Sir Gordon Ellis Bisson (23 November 1918 – 14 November 2010) was a

New Zealand Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal of New Zealand () is the principal intermediate appellate court of New Zealand. It is also the final appellate court for a number of matters. In practice, most appeals are resolved at this intermediate appellate level, rathe ...

judge and a member of the

Privy Council of the United Kingdom The Privy Council, formally His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a privy council, formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its members, known as privy counsellors, are mainly senior politicians who are curre ...

Early life and education

Bisson was born to Clarence Henry Bisson and Ada Bisson (née Ellis) in 1918 in Napier. Educated at

Napier Boys' High School Napier Boys' High School is a secondary boys' school in Napier, New Zealand. It currently has a school roll of approximately pupils. The school provides education from Year 9 to Year 13. Headmasters The following is an incomplete list of Na ...

, he graduated from

Victoria University College Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

with a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

in 1941. Bisson served with the RNZNVR during World War II from 1940 to 1945 aboard in the Pacific, at

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

and the Second Front, and was

Mentioned in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

.Walters, Sidney, David. ''The Royal New Zealand Navy''. Historical Publications Branch, 1956. pp. 520–521. He then served aboard at sea on the Staff of Admiral Walker Commanding the Third Battle Squadron in the Far East and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. He was later married in 1948 to Myra Patricia Kemp. The couple went on to have three daughters.

Legal career

Bisson began his legal career with Bisson Moss, the firm established in 1920 by his father. In 1961 he was appointed Crown Solicitor, Napier, and in 1976 was appointed Judge-Courts Martial Appeal Court. Then In 1978 he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme (then High) Court. In 1986, he was elevated to the Court of Appeal and sat there until he retired at age 72 in 1990. In 1987, he was appointed a Privy Counsellor and he sat on the Board in 1989. As a retired New Zealand Court of Appeal judge, Bisson served on the Samoan Court of Appeal from 1994 until 2005 for which he was awarded the

Companion of the Order of Samoa The Honours and Awards System of Samoa has its basis in the Merit Act 1992/1993 and the Honours and Awards Act 1999. From 1914 to 1962, Samoa was governed as the Western Samoa Trust Territory by the United Kingdom and New Zealand. During this time, ...

. He was also a member of the Court of Appeal of

Kiribati Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, and more than half live on Tarawa. The st ...

from 1999 until 2001.

Honours and awards

* 1939 – Sir Michael Myers C.J. Prize in Law * 1986 – Appointed to the Privy Council * 1990 – Awarded

New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal The New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal was a commemorative medal awarded in New Zealand in 1990 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and was awarded to 3,632 people. Background The New Zealand 1990 Com ...

* 1991 – Appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

in the

1991 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1991 were appointments by Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by people of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. They were published on 28 December 1990 for the United Kingdom, ...

* 2006 – Companion of the

Order of Samoa Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...

Publications

;Articles * Papers on Matrimonial Property Law Commonwealth and Empire Law Conference 1960 and N.Z. Law Society Conference 1963 * co-author, Criminal Law and Practice in NZ (1st Edn 1964) * co-author, Report for International Commission of Jurists on Martial Law in the Philippines (1977).

Community service

*President: Hawke's Bay District Law Society, Hawke's Bay Officers' Club, Hawke's Bay Medico Legal Society, Hawke's Bay Lawn Tennis Club *Vice President: N.Z. Law Society, N.Z. Section International Commission of Jurists *Trustee: N.Z. Law Foundation 1982–88 *Chairman: Banking Ombudsman Commission, Meat Export Quota Tribunal

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bisson, Gordon 1918 births 2010 deaths People from Napier, New Zealand High Court of New Zealand judges Court of Appeal of New Zealand judges New Zealand judges on the courts of Kiribati New Zealand judges on the courts of Samoa New Zealand Knights Bachelor New Zealand members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom