Background
Macaulay was born on November 12, 1929, in Opobo, Nigeria.
Macaulay was born on November 12, 1929, in Opobo, Nigeria.
Educated at the Government Model School and the Sierra Leone Grammar School. At Durham University he got an MA in Philosophy and at London a Bachelor of Law degree, being t e Lee prizeman of Gray’s Inn. While in Britain he wrote extensively for legal publications and published “Questions and Answers on Contracts”.
He was appointed Attorney-General, a non-parliamentary post, on November 28, 1963, by Sir Milton Margai and continued in the same position under Sir Albert Margai, whom he advised on legal matters, frequently disputing legal principles with him. He was also the legal adviser to Colonel Juxon Smith, the military ruler after the March 1967 coup.
Shortly after Siaka Stevens returned to power in April 1968 he made a broadcast saying that there were certain elements “who have refused to accept the fact that they cannot always be in power”. A number of Sierra Leone People’s Party supporters were then arrested, including Berthan Macaulay, and later charged with treason in a celebrated treason trial. On April 18, 1970, he was found guilty and sen-tenced to death, but the sentence was not carried out, and the case went to appeal.
On May 11, 1971, the Appeal Court ruled that the trial had not been properly conducted. The government decided not to bring fresh charges and on Christmas Eve 1971 he was finally released from detention.
He then returned to private practice and in September 1972 represented the’ Sierra Leone People’s Party members who were charged with murder, following a crash between a government and an SLPP Landrover, in which one man died and many more were injured.
Hardworking, studious, conscientious, he served as Attorney-General for three governments. He is generally regarded as an SLPP supporter, though he has never actually been a card-holding member. He has defended officers under court martial and politicians in celebrated political trials. He has also skilfully defended himself in the harrowing treason trial which dragged on for nearly three years, between 1968 and 1970, during which period he was held in detention.