View full image

Justice, 11 February 1913 to 22 January 1931
Chief Justice, 22 January 1931 to 1 October 1935

The fourth Chief Justice of the High Court, Frank Duffy (1852-1936) was regarded as one of the great trial lawyers of his age. A brilliant advocate, Duffy spent 18 years on the High Court bench before his appointment as Chief Justice in 1931.¹

Duffy was born in Dublin, the second son of Irish nationalist Charles Duffy.² The family moved to Australia in 1856 and settled in Melbourne where his father entered the Legislative Assembly, becoming Premier (1871-72) and Speaker (1877-80).³ Duffy returned to Britain to attend secondary school but completed his education at the University of Melbourne, graduating with an MA and an LLB. He was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1874, and appointed KC in 1901. In 1880, he married Ellen Mary Torr and they had seven children, one of whom (Sir Charles Duffy) became a justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria.⁴

Duffy became one of Melbourne’s most prominent barristers. Renowned for his wit and charm, he was described by fellow barrister (and later Chief Justice) Owen Dixon as a man who ‘could make bricks without straw in open court’.⁵ The author of several legal textbooks, he lectured at the University of Melbourne and was founding editor of the Australian Law Times and editor of the Victorian Law Reports.

Duffy was appointed to the High Court in 1913, filling the vacancy created by Richard O’Connor’s death. His appointment marked an important transition in the Court, whose bench had to that point been occupied by those who had assisted in drafting Australia’s Constitution. Following the retirement of Isaac Isaacs, Duffy became Chief Justice at the age of 78. Though he was appointed as a ‘stop-gap’ leader and a ‘safe pair of hands’,⁶ his term was marked by tension and division within the court. He ‘sat in less than half of the cases decided by a full court, and infrequently penned his own judgements’.⁷

Duffy was made a KCMG in 1929 and appointed to the Privy Council in 1932. He retired in October 1935 and remains the oldest Chief Justice to have served in the High Court. He died 10 months later at the age of 84. His successor Chief Justice John Latham paid tribute to Duffy’s ‘long and honourable association with the legal profession’, and Prime Minister Joseph Lyons praised him as ‘a great Australian who served his country with ability and distinction over a long period’.8

William Beckwith McInnes

William McInnes (1889-1939) studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School before travelling to Europe in 1912 to tour France, Spain, Morocco, and the UK. Regarded as the heir to great Australian landscape artist Arthur Streeton, McInnes exhibited his depictions of the landscape at the Royal Institute of Painters in London in 1913, returning to Melbourne the same year where he mounted a sold-out exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery. In the 1920s, McInnes won five of the first six Archibald Prizes. He won the prize twice more, in 1930 and 1936. In 1927, he was commissioned, with Septimus Power, to paint the opening of the first Parliament in Canberra. McInnes taught drawing at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1918 to 1934, and from 1934 to 1937 was Head of the School. In 1935 and 1936 he acted as the Director of the National Gallery of Victoria. He was president of the Australian Art Association in 1923-24 and a member of various leading art societies. His work is represented in national, state, university, and regional galleries across Australia.⁹

Frank Gavan Duffy 
by William Beckwith McInnes
1935
oil on canvas
116 x 98.5 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, High Court of Australia

References
1. Information in this biography has been taken from the following: HA Finlay, ‘Duffy, Sir Frank Gavan (1852–1936)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1981; G Appleby, ‘The Gavin Duffy Court’, in R Dixon ed., The High Court, The Constitution and Australian Politics, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, Victoria, 2015, pp. 141–58; ‘Sir Frank Gavan Duffy’, Rule of Law Education Centre, 2018; ‘The History of the High Court’, High Court of Australia; G Fricke, ‘A Decade in the Life of the High Court: 1930–1940’, Canberra Law Review 9, 2006, pp. 1–14; ‘The Death of Sir Frank Gavan Duffy’, The Advocate, 6 August 1936, p. 15. Websites accessed 17 August 2021.
2. JE Parnaby, ‘Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan (1816–1903)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed 6 May 2021.
3. The Duffys were a remarkable family. For example, Duffy’s brother (Charles) became Clerk of both the House of Representatives (1901–17) and the Senate (1917–20), and his half-brother George was a prominent Irish politician and judge (later President) of the Irish High Court. (See GA Mawer, ‘Duffy, Charles Cashel Gavan (1855–1932)’, The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, Department of the Senate, Parliament of Australia, published first in hardcopy 2000; G Hogan, ‘Duffy, George Gavan’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, March 2014.) Another half-brother, John Gavan Duffy, served in the Victorian Parliament (1874–86 and 1887–1904), holding several ministries. (See JRJ Grigsby, ‘Duffy, John Gavan (1844–1917)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1972.) Websites accessed 17 August 2021.
4. C Francis, ‘Duffy, Sir Charles Leonard Gavan (1882–1961)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed 6 May 2021.
5. Quoted in Finlay, op. cit.
6. Fricke, op. cit., p. 4; Appleby, op. cit., p. 142.
7. Appleby, op. cit., p. 142.
8. ‘Sir Frank Gavan Duffy’s Death: “A Great Australian”’, The Argus, 30 July 1936, p. 12, accessed 25 March 2021.
9. ‘WB McInnes 1889–1939’, National Portrait Gallery; ‘William Beckwith McInnes 1889–1939’, Carrick Hill; R Haese, ‘McInnes, William Beckwith (Billy) (1889–1939)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986; ‘McInnes, William Beckwith’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds, The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 646. Websites accessed 25 March 2021.