Samuel Griffith

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the American politician, see Samuel Griffith (Pennsylvania politician). For the American general, see Samuel B. Griffith.

Queensland Legislative Assembly
In office
13 June 1888 – 29 April 1893
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byJohn James Kingsbury
ConstituencyBrisbane North
In office
15 November 1878 – 13 June 1888
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byAbolished
ConstituencyNorth Brisbane
In office
25 November 1873 – 14 November 1878
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded bySamuel Grimes
ConstituencyOxley
In office
3 April 1872 – 25 November 1873
Preceded byRobert Travers Atkin
Succeeded byWilliam Fryar
ConstituencyEast Moreton
Personal details
Born(1845-06-21)21 June 1845
Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales
Died9 August 1920(1920-08-09) (aged 75)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Resting placeToowong Cemetery
Political partyIndependent
Spouse
Julia Thomson
​
(m. 1870)​
RelationsMary Harriett Griffith (sister)
Alma materUniversity of Sydney
OccupationPolitician, judge

Sir Samuel Walker Griffith

Australian Constitution
.

Griffith was born in

radical and was initially seen as an ally of the labour movement; this changed after his government's intervention in the 1891 shearers' strike
.

In 1893, Griffith retired from politics to head the Supreme Court of Queensland. He was frequently asked to assist in drafting legislation, and the Queensland criminal code – the first in Australia – was mostly his creation. Griffith was an ardent federationist, and with Andrew Inglis Clark wrote the draft constitution that was presented to the 1891 constitutional convention. Many of his contributions were preserved in the final constitution enacted in 1900. Griffith was involved in the drafting of the federal Judiciary Act 1903, which established the High Court of Australia, and was subsequently nominated by Alfred Deakin to become the inaugural Chief Justice. He presided over a number of constitutional cases, though some of his interpretations were rejected by later courts. He was also called on to advise governors-general during political instability. Griffith University and the Canberra suburb of Griffith are named in his honour.

Early life

Griffith was born in

Congregational minister and his wife, Mary, second daughter of Peter Walker.[1] His sister was the philanthropist Mary Harriett Griffith. Although of Welsh extraction, his forebears for at least three generations had lived in England. The family migrated to the Moreton Bay district of New South Wales (now the state of Queensland)[2] when Samuel was eight. He was educated at schools in Ipswich, where his father was minister from 1854 to 1856, and Sydney, and later at William McIntyre's school in Maitland, where he earned the nickname "Oily Sam" for his "ability to argue on any side of any subject".[3][4] He continued his studies at the University of Sydney, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1863, with first-class honours in classics, mathematics and natural science.[1] During his course he was awarded the Cooper and Barker scholarships and other prizes.[1]

In 1865, he gained the

Dante (The Inferno of Dante Alighieri in 1908).[1]

On his return to Brisbane, Griffith studied law and was articled to

called to the bar in 1867.[1]

In 1870, Griffith returned to Sydney to complete a Master of Arts.[1] In the same year, he married Julia Janet Thomson.[1]

Political career

In 1872 Griffith was elected to the

Sir Thomas McIlwraith
, whom he accused (correctly) of corruption.

Griffith had had a distinguished career in Queensland politics. Included in the legislation for which he was responsible were an offenders' probation act, and an act which codified the law relating to the duties and powers of justices of the peace. He also succeeded in passing an eight hours bill through the assembly which was, however, thrown out by the Queensland Legislative Council.[2]

Griffith became Premier in November 1883

Sir William MacGregor there in 1888.[1]

Griffith as premier

Griffith held the office of premier until 1888, and was made a

Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1886, before receiving an advancement to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1895.[7] Griffith was regarded as a close ally of the labour movement. He introduced a bill to legalise trade unions, and declared that "the great problem of this age is not how to accumulate wealth but how to secure its more equitable distribution". In 1888 his government was defeated. In opposition he wrote radical articles for The Boomerang, William Lane's socialist newspaper.[1]

But in 1890 Griffith suddenly betrayed his radical friends and became Premier again at the head of an unlikely alliance with McIlwraith, the so-called "

Griffilwraith". The following year his government took an active role in arresting and prosecuting leaders of the 1891 shearers' strike, with Griffith personally praising this decision.[3][8] Consequently, William Lane declared Griffith a "fraud" in his 1892 novel The Workingman's Paradise.[8]

Chief Justice of Queensland

On 13 March 1893, the Governor accepted Griffith's resignation from Vice-President and Member of the Executive Council and Chief Secretary and Attorney General and appointed Griffith to Chief Justice of the

Sir Robert Garran, secretary of the Drafting Committee, which followed the structure he had laid out in 1891. In 1899 he campaigned publicly for a 'yes' vote in the federation referendum in Queensland.[1] In May 1900 he authored the very last amendment to the Constitution in the face of a standoff between the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain and Edmund Barton over the right to appeal judgements of the High Court of Australia to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Whereas Chamberlain wished the Constitution to give more space to such appeals, Barton, with Charles Kingston and Alfred Deakin, wanted them left restricted. Griffith privately damned the behaviour of Barton and Kingston as "monstrous",and formulated the compromise wording which appears in Section 74, and which appeased the involved parties.[10]

During his term as Chief Justice Griffith drafted Queensland's Criminal Code,[11] a successful codification of the entire English criminal law, which was adopted in 1899, and later in Western Australia, Papua New Guinea, substantially in Tasmania, and other imperial territories including Nigeria.[12] At May 2006 the Queensland Criminal Code remains largely unchanged.

