Albert Piddington

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Albert Piddington
Justice of the High Court of Australia
In office
6 March 1913 – 5 April 1913
Nominated byAndrew Fisher
Preceded bynone
Succeeded bySir George Rich
Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
In office
24 July 1895 – 27 July 1898
Preceded byGeorge Dibbs
Succeeded byWilliam Sawers
ConstituencyTamworth
Personal details
Born9 September 1862
Bathurst, New South Wales Australia
Died5 June 1945
Mosman, New South Wales, Australia
Spouse
Marion O'Reilly
​
(m. 1896)​
ChildrenRalph Piddington

Albert Bathurst Piddington

the shortest-serving
judge in the court's history.

Piddington was born in Bathurst, New South Wales. He studied classics at the University of Sydney, and later combined his legal studies with teaching at Sydney Boys High School. Piddington was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1895, representing the Free Trade Party. He was defeated after a single term, and subsequently returned to his legal practice, becoming one of Sydney's best-known barristers. Piddington was sympathetic to the labour movement, and in April 1913 Andrew Fisher nominated him to the High Court as part of a court-packing attempt. His appointment was severely criticised, and he resigned a month later without ever sitting on the bench. Later in 1913, Piddington was made the inaugural chairman of the Inter-State Commission, serving until 1920. He was appointed King's Counsel in 1913, and remained a public figure into his seventies.

Early life

Piddington was born on 9 September 1862 in Bathurst, New South Wales. He was the third son born to Annie (née Burgess) and William Jones Killick Piddington. His father was born in England and arrived in the colony of Tasmania as a young man, where he was a Methodist lay preacher. His mother was born in Tasmania.[1]

Piddington spent his early years in inner Sydney where his father was active in Methodist missionary work.

university medal in classics.[1]

After graduating from university, Piddington taught Latin and Greek for a period at the newly created

Puritanism.[3]

Political career

Piddington c. 1907

Piddington first stood for parliament at the 1894 New South Wales general election, running on a radical platform against incumbent premier George Dibbs. He resigned his lectureship at the University of Sydney to contest the election, following the university senate's decision that it would decline to grant him leave; it was rumoured that Dibbs had pressured the senate to do so. Piddington was defeated by Dibbs at the election in the Legislative Assembly seat of Tamworth, although Dibbs lost his majority in the assembly and was replaced as premier by George Reid, leading an alliance of the Free Trade and Labor groups.[3]

In 1895, Reid called an early election following obstruction of his legislative agenda by conservatives in the

land tax based on Georgist principles.[5] In 1895 he opposed the inclusion of a marriage bar in the Reid government's Public Service Bill, describing it as "antediluvian".[6] According to his biographer Michael Roe, "his ideas were akin to Labor but membership of any party probably repelled him; he grasped Reid's good points, but the personality gap between himself and that dominating figure of the day was immense".[7]

In spite of his support of Federation, Piddington was highly critical of the

1898 New South Wales referendum. In his view the draft constitution had succumbed to provincialism and would result in a Senate that was too powerful and undemocratic.[8] Piddington's views likely contributed to his defeat in Tamworth after a single parliamentary term at the 1898 general election.[7] Following Federation, he stood again in Tamworth at the 1901 election, but was again unsuccessful.[4]

In 1910, Piddington was elected to the council of the University of Sydney. The following year, he was appointed as a

Royal Commissioner by the Government of New South Wales to inquire into labour shortages, and was appointed a commissioner again in 1913 to inquire into industrial arbitration in New South Wales. During this time he continued to practise law and was employed at Sydney Boys High School.[9]

High Court appointment

Piddington was one of four Justices appointed to the High Court in 1913. The bench had been expanded from five to seven justices that year, and foundation justice

Section 51
, which divides powers between the federal and state governments. If the constitution was interpreted broadly, then the need for referendums might be circumvented.

