William Irvine (Australian politician)
Sir William Irvine | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Chief Justice of Victoria | |
In office 9 April 1918 – 30 September 1935 | |
Preceded by | John Madden |
Succeeded by | Frederick Mann |
Attorney-General of Australia | |
In office 24 June 1913 – 17 September 1914 | |
Prime Minister | Joseph Cook |
Preceded by | Billy Hughes |
Succeeded by | Billy Hughes |
Premier of Victoria | |
In office 10 June 1902 – 16 February 1904 | |
Governor | George Clarke Reginald Talbot |
Preceded by | Alexander Peacock |
Succeeded by | Thomas Bent |
Member of the Australian Parliament for Division of Flinders | |
In office 12 December 1906 – 5 April 1918 | |
Preceded by | James Gibb |
Succeeded by | Stanley Bruce |
Personal details | |
Born | Newry, County Down, Ireland | 6 July 1858
Died | 20 August 1943 Toorak, Victoria, Australia | (aged 85)
Political party | Liberal (federal) |
Spouse |
Agnes Wanliss (m. 1891) |
Relations | John Mitchel (uncle) |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin University of Melbourne. |
Profession | Barrister |
Sir William Hill Irvine GCMG (6 July 1858 – 20 August 1943) was an Australian politician and judge. He served as Premier of Victoria (1902–1904), Attorney-General of Australia (1913–1914), and Chief Justice of Victoria (1918–1935).
Irvine was born in County Down, Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Melbourne, immigrating to Australia in 1879. He qualified as a barrister and was first elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1894. Appointed attorney-general of Victoria in 1899, Irvine succeeded Alexander Peacock as premier in 1902 with the backing of the National Citizens' Reform League and retained office after the 1902 state election. He carried out democratic reforms but attracted the enmity of the labour movement for his suppression of a railway strike in 1903, resigning as premier in 1904.
At the 1906 federal election, Irvine was elected to the seat of Flinders. He served as attorney-general in the Liberal government of Joseph Cook from 1913 to 1914, and during World War I was an advocate of conscription and leading campaigner in the 1916 referendum on overseas conscription. Irvine resigned from federal parliament in 1918 to become chief justice of Victoria. He served on the court until 1935 and as lieutenant-governor also served as acting governor of Victoria for nearly three years during the Great Depression.
Early life
[edit]Irvine was born on 6 July 1858 at Dromalane near Newry in County Down, Ireland. He was the sixth of seven children born to Margaret (née Mitchel) and Hill Irvine. His father was a farmer and proprietor of a linen mill, while his uncle John Mitchel was a prominent Irish nationalist.[1]
Irvine was raised in a Presbyterian family. He was educated at the Royal School, Armagh and Trinity College, Dublin, graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1879. He subsequently entered the King's Inns with the intent of qualifying as a barrister, but the death of his father and financial difficulties led him to instead immigrate to Australia.[1]
After arriving in Australia, Irvine settled in Melbourne and undertook further studies at the University of Melbourne, graduating Master of Arts in 1882, Bachelor of Laws in 1884, and Master of Laws in 1886. He read law with Henry Hodges and was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1884. Irvine struggled in his first years as a barrister, supplementing his income with work as an examiner at the law school and the authoring of textbooks on the powers of justices of the peace and women's property (co-authored with Frank Gavan Duffy). He also speculated unsuccessfully on gold mining ventures.[1]
Victorian politics
[edit]In 1894, Irvine was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as a Liberal. He was Attorney-General 1899–1900 and 1902–03, and Solicitor-General in 1903. He succeeded George Turner as leader of the Victorian Liberals, but was much more conservative than either Turner or the federal Protectionist Party leader, Alfred Deakin. In 1902, supported by the National Citizens' Reform League, he displaced the more liberal Alexander Peacock and became Premier and Treasurer. He held office until 1904, when he was succeeded by the similarly-minded Thomas Bent.
Irvine's ministry was appointed on 10 June 1902:[2]
- Premier and Attorney-General : William Irvine
- Treasurer : William Shiels
- Solicitor-General : John Mark Davies
- Minister of Railways : Thomas Bent
- Minister of Education and Health : Robert Reid
- Minister of Public Works and Agriculture : John Taverner
- President of Board of Lands : Malcolm McKenzie
- Minister of Mines : Ewen Cameron
- Chief Secretary and Minister of Labour : John Murray
Federal politics
[edit]In 1906, Irvine was elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Flinders. First elected as an independent Protectionist, he became a member of Deakin's Commonwealth Liberal Party in 1908. He was Attorney-General in Joseph Cook's Liberal government of 1913–14. He is the only state premier to have served as attorney-general. He was considered a potential Prime Minister of Australia, but his abrupt manner and hard-line conservatism made him unacceptable to many Liberals; in Parliament he was known as "Iceberg Irvine."
Judicial career
[edit]Recognising that he was unlikely to progress further in politics, Irvine accepted appointment as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, the highest-ranking court in that state. He held the position from 1918 until 1935.
Personal life
[edit]In 1891, Irvine married Agnes Somerville Wanliss, the daughter of colonial MP Thomas Wanliss, with whom he had three children. He died in Toorak on 20 August 1943, aged 85, after suffering a "progressively disabling disease that restricted movement and speech". He was granted a state funeral.[1]
Irvine was knighted KCMG in 1914 and made GCMG in 1936. A keen motorist, he was a founding member of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) and was its patron from 1938 through 1943. In 1932 a painting of Irvine by Ernest Buckmaster won the Archibald Prize, Australia's best-known portrait prize.[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Sources
[edit]- Geoff Browne, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900–84, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1985
- Don Garden, Victoria: A History, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1984
- Kathleen Thompson and Geoffrey Serle, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1856–1900, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972
- Raymond Wright, A People's Counsel. A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856–1990, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992
External links
[edit]- Supreme Court of Victoria Website
- Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. – via Wikisource. . . Dublin:
- 1858 births
- 1943 deaths
- Premiers of Victoria
- Attorneys-general of Australia
- Members of the Cabinet of Australia
- Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Flinders
- Chief justices of Victoria
- Australian Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
- People from Newry
- Australian people of Scottish descent
- Ulster Scots people
- Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
- Treasurers of Victoria
- Melbourne Law School alumni
- Attorneys-General of the Colony of Victoria
- Solicitors-General of Victoria
- Free Trade Party members of the Parliament of Australia
- Commonwealth Liberal Party members of the Parliament of Australia
- Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia
- 20th-century Australian politicians
- Lieutenant-Governors of Victoria
- Irish emigrants to colonial Australia
- People from the Colony of Victoria
- Attorneys-General of Victoria
- People educated at The Royal School, Armagh