William Irvine (Australian politician)

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).

The Honourable
Sir William Irvine
GCMG
Chief Justice of Victoria
In office
9 April 1918 – 30 September 1935
Preceded byJohn Madden
Succeeded byFrederick Mann
Attorney-General of Australia
In office
24 June 1913 – 17 September 1914
Prime MinisterJoseph Cook
Preceded byBilly Hughes
Succeeded byBilly Hughes
Premier of Victoria
In office
10 June 1902 – 16 February 1904
GovernorGeorge Clarke
Reginald Talbot
Preceded byAlexander Peacock
Succeeded byThomas Bent
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Division of Flinders
In office
12 December 1906 – 5 April 1918
Preceded byJames Gibb
Succeeded byStanley Bruce
Personal details
Born(1858-07-06)6 July 1858
Newry, County Down, Ireland
Died20 August 1943(1943-08-20) (aged 85)
Toorak, Victoria, Australia
Political partyLiberal (federal)
SpouseAgnes Somerville

Early life

Irvine was born in Newry in County Down, Ireland, into a Scottish-Presbyterian family; he was the nephew of Irish revolutionary John Mitchel. He was educated at the Royal School, Armagh and Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in law in 1879 before migrating to Melbourne, where he taught in Presbyterian schools and read law at Melbourne University, gaining a master's degree in arts and law. He soon became a leading Melbourne barrister.[1]

Victorian politics

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]

Federal politics

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 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

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.

Other activities

He 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.

See also

References
  1. Biography – Sir William Hill Irvine – Australian Dictionary of Biography
  2. "Latest intelligence - The new Victorian Cabinet". The Times. No. 36790. London. 10 June 1902. p. 7.

Sources
  • 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

 

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