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Barristers in the First World War: Taking up the Cause: Rabaul, Gallipoli and the Home Front1

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Barristers in the First World War: Taking up the Cause: Rabaul, Gallipoli and the Home Front1 Barristers in the First World War: Taking up the cause: Rabaul, Gallipoli and the Home Front1 By Tony Cunneen Writing for the Law and War Conference in 2012, Justice war, and, while a member of the legal community, was more Brereton commented that both the legal profession and the a soldier than a lawyer. Another well-known soldier who fully profession of arms ‘provide its practitioners with skills and combined his legal and military careers was the barrister Henry experience that serve them well in the other.’2 Considering Normand MacLaurin. this complementary skill set, it is not surprising that such a MacLaurin had been a well-known personage before the large number of Sydney barristers served with distinction in war. He had a thriving legal practice but also worked closely the First World War.3 !e combination of a sense allegiance with solicitor Charles MacNaghten to shape ragged clumps for the British Empire4 reinforced by education, close personal of inner city youth into functioning soldiers as part of the connections and a generally favourable attitude towards prewar militias. Idealistic professionals such as MacLaurin and military service made the community of the bar predisposed MacNaghten often met socially in the Australian Club or the for war when the opportunity "nally came. It is perhaps less newly established University Club. !is close=knit professional widely known that barristers and their families had a signi"cant society provided the leaders of the "rst units formed in role well beyond the battle"eld, where they were active in a response to the dramatic call to arms in August 1914. !e variety of war related organisations and campaigns, including central location of the Supreme Court and attendant chambers the Red Cross, the many unit-related Comforts’ Funds, gave both bench and bar a close involvement with the excited recruiting activities and politics. !e legal profession’s social atmosphere in the heart of the city at the outbreak of the war. leadership in these areas during the First World War was a !e Sydney German Club was a short walk down Phillip Street unique phenomenon in its history. Furthermore, the extensive involvement of judges’ and barristers’ wives in many of these activities was a determining factor in parliament’s decision to pass the Women’s Legal Status Act in 1918 which gave women the right to become lawyers.5 A complex web of family, shared interests and education connected barristers in 1914 – both within Australia and as part of the British Empire.6 Shared values of service were inculcated through using the exploits of heroic men as models of proper behavior. Heroic men were eulogised in education and everyday life through books such as Deeds that Won the Empire7 and many other boys’ annuals and patriotic texts. With this constant promotion of martial values it is not surprising that barristers had a shared interest in military matters, whether as members of the locally based militia units or a more generalised support for the belief that martial activities underpinned patriotic duty. A signi"cant number of barristers had combined their professional lives with an active involvement in the formation of the embryonic armed forces before the war, particularly since compulsory military service had been enacted in 1911. One of the leading lawyer-soldiers was Colonel James Gordon Legge who had been admitted to the New South Wales Bar on 6 March 1891 and practised for three years before joining the permanent forces.8 Legge had served in the Boer War with distinction and had been instrumental in implementing the defence plan adopted in 1909 known as the Kitchener Scheme. He would have a varied and often controversial career in the Bar News | Winter 2014 | 67 BAR HISTORY and provided a galling reminder of how close to home the war to Red Cross training courses and organising a variety of supposed enemy were. fund raising activities.14 Apart from the great sense of patriotic duty, the simple fact that these ladies had telephones and access !e six weeks before the outbreak of war in August 1914 to vehicles gave them a practical means of maintaining their had been a particularly patriotic time in Sydney. !e newly networks.15 appointed governor-general of Australia, Sir Ronald Munro- Ferguson and his equally imposing partner, Lady Helen, !e "rst recruits from the ranks of lawyers in August 1914 had arrived for his "rst o#cial visit to the city on Friday 10 tended to be adventurous types with some militia experience July. !eir stately progress through local society matched the in either the school or university cadets. !ey went into the growing excitement