Hughes contacted Piddington's

New South Wales and Victorian Bars, and the press, spoke out against Piddington's appointment. The Bulletin led a strong media campaign against Piddington. William Irvine refused to welcome Piddington as a judge on behalf of the Victorian Bar. Ultimately Piddington resigned from the High Court one month after his appointment, having never sat at the bench. Hughes, who had been widely criticised for trying to stack the court, labelled Piddington a coward after the incident, and called him a "panic-stricken boy".[11]

Piddington was one of six justices of the High Court to have served in the Parliament of New South Wales, along with Edmund Barton, Richard O'Connor, Adrian Knox, Edward McTiernan and H. V. Evatt.

Later life

Piddington in 1927 after his appointment to the Industrial Commission of New South Wales

In September 1913, Piddington was appointed as the chairman of the

Commonwealth Liberal Party Prime Minister. It had been rumoured that Hughes would be appointed to that position, and it has been suggested that Cook appointed Piddington to spite Hughes, or to rebuke Hughes for turning on Piddington.[11] Nevertheless, he remained Chairman until the legislation under which he and the other two commissioners had been appointed was invalidated by the High Court.[12] In 1919 he was made a Commissioner in both the Royal Commission on the Sugar Industry and the Royal Commission on the Basic Wage.[13] In 1913 he was made a King's Counsel, and from 1926, he served as President of the Industrial Commission of New South Wales. He held that position until 1932, when following Governor of New South Wales Sir Philip Game's dismissal of the Lang government, Piddington resigned in protest, despite being just a few weeks short of being entitled to a pension.[14]

In 1934 he appeared in the High Court with Maurice Blackburn for Egon Kisch when he won his case to stay in Australia.[15]

In 1940, Piddington returned to the High Court as a plaintiff.

Phillip Street in Sydney; he sued for negligence. Unsuccessful in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, he appealed to the High Court. Piddington won the appeal but was unsuccessful in the retrial in the Supreme Court.[17]

Piddington's memoirs, "Worshipful Masters" was published in 1929.[18]

Personal life

In 1896, Piddington married Marion Louisa O'Reilly, the daughter of an Anglican canon. She was active in the social reform of liberal sex education and as a promoter of eugenics.[19] Their son Ralph became professor of anthropology at the University of Auckland.[20]

Piddington died in Mosman on 5 June 1945.[1]

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Roe 1984, p. 210.
  3. ^ a b c Roe 1984, p. 211.
  4. ^ a b "Mr Albert Bathurst Piddington (1862-1945)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  5. ^ Roe 1984, p. 212.
  6. ^ Roe 1984, p. 213.
  7. ^ a b Roe 1984, p. 214.
  8. ^ Roe 1984, pp. 213–214.
  9. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. ISBN 0-09-157150-2
    . p80.
  11. ^
    ISBN 0-09-157150-2
    . p82.
  12. ^ New South Wales v Commonwealth [1915] HCA 17, (1915) 20 CLR 54 (23 March 1915), High Court (Australia).
  13. ^ Ash, David (2009). "Albert Bathurst Piddington". Bar News: The Journal of the New South Wales Bar Association. [2009] NSW Bar Association News 62.
  14. ISBN 9781862874633
    .
  15. ^ R v Carter; Ex parte Kisch [1934] HCA 50, (1934) 52 CLR 221 (16 November 1934) and R v Wilson; Ex parte Kisch [1934] HCA 63, (1934) 52 CLR 234 (19 December 1934), High Court (Australia).
  16. ^ Piddington v Bennett and Wood Pty Ltd [1940] HCA 2, (1940) 63 CLR 533 (23 February 1940), High Court (Australia).
  17. ^ Graham, Morris 'Albert Bathurst Piddington', in Blackshield, Coper and Williams, (2000) Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia p 533
  18. ^ Piddington, A B (1929). Worshipful Masters (PDF). Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  19. ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  20. ^ Metge, Joan. "Ralph O'Reilly Piddington". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 7 August 2015.

Sources

New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Preceded by Member for Tamworth
1895–1898 		Succeeded by
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