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Chief Justice, 11 October 1935 to 17 April 1952
Lawyer, diplomat, and politician, John Latham ‘brought to the office of Chief Justice highly developed powers of logical analysis, a clear grasp of legal principles, and a generally conservative cast of mind’.1 He remains one of only three Chief Justices to have served in the federal Parliament.2
Melbourne-born, Latham studied philosophy and law at the University of Melbourne and was admitted to the Bar in 1904. In 1907, he married Eleanor Mary (Ella) Tobin and they had three children. He supplemented his legal practice income by journalism and teaching law, and became the London Standard’s Australian correspondent. In 1917, he was appointed head of naval intelligence and advisor to the Minister for Navy, Joseph Cook.3 Following the war, Latham was appointed CMG for his role in Australia’s Paris Peace Conference delegation.
Latham returned to legal practice in 1919 and was appointed KC in 1922. He entered federal Parliament the same year, winning the seat of Kooyong against the longstanding incumbent Robert Best.4 Joining the Nationalist Party in 1925, Latham served as Attorney-General (1925-29) and Minister for Industry (1928). He became Opposition Leader in 1929 but stood aside for Joseph Lyons5 in 1931 when the Nationalists evolved into the UAP. When Lyons became Prime Minister the following year, Latham served as Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for External Affairs, and Minister for Industry. He represented Australia at the League of Nations, the Geneva disarmament conference, and the Lausanne conference on reparations.
Latham retired from Parliament in 1934 and was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court the following year. He held that position until 1952, pausing briefly (1940-41) to serve as Australia’s Minister to Japan. In navigating disharmony on the Bench, Latham was an efficient manager, displaying ‘unfailing courtesy, dignity and a firm control’,6 though prone ‘to interrupting the argument of counsel too often and at too great length’.7 His tenure included a number of important test cases which upheld the Commonwealth’s power to regulate a wide range of matters, including income tax, prices, opening hours and marketing of primary produce, in support of the war effort.8
Latham remained active in public life with the Australian Congress for Cultural Freedom, the League of Nations Union, the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, and the Victorian Amateur Athletic Association. He died in 1964, though his impact endures. Zelman Cowen later recalled him as ‘very hardworking, unyielding, testing with the prod of logic and recoiling when the test did not prove satisfactory’.9
Sir William Alexander Dargie CBE
Artist and teacher William Dargie (1912-2003) is best known for his contribution to Australian portraiture. A prolific portraitist and eight-time winner of the Archibald Prize, Dargie was inspired by the Heidelberg School of impressionist artists. In 1941, while teaching art at Swinburne Technical College in Melbourne, Dargie was appointed an official war artist for the Australian Army. He worked for five years recording the aftermath of battles across the Middle East, India, Burma and New Guinea. After the war, Dargie built a distinguished career as a leading portrait artist, taking on several commissioned portraits of distinguished figures, including HMC official portraits of Her Majesty The Queen, and Prime Ministers Arthur Fadden and John McEwen. He simultaneously held several administrative positions, serving on the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board for 20 years and heading up the National Gallery of Victoria Art School and the National Gallery of Victoria. In 2002, to mark his 90th birthday, the Australian War Memorial, Parliament House and the National Portrait Gallery held exhibitions to pay tribute to his contribution to Australian art. His work is represented in national and state galleries and other public institutions across Australia.10
John Greig Latham
by William Alexander Dargie
1952
Oil on canvas
101.7 x 76.3 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, High Court of Australia
References
1. Z Cowen, ‘Latham, John Greig’, in T Blackshield, M Coper and G Williams, eds, The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Victoria, 2001. See S Macintyre, ‘Latham, Sir John Greig (1877–1964)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed 28 July 2021; G Fricke, Judges of the High Court, Hutchinson of Australia, Melbourne, 1986, pp. 134–42; H Rubinstein, ‘Latham, Sir John Greig’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; F Wheeler, ‘The Latham Court’, in R Dixon and G Williams, eds, The High Court, the Constitution and Australian Politics, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2015, pp. 159–78; Z Cowen, Sir John Latham and other Papers, Oxford University Press, London, 1965.
2.The others were Isaac Isaacs and Garfield Barwick.
3. ‘Naval Forces Of The Commonwealth’, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 9 August 2917, p. 1620, accessed 30 August 2021. F Crowley, ‘Cook, Sir Joseph (1860–1947)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed 2 August 2021.
4. N Marshall, ‘Best, Sir Robert Wallace (1856–1946)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed 3 August 2021.
5. PR Hart and CJ Lloyd, ‘Lyons, Joseph Aloysius (Joe) (1879–1939)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed 3 August 2021.
6. Cowen, Sir John Latham and other Papers, op. cit., p. 35.
7. Cowen, ‘Latham, John Greig’. in Blackshield et al., op. cit.
8. See ‘Deference: World War II 1939–45’, in Dixon and Williams, op. cit., pp. 161–66.
9. Z Cowen, Sir John Latham and other papers, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1965, p. 29.
10. M Keaney, ‘Sir William Dargie CBE’, Portrait 9, September– November 2003, National Portrait Gallery; ‘Sir William Dargie: A Ninetieth Birthday Tribute’, National Portrait Gallery; ‘Captain William Dargie’, Australian War Memorial. ‘Dargie, (Sir) William Alexander’, 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. 366. Websites accessed 25 March 2021.