Pierre Sarr N'Jie (17 July 1909 – 11 December 1993) was a Gambian lawyer and politician who served as the Chief Minister of the Gambia from 1961 to 1962. He was the country's first head of government following the declaration of self-rule in 1961. From 1952 until 1977, he was leader of the United Party. He was also a member of the House of Representatives from 1960 to 1972, and de facto Leader of the Opposition for a period, opposite Dawda Jawara. Early life and government employment N'Jie was born in the Gambia in 1909 to a Wolof Muslim family. His father was a trader who was the nephew of one of the last kings of Saloum, Semu Joof. Thus, through his father, he had Serer blood from the Joof family of Saloum. N'Jie attended Saint Augustine's School in Bathurst and taught there before entering government employment in January 1929. He entered the Judicial Department as an assistant clerk of the courts in 1931, remaining there until July 1943 when he retired on a pension on medical grounds. In February 1943, he had been arrested and prosecuted on the charge of forging the signature of a plaintiff in a civil case. After the short trial, N'Jie was acquitted by the local magistrates due to a lack of evidence but was not given his old job back. The government later refused to pay him any health or reputational compensation, which he greatly resented. Studies in England and legal career Having failed to secure alternative employment in the Gambia, he left for the United Kingdom to study medicine at King's College London. However, he said "I only stayed there a short time. I was to be a doctor, but I don't like blood." In September 1943, he began legal training at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court. In 1948, he became the first Wolof to be called to the bar. He returned to the Gambia in 1949 to set up his own firm in Bathurst. His main success was in conveyancing land between Africans and Lebanese. In September 1958, the deputy judge of the Supreme Court of the Gambia, Myles John Abbott, disbarred N'Jie from the legal profession for one of these deals. This decision was set aside by the West African Court of Appeal in June 1959, on the grounds that a deputy judge had no jurisdiction in the