Redmond Barry

For other uses, see Redmond Barry (disambiguation).

Sir Redmond Barry

Sir Redmond Barry KCMG (7 June 1813 – 23 November 1880) was an Irish colonial judge in Victoria, Australia.

Early life

Barry was the son of Major-General Henry Green Barry, of Ballyclough, County Cork and his wife Phoebe Drought, daughter of John Armstrong Drought and Letita Head. Barry was educated at a military school in Kent, and at Trinity College, Dublin, and was called to the Irish bar in 1838.

Life and work in Australia

Barry emigrated to Australia, and after a short stay at Sydney went to Melbourne in 1839, a city with which he was ever afterwards closely identified. After practicing his profession for some years, he became commissioner of the Court of Requests, and after the creation in 1851 of the colony of Victoria, out of the Port Phillip district of New South Wales, was the first Solicitor-General, with a seat in the Legislative Council and a member of the Executive Council. In 1852 he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He also served as acting Chief Justice and Administrator of the government.

Barry was noted for his service to the community, and convinced the state government to spend money on public works, particularly education. He was instrumental in the foundation of the Royal Melbourne Hospital (1848), the University of Melbourne (1853), and the State Library of Victoria (1854). He served as the first chancellor of the university until his death, and was president of the trustees of the State Library.

Barry was the judge for the Eureka Stockade treason trials in the Supreme Court in 1855. The thirteen miners were all acquitted.

He represented Victoria at the London International Exhibition of 1862 and at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876. He was made a knight bachelor in 1860, and was created a Knight of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1877.

Kelly cases

In October 1878, at Beechworth court, Lord Justice Barry presided over a case in which Mrs. Ellen Kelly (King) and two other men in aiding and abetting the attempted murder of a Victoria Police Constable named Alexander Fitzpatrick. After sentencing Mrs Kelly to three years with hard labour, Barry said, 'if your son Ned were here I would make an example of him for the whole of Australia - I would give him fifteen years'.

In 1880, Lord Justice Barry presided at the final trial of Ned Kelly, who was tried and convicted of murdering three other Victoria Police Constables. The trial and sentencing have since been the subject of many articles and books by lawyers and historians. When he sentenced Kelly to death by hanging, Lord Justice Barry uttered the customary words "May God have mercy on your soul". According to the transcripts, Kelly replied "I will go a little further than that, and say I will see you there when I go". On 23 November 1880, twelve days after Kelly's execution, Sir Redmond Barry died from doctors termed 'congestion of the lungs and a carbuncle in the neck'.

Memorials

The State Library of Victoria has named a reading room after Sir Redmond Barry, who was the first Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Melbourne Public Library.[1] The University of Melbourne of which he was the first chancellor has a Redmond Barry building named for him. A plaque marking the location of Sir Redmond Barry's residence is located near the corner of Josephine Avenue and High Street Road in Mount Waverley.

See also

• Judiciary of Australia
• List of Judges of the Supreme Court of Victoria

References

• Serle, Percival (1949). "Barry, Sir Redmond". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. http://gutenberg.net.au/dictbiog/0-dict-biogBa.html#barry3. 
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Barry, Sir Redmond". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Kenneally, J. J. The Inner History of the Kelly Gang and their pursuers, (first printed 1929); (quote above from 1969 (8th) edition p. 188)

Further reading

• Bright Sparcs
• Trial of Ned Kelly
• Ned Kelly: An Overview

External links

• Supreme Court of Victoria Website
• Redmond Barry's Gravesite
• Peter Ryan, 'Barry, Sir Redmond (1813 - 1880)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 3, MUP, 1969, pp 108–111.