as the prospect of war moved from a Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF) news story about events in a remote corner of the world to a – organised by Colonel Legge, who was chief of the more personal threat to the safety of the citizens of Sydney. Commonwealth General Sta$ at the time. !e ANMEF was a !e Munro-Fergusons were aristocratic manifestations of the rapidly assembled and woefully ill-trained group formed to take British Empire: he would inherit the title and lands accorded to over the German wireless station in Rabaul. !ey embarked Viscount Novar; and Lady Helen was the daughter of a former on their Quixotic quest at Man o’ War steps in Sydney on 18 viceroy of India, the Marquess of Du$erine and Ava.9 New August 1914 happily singing ‘Rule Britannia’ and ‘God Save South Wales’ judges and barristers, led by Chief Justice Sir our Gracious King’ in tune with an enormous crowd of well William Portus Cullen, had made repeated public assertions wishers – then somewhat anti-climatically spent the night on of their loyalty to that empire in elaborate acts of obeisance board the transport Berrima at Cockatoo Island before a most reminiscent of medieval oaths of fealty, which the visiting vice- public procession down the harbour on 19 August. regal family solemnly accepted on behalf of the royal family. By Among the o#cers of the ANMEF were: Lieutenant Cecil the end of the vice-regal visit, culminating in the formal garden Rodwell Lucas, a 27-year-old barrister from Waverley and Major party at Yaralla on the Parramatta River on Friday, 31 July, the Windeyer Alexander Ralston, a 29-year-old barrister from local legal community had made commitments that proved too Strath"eld. Ralston was the son of Alexander Gerard Ralston strong to break. !e war would become a holy crusade where, KC. Commanding the machine-gun section was a 33-year- according to Chief Justice Sir William Portus Cullen, the giving old Scottish barrister living in North Sydney, Captain James of a man’s life for his country was ‘the best gift’ a man could Logie Harcus from University Chambers. Another captain was give.10 !e rhetoric of the war as a ‘Holy Crusade’ resonated the 35-year-old Sydney barrister, Charles Edye Manning from throughout the public and private discourse of both bench and Hunters Hill.16 Captain Harcus, in particular, is recorded as bar for the duration of the con%ict. having led his men in a number of important engagements on As the "rst recruits for the armed forces crowded into Victoria the Bitapaka Road, displaying the kind of willing aggression in Barracks and the Red Cross started its operations, the bar was battle which would be the hallmark of barristers in the frontline galvanised into support of the war in all its forms. Barrister during the war. Geo$rey McLaughlin was one of the "rst four men to enlist in !e limited action in New Guinea resulted in a small number the state.11 Another barrister, Hanbury Davies was chairman of of casualties – one of whom was Captain Brian Pockley, the the "rst General Committee of the Australian Red Cross formed nephew of barrister, Herbert Curlewis. Curlewis heard of his in August 1914. He was ably assisted by a number of women nephew’s death early one morning and then raced around whose husbands were at the bar or on the bench. Mary Langer central Sydney trying to "nd the young man’s father to tell Owen, the wife of Langer Meade Loftus Owen KC12, and their him of the loss so he would not read of it in the evening news. daughter Gladys, were passionate supporters of the Red Cross !is was a foretaste of many dramas concerning noti"cations of and many other causes. !eir son and brother William Francis casualties where the close proximity of the law courts, the cable Langer Owen13 would serve in action. Among the others on o#ces, gentlemen’s clubs, government o#ces and the local the inaugural war committee were Mrs Archibald Simpson, headquarters of the armed forces in Sydney allowed for news wife of Mr Justice Simpson, Lady Cullen, wife of the chief to spread via uno#cial networks faster than any formal process. justice, and Ethel Curlewis (nee Turner), the wife of barrister Herbert Curlewis (and mother of Judge Adrian Curlewis). !e Once the German Wireless Station at Bitapaka was captured latter pair of friends were particularly energetic supporters, the expeditionary force had completed the bulk of its work. opening their homes in Mosman from the "rst days of the Some of the law professionals were employed in the newly established British legal system in what was previously German 68 | Bar News | Winter 2014 | held territory. Charles Edye Manning was appointed assistant the strength of purpose felt across the country. judge-advocate general for New Guinea on 12 September 1914 MacLaurin’s boundless enthusiasm continued throughout – thereby becoming that country’s !rst British judge.
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