Frank Gavan Duffy
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Portrait of Gavan Duffy in the early 20th century. |
Sir Frank Gavan Duffy,
KCMG (
1852 –
1936),
Australian
judge, was the fourth Chief Justice of the
High Court of Australia, sitting on the bench of the High Court from
1913 to
1935.
Duffy was born in
Dublin,
Ireland, on
29 February,
1852, the son of Sir
Charles Gavan Duffy, who was later to become a member of the
Victorian Legislative Assembly, and the eighth
Premier of Victoria.
He traveled to Australia with his family in
1856, but later returned to England to study at
Stonyhurst College. In 1869 Duffy returned to Australia and attended the
University of Melbourne, graduating in
1872 with a Bachelor of Arts.
At this time, he began to work in the public service, and started to study law.
In
1874, Duffy was called to the Victorian Bar, and began practicing as a barrister in
1875. Over the next few years, Duffy contributed to the second edition of
Casey's Justices Manual, published in
1879, and in the same year founded the
Australian Law Times. He edited this publication until
1883. Over the next twenty years, Duffy published many more works on various pieces of legislation.
Duffy was caught up in the financial crisis of
1893, but over time paid back his debts. He was appointed a
Queen's Counsel in
1900, and between
1902 and
1910 he lectured on
contract law at the
University of Melbourne. In
1907, Duffy became the editor of the
Victorian Law Reports. By
1910, Duffy was widely regarded as the most prominent
Victorian lawyer, and the unofficial leader of the Victorian Bar.
Duffy was appointed to the bench of the
High Court of Australia in
1913. Seventeen years later, in
1931, when Sir
Isaac Isaacs was made
Governor-General, he took over as Chief Justice of the High Court. He retired from the bench in
1935 at age eighty-three. He had planned to deliver a series of lectures on
Australian constitutional law at
Harvard University's
tercentenary early in
1936, but was too ill. He died after a brief illness on
July 29 1936. He was survived by his wife and three sons, among them
Charles Leonard Gavan Duffy, later a Justice of the
Supreme Court of Victoria.
Duffy was created a Knight Commander of the
Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in
1929. Duffy had been made a member of the
Privy Council (PC) in
1932.
His half-brother,
George Gavan Duffy (born 1882) was an Irish politician and later (from 1936) a judge of the Irish
High Court, becoming its President from 1946 until his death in 1951.