Chief Justice of Australia

Griffith later in life

When the federal parliament passed the

reserve powers.[14]

Griffith was the first of two justices of the High Court of Australia to have previously served in the

Divina Commedia in 1912.[11]

Royal Commissions

In January 1918, Griffith was appointed by Prime Minister

Royal Commission into the recruitment levels needed to maintain the Australian Imperial Force's fighting strength overseas. This came only a month after a second referendum on overseas conscription had returned a vote in the negative. Griffith was given such narrow terms of reference that his report took only a single week, and was effectively little more than a mathematical problem relating to the "existing size of the AIF, likely future losses of men, the numbers required to replace them, and so on". After the report was released, Hughes used it as vindication of his statements during the referendum debate.[15]

Later writers have seen Griffith's involvement in the Royal Commission as inadvisable, as the findings were able to be used for political purposes and thus could be seen to have breached the separation of powers. It is the most recent occasion on which a sitting High Court judge has chaired a Royal Commission; Griffith had also authorised the first, which was conducted by George Rich in 1915 and also concerned military issues. However, in July 1918 he rejected another request from Hughes for a High Court judge to conduct a Royal Commission, on the grounds that it would "associate the High Court with political action".[15]

Retirement and death

Headstone of Sir Samuel Griffith at Brisbane's Toowong Cemetery.

Griffith retired from the Court in 1919 and died at his home in Brisbane on 9 August 1920.[1] He is buried in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane,[1] together with his wife, Julia, and their son, Llewellyn. Cemetery records indicate that their plot adjoins that of Griffith's dear friend Charles Mein (1841–1890) (barrister, politician and judge), the pair having met during their undergraduate studies at the University of Sydney.[16]

Honours

Griffith is commemorated by the naming of

Royal Colonial Institute in 1909 and an honorary fellow of the British Academy in 1916.[1]

In July 2016 Griffith was inducted in to the City of Maitland Hall of Fame.

Although demolished in 1963, his home Merthyr, named after his birthplace, gives its name to the neighbourhood of

New Farm. Griffith Street and Merthyr Street in New Farm are also named after the man and his house.[18]

See also

  • List of Judges of the High Court of Australia
  • List of Judges of the Supreme Court of Queensland

Notes

  1. ^
    ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  2. ^ a b c Mennell, Philip (1892). "Griffith, Hon. Sir Samuel Walker" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  3. ^ a b Joyce, R. B., "Griffith, Sir Samuel Walker (1845–1920)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 14 June 2023
  4. ^ "Sir Samuel Griffith GCMG QC". Supreme Court Library Queensland. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  5. ^ a b Roberts, Beryl (1991). Stories of the Southside. Archerfield, Queensland: Aussie Books. p. 6.
    ISBN 0-947336-01-X
    .
  6. ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  7. ^ "Portraits of Chief Justices and the first bench". High Court of Australia. Archived from the original on 26 June 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  8. ^
    ISBN 9780702211270
    .
  9. ^ Queensland Government Gazette Extraordinary Vol. LVIII No.63 Monday 13 March 1893 p777
  10. ^ William Coleman,Their Fiery Cross of Union. A Retelling of the Creation of the Australian Federation, 1889-1914, Connor Court, Queensland, 2021, p.250.
  11. ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Griffith, Sir Samuel Walker" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 31 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 321.
  12. ^ Bruce McPherson, Supreme Court of Queensland, Butterworths, 1984
  13. ^ "Documenting a Democracy Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth)". Museum of Australian Democracy. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  14. ^ Donald Markwell, "Griffith, Barton and the early governor-generals: aspects of Australia's constitutional development", Public Law Review, 1999.
  15. ^ a b Fiona Wheler (30 November 2011). "'Anomalous Occurrences in Unusual Circumstances'? Towards a History of Extra-Judicial Activity by High Court Justices" (PDF). High Court of Australia Public Lectures. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  16. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 4 October 2017.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  17. ^ "Drive renamed". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane: National Library of Australia. 5 January 1951. p. 3. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  18. ^ "Santa Barbara, New Farm". Your Brisbane: Past and Present. Archived from the original on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2018.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Samuel Griffith.
Political offices
Preceded by
Sir Thomas McIlwraith
 Premier of Queensland
1883–1888 		Succeeded by
Sir Thomas McIlwraith
Preceded by Premier of Queensland
1890–1893 		Succeeded by
Sir Thomas McIlwraith
Parliament of Queensland
Preceded by Member for East Moreton
1872–1873
Served alongside: William Hemmant 		Succeeded by
New seat Member for Oxley
1873–1878 		Succeeded by
New seat Member for North Brisbane
1878–1888
Served alongside: Arthur Palmer, William Brookes 		Abolished
New seat Member for Brisbane North
1888–1893
Served alongside: Thomas McIlwraith 		Succeeded by
Legal offices
New office Chief Justice of Australia
1903–1919 		Succeeded by
Sir Adrian Knox
Preceded by Chief Justice of Queensland
1893–1903 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Samuel_Griffith&oldid=1223162994"