Sir Isaac Isaacs | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Isaacs in 1936 | |
| 9th Governor-General of Australia | |
| In office 22 January 1931 – 23 January 1936 | |
| Monarchs | George V Edward VIII |
| Prime Minister | James Scullin Joseph Lyons |
| Preceded by | The Lord Stonehaven |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Gowrie |
| Chief Justice of Australia | |
| In office 2 April 1930 – 20 January 1931 | |
| Nominated by | James Scullin |
| Appointed by | The Lord Stonehaven |
| Preceded by | Sir Adrian Knox |
| Succeeded by | Sir Frank Duffy |
| Justice of the High Court of Australia | |
| In office 12 October 1906 – 2 April 1930 | |
| Nominated by | Alfred Deakin |
| Appointed by | Lord Northcote |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Sir Edward McTiernan |
| Attorney-General of Australia | |
| In office 6 July 1905 – 10 October 1906 | |
| Prime Minister | Alfred Deakin |
| Preceded by | Josiah Symon |
| Succeeded by | Littleton Groom |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forIndi | |
| In office 29 March 1901 – 12 October 1906 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Brown |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Isaac Alfred Isaacs (1855-08-06)6 August 1855 Melbourne,Colony of Victoria, Australia |
| Died | 11 February 1948(1948-02-11) (aged 92) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Profession | Barrister, politician and judge |
Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs,GCB, GCMG, PC, KC (6 August 1855 – 11 February 1948) was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge who served as the ninthgovernor-general of Australia, in office from 1931 to 1936. He had previously served on theHigh Court of Australia from 1906 to 1931, including asChief Justice from 1930.
Isaacs was born inMelbourne and grew up inYackandandah andBeechworth (in countryVictoria). He began working as a schoolteacher at the age of 15, and later moved to Melbourne to work as a clerk and studied law part-time at theUniversity of Melbourne. Isaacs was admitted tothe bar in 1880, and soon became one of Melbourne's best-known barristers. He was elected to theVictorian Legislative Assembly in 1892, and subsequently served asSolicitor-General underJames Patterson, andAttorney-General underGeorge Turner andAlexander Peacock.
Isaacs entered the newfederal parliament at the1901 election, representing theProtectionist Party. He becameAttorney-General of Australia in 1905, underAlfred Deakin, but the following year left politics in order to become a justice of theHigh Court. Isaacs was often in the minority in his early years on the court, particularly with regard tofederalism, where he advocated the supremacy of theCommonwealth Government. The balance of the court eventually shifted, and he famously authored the majority opinion in theEngineers case of 1920, which abolished thereserved powers doctrine and fully establishedthe paramountcy of Commonwealth law.
In 1930, Prime MinisterJames Scullin appointed Isaacs as Chief Justice, in succession to SirAdrian Knox. Later that year, Scullin nominated Isaacs as his preferred choice for governor-general. The selection of an Australian (rather than the usual British aristocrat) was unprecedented and highly controversial. KingGeorge V was opposed to the idea but eventually consented, and Isaacs took office in January 1931 as the first Australian-born holder of the office. He was the first governor-general to live full-time atYarralumla, and throughout his five-year term was popular among the public for his frugality during theDepression. Isaacs was Australia's first Jewish High Court Justice, the first Jewish Chief Justice of Australia and also the first Jewish Governor-General of Australia.
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Isaacs was the son of Alfred Isaacs, a tailor of Jewish ancestry from the town ofMława, Poland. Seeking better prospects, Alfred left Poland and worked his way across Germany, spending some months in Berlin andFrankfurt. By 1845 he had passed through Paris and arrived to work in London, where he met Rebecca Abrahams; the two married in 1849. After news of the 1851Victorian gold rush reached England, Australia became a very popular destination and the Isaacs decided to emigrate. By 1854 they had saved enough for the fare, departing fromLiverpool in June 1854 and arriving in Melbourne in September.[1] Some time after arriving the Isaacs moved into a cottage andshopfront inElizabeth Street, Melbourne, where Alfred continued his tailoring. Isaac Alfred Isaacs was born in this cottage on 6 August 1855.[2] His family moved to various locations around Melbourne while he was young, then in 1859 moved toYackandandah in northern Victoria, close to family friends.[3] At this time Yackandandah was agold mining settlement of 3,000 people.
Isaacs had siblings born in Melbourne and Yackandandah:John A. Isaacs, who later became a solicitor and Victorian Member of Parliament, and sisters Carolyn and Hannah were all born in Yackandandah. A brother was born in Melbourne, and another sister was born in Yackandandah, but both died very young.[4] His first formal schooling was from sometime after 1860 at a small private establishment. At eight he won the schoolarithmetic prize, winning his photograph by the schoolmaster, who was also a photographer andbootmaker. Yackandandah state school was opened in 1863 and Isaacs enrolled as a pupil. Here he excelled academically, particularly in arithmetic and languages, though he was a frequenttruant, walking off to spend time in the nearby mining camps. To help Isaacs gain a better quality education, in 1867, his family moved to nearbyBeechworth first enrolling him in the Common school then in the BeechworthGrammar School.[5] He excelled at the Grammar School, becomingdux in his first year and winning many academic prizes.[6] In his second year he was employed part-time as an assistant teacher at the school, and took up after school tutoring of fellow students. In September 1870, when Isaacs was just 15 years old, he passed his examination as a pupil teacher and taught at the school from then until 1873. Isaacs was next employed as an assistant teacher at the Beechworth State School, the successor to the Common school.[7]
While employed at the State School, Isaacs had his first experience of the law, as an unsuccessful litigant in an 1875 County Court case. He disputed a payment arrangement with the headmaster of his school, resigning as part of the dispute. After returning to teaching, now back at the Grammar School, he expanded his interest in the law; reading law books and attending court sittings.[8]
As a child Isaacs became fluent in Russian, which his parents spoke frequently, as well as English and some German. Isaacs later gained varying degrees of proficiency in Italian, French, Greek, Hindustani and Chinese.[9]
In 1875, he moved to Melbourne and found work at theProthonotary's Office of the Law Department. In 1876, while still working full-time, he studied law at theUniversity of Melbourne. He graduated in 1880 with aMaster of Laws degree in 1883. He took silk as aQueen's Counsel in 1899.[10]
In 1892 Isaacs was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as a liberal. He was the member forBogong from May 1892 until May 1893 and between June 1893 and May 1901. In 1893 he became Solicitor-General in the Patterson ministry. From 1894 to 1899 he was Attorney-General in the Turner ministry, and served as acting Premier on some occasions. In 1897 he was elected to theconvention to approve the terms of theAustralian Constitution. However, he was not elected to the committee drafting the constitution;Alfred Deakin attributed this failure to "a plot discreditable to all engaged in it" and thought that this antagonizing and humiliating snub sharpened Isaacs's "tendency to minute technical criticism ... so as to bring him not infrequently into collision" with the committee. Isaacs had many reservations about the draft constitution, but he campaigned in support of it after theAustralian Natives' Association gave the draft its full support, rejecting his plea to delay for further consideration.[6][11]
Isaacs was elected to the firstfederal Parliament in 1901 to the seat ofIndi as a critical supporter ofEdmund Barton and hisProtectionist government.[6] He was one of a group of backbenchers pushing for more radical policies and he earned the dislike of many of his colleagues through what they saw as his aloofness and rather self-righteous attitude to politics.
Alfred Deakin appointed Isaacs Attorney-General in 1905 but he was a difficult colleague and in 1906 Deakin was keen to get him out of politics by appointing him to theHigh Court bench.[6] He was the first serving minister to resign from the parliament.
On the High Court, Isaacs joinedH. B. Higgins as a radical minority on the court in opposition to the chief justice,Sir Samuel Griffith. He served on the court for 24 years, acquiring a reputation as a learned and radical but uncollegial justice.[citation needed] Isaacs was appointed aKnight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in theKing's Birthday Honours of 1928 for his service on the High Court.[12] Isaacs is one of only eight justices of the High Court to have served in theParliament of Australia prior to his appointment to the court; the others wereEdmund Barton,Richard O'Connor,H. B. Higgins,Edward McTiernan,John Latham,Garfield Barwick, andLionel Murphy. He was also one of two to have served in theParliament of Victoria, along with Higgins. In April