Appointments and Retirements

THE AUSTRALIAN BAR GAZETTE 21 Appointments and Retirements Lieutenant-General The Hon. Sir Edmund Herring, Commonwealth Law Reports contain few records of K.C.M.G., K.B.E., D.S.O., M.C., E.D. his judgments being reversed on appeal. Sir Edmund leaves the bench with the affection of all Sir Edmund Herring retired from the position of Chief who appeared before him, and to him and to Dame Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria on attaining the Mary Herring go the warmest wishes of the members statutory retiring age of seventy-two on 2nd September, of the Victorian bar. 1964. Sir Edmund was appointed to succeed Sir Freder ick Mann as Chief Justice on 2nd February, 1944, after attaining the greatest distinction as scholar, barrister and Chief Justice Winneke, Kt., O.B.E. soldier. He was educated at Melbourne Grammar School, Trinity College (Melbourne) and New College The Solicitor-General of Victoria, Sir Henry Arthur (Oxford), to which he went as Rhodes Scholar for Vic Winneke, has succeeded Sir Edmund Herring as Chief toria of 1912. He was called to the bar as a member Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. Born in of the Inner Temple in 1920 and to the Victorian bar 1908, the son of a distinguished County Court judge, in the following year. He practised mainly in equity. H. C. Winneke, whose failure to attain the Supreme After sixteen years at the bar he was appointed King’s Court bench has been publicly regretted by Sir Owen Counsel, being one of the few members of the Victorian bar to receive silk in the decade after the depression. Dixon, Sir Henry Winneke was educated at Ballarat Grammar School, Scotch College and the University of He served with the Royal Field Artillery in the British Melbourne where he graduated in law with first-class Expeditionary Force in France and Macedonia during honours. He became the pupil of W. K. Fullagar after the first War, being mentioned in despatches and was his admission to practise in 1931. In 1949 he took awarded the Military Cross and Distinguished Service silk and was appointed Senior Counsel to the Attorney- Order. During the second War Sir Edmund Herring served as General Officer Commanding the 6th Division General, and when the office of Solicitor-General was A.I.F., the Northern Territory Force, the I Corps and revived in 1951 he was appointed to it. As Solicitor- New Guinea Force until his appointment as Chief Jus General, he has led in the High Court for the Crown tice. in right of Victoria in many leading constitutional cases, The bald record of the positions he has held and dis including Armstrong’s Case, the second Uniform Tax tinctions he has gained reveals the breadth of his inter Case, Australian Coastal Shipping Commission v. ests and the extent of his activities, but he has not been O’Reilly and the Marriage Act Case, and in criminal prepared merely to have his name associated with the appeals. As the first Victorian Solicitor-General selected many organizations and fields of endeavour which have from outside parliament, Sir Henry has had the re commanded his concern. As Chancellor of the Diocese sponsibility of defining the functions of the office and its of Melbourne, as a member of innumerable educational, relationship with the government. His consciousness of welfare and ex-service organizations, he has shown the the position of a law officer of the Crown, advising the devotion to public service which he believes to be the government yet also serving the law, has been evident responsibility of the holder of public office. He will throughout his tenure of office, even when it has been continue to hold the commission as Lieutenant-Governor far from clear that the government has had the same of Victoria which he received in 1945. perception of a law officer’s role. As Chief Justice, Sir Edmund has seen his Court grow from six judges to fourteen; he has seen the business of During the War, Sir Henry served as Director of the Court enlarged more than threefold; he has seen Personal Services of the Royal Australian Air Force its work conducted in temporary premises outside the with the rank of Group Captain. Supreme Court building. A tribute to his work as Chief Justice in dealing with the problems of the years after the War and beyond, by Sir Charles Lowe, who, for Mr. Justice Smithers most of Sir Edmund’s term of office, was the senior The Honourable Reginald Allfree Smithers was in puisne judge, was published in the first number of the August, 1964, appointed Judge of the Supreme Court “Gazette” (October, 1963). Of his many innovations, of the Australian Capital Territory and an additional perhaps one, the Chief Justice’s Law Reform Committee, should be mentioned again, for this committee, working Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. through expert sub-committees of judges, barristers, He has resigned from the Supreme Court of Papua and solicitors and academic lawyers has been responsible for New Guinea of which he has been a member since many valuable amendments to “lawyers’ law”. 1962. Mr. Justice Smithers made his mark in the Terri tory during his tenure of office there. In addition to As a judge, Sir Edmund was a model of patience, tact and friendliness. There were never scenes in court his judicial duties, he was Chancellor of the Diocese of when he presided. To the casual observer, it may have New Guinea, founder and first President of the Medico- seemed that he was too informal in his approach to a Legal Society and Chairman of the newly formed Coun case, but this impression would have been wrong, for cil of Law Reporting. He will take up permanent duties he possessed a firm knowledge of legal principle and had in Canberra in the New Year, after sitting six months a keen appreciation of the substance of a case. The in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. 22 THE AUSTRALIAN BAR GAZETTE Mr. Justice Frost Mr. Justice Isaacs Sydney Thomas Frost Q.C. was appointed a Judge On 14th October, 1964, Simon Isaacs of the New of the County Court and Chairman of General Sessions South Wales bar was appointed a Justice of the Supreme in Victoria on 16th July, 1964. He was educated at Court of New South Wales. Born in London on 9th Essendon High School and Melbourne High School, and April, 1905, his Honour came to Australia at an early graduated as Master of Laws in the University of Mel age and was educated at Sydney High School and the bourne. He practised, for a short time after admission University of Sydney. After taking the degree of Ll.B., in May, 1938, as a solicitor, before serving with the he became a solicitor in 1928 and was admitted to the Australian Intelligence Corps in the A.I.F. He signed bar in 1934. He took silk in 1950. He was a member the Roll of Counsel in November, 1945, and read in the of the Council of the New South Wales Bar Association chambers of Oliver Gillard. Like Gillard, he divided on several occasions. his time between jury and commercial work. He took silk on 5th September, 1961. His Honour’s practice at the bar was a very diverse one and embraced all jurisdictions of the Courts of the On 18th November, 1964, he was appointed a Judge State and of the Commonwealth. He has been sitting of the Supreme Court of Papua and New Guinea, filling in the common law jurisdiction of the Supreme Court the vacancy left by the resignation of Mr. Justice Smith- since his appointment and it is expected that he will ers. He is not a stranger to the territory, as he served continue in that jurisdiction hereafter. there during the War. His Honour is forty-eight. Judge Stretton, C.M.G. Mr. Justice Allen His Honour Judge Leonard Edward Bishop Stretton On 29th July, 1964, the appointment as a Justice of retired as a Judge of the Victorian County Court at the Supreme Court of New South Wales of Philip the beginning of August, 1964, at the age of seventy. Harrison Allen was announced. His Honour was born Judge Stretton was a solicitor for some ten years in Sydney on 2nd February, 1908, and was educated at before coming to the bar. He signed the Bar Roll in the Sydney Church of England Grammar School, North February, 1929, and practised extensively in civil and Sydney, and the University of Sydney where he took the criminal work before being appointed to the County degrees of B.A. and Ll.B., and was admitted to the Bar Court on 12th August, 1937. Since 1938 he has spent in 1937. His Honour saw service in World War II from a great deal of his time in the Workers’ Compensation 1941 to 1946, being commissioned in the artillery and Board of which he was Chairman but his activities have later serving with the Australian Army Legal Corps. He not been restricted to that sphere. He sat as a Royal Com saw service in Australia, in New Guinea, Borneo and the missioner on five different occasions possibly the most Philippines. From 1957 to 1960, he was Treasurer of famous of which was his enquiry into the disastrous the New South Wales Bar Association, and, in 1960, bush fires of 1939. He was appointed an acting Justice he took silk. His Honour’s practice at the bar was of the Supreme Court of Victoria from June to Decem mainly in the common law jurisdiction but since his ber, 1951.

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