he graduated (1924) with a law degree – BA LLB

Berrangé was an immaculate dresser and had a penchant for high living and fast cars.

He was always against authority, loved a challenge and revelled in danger.

He was a very active man, both intellectually and physically.

Sports at school, in the RAF and at university included boxing, rowing, rugby and swimming.

They had one son, Jevan Pierres Berrangé (b. 1931, d. 2018); a daughter Gelda Frances Berrangé (b.8 February 1927, d. 2015), and a son Eric Brewer (b. 15 June 1921, d. 30 March 2010) from their respective earlier marriages.

Berrangé was born in Pretoria soon after it had been occupied by the British during the Anglo-Boer War.

Berrangé married (7 March 1930) Yolande Viviane Brewer, née de Pierres (born 1900), who loved and supported him in all ways for 50 years until her death (1980).

In the 1930s he had an interest in a small gold mine in Swaziland.

He read avidly and travelled widely in Africa and Europe.

Later he became a motor racing driver (1932) on South African circuits.

He had a large collection of sporting firearms and was keen on big game hunting and bird shooting.

His considerable knowledge of guns and ballistics was something that he found useful in some of his criminal cases.

Berrangé joined the South African Communist Party of his own volition in about 1938, holding the opinion that it was an organisation which expressed in practice those economic and social

theories which appealed to him.

Berrangé was an ordinary member attached to the Central Branch in Johannesburg, except for a period when he was on a committee dealing with Industrial Legislation and Trade Union Work.

In 1941 Berrangé was charged with special duties by Brigadier General Collyer, Military Secretary to General Smuts.

These duties included seeking out fascists who might be infiltrating the armed forces.

After the Second World War, however, Berrangé would find himself increasingly involved in defending the human rights of those prosecuted by the Nationalist Government some of whose members had been supporters of the Nazis.

Following the Alexandra Township bus boycott (1944), organised in response to the bus companies raising bus fares by a penny, the Government passed emergency legislation that prohibited all meetings.

Communists Bram Fischer and Berrangé discovered a legal loophole in this legislation which meant that the boycotters could still assemble and march.

However, when discussing this loophole over the phone, their lines were tapped by the police who thereby learned of it and hastily redrafted the legislation.

The boycotters won their concessions in the end.

Berrangé resigned from the SACP in 1950 when and because it was dissolved, after the passing of the Suppression of Communism Act 1950.

Berrangé later reappraised and radically changed his views, to become critical of the theories and practices of the party.

Despite this change of views he remained friends with some former comrades and subsequently was a member of the team defending Bram Fischer in court.

He remained at the Side Bar until 1950 when he was re-admitted to the Bar where he remained until his retirement in 1966.

Berrangé built up a reputation as an outstanding criminal defence and human rights lawyer with a reputation for devastating cross-examination.

"'He cross-examined witnesses with a steely cold manner, which, coupled with devastating insight into their psychology, seemed to strike terror into the most belligerent of policemen. He was the most sought-after criminal lawyer of the time, and had also appeared in almost every major political trial in the country, including the Treason Trial.'"

He was a co-founder of The Organisation for Rights and Justice and Chairman of the Legal Aid Society.

As such he was often willing to accept briefs in cases where non-whites were charged under the discriminatory apartheid laws, and in such cases usually acted pro bono.