Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Lett, Sherwood
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1895-1964
History
Sherwood Lett was born in Iroquois, Ontario in 1895. In 1912 he accompanied his family to Vancouver where he pursued university studies until 1916 when he enlisted for service in World War I. He served in France and was awarded the Military Cross. In 1919, as a Rhodes Scholar, he studied law in Oxford. After returning to Vancouver in 1922, he entered private practice, specializing in corporate and tax law until the outbreak of war in 1939. In 1942 he participated in the Dieppe Raid and was awarded the D.S.O. In 1947, as a member of an official three-man commission, he visited Japan. Following his return he was elected president of the Vancouver Bar Association and a bencher of the B.C. Law Society. In 1951, he was elected Chancellor of University of British Columbia. In 1954 he was appointed Commissioner to head the Canadian truce delegation in Vietnam. In 1955 he was appointed Chief Justice of the B.C. Supreme Court, and in 1963 Chief Justice of the B.C. Court of Appeal. He died in 1964.