Sir Alfred Stephen - 9781862877542

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Sir Alfred Stephen (1802-1894) reached the pinnacles of conoial life in New South Wales Chief Justice, Lieutenant Governor President of the Legislative Council philanthropist, patron of the arts, he is a textbook example of aspirations and possibilites---and success---in colonial Australia.

Born in St. Kitts. West Indies, and part of the great English legal civil service and literary family that includes Sir Janes Stephen and Virginia Woolf, Alfred Stephen left England for Tasmania in the 1830s. Ambitious and aggressive, he became a pioneer Crown law officer and was astonishingly successful financially, equally tactelelss, he fell out with the authorities and moved to Sydney in 1839 when offered a temporary judgeship.

He found instant success, becoming Chief Justice in 1844 and serving with great distincition until 1873, a term never exceeded in the state. At the same time, he was a central figure in the development of the great pubic institutions which came to dominate Sydney's social and cultural life-among other the University of Sydney, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the NSW Art Gallery and the Australian Museum.

In addition, and despite the difficulty of providing for his many children on a fixed income, he was a great phianthropist. At his death, his funeral procession down Colege Street in Syndey had 120 carriages and extended for half a mile.

Dr John Michael Bennett, A.M. was awarded the 2006 New South Wales History Fellowship to assist in the writing of this biography.

John Bennett's meticulous, detaileld, and illuminating study of Sir Alfred's career and his contribution to law, politics, social reform and Austraian culture and society brings to life the remarkable public contributions of a remarkable man.

This book is essential reading for all those interested in the history of colonial politics and nineteenth century Australian society. Professor Stephen Garton

In this, the thirteenth and most ambitious volume in his series of judicial "lives", John Michael Bennett continues a project he began as a Semor Research Fellow in Law at the Australian National University 40 years ago.

Described by Australian Historical Studies as a series that adds "an important missing dimension in the field of legal history in Australia [and makes] engaging reading". It refelects Dr. Bennett's fastidious research couped with his long experience in professional law practice and in various academic positions.

His extensive publications chiefly in Legal History, but also as a law reporter and sometime Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Digest, have received much recognition and praise. He was twice awarded the C. H. Currey Memorial Fellowship by the State Library of New South Wales; was a Churchill Fellow in 2000 and received the New South Wales History Fellowship 2006 for the writing of this book.

On examination of published works, he has received the rare degrees of Doctor of Laws (Sydney) and Doctor of Letters (A.N.U.), and he is an Honorary Doctor of Letters (Sydney). A Life Member of The New South Wales Bar Association, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005 for services to the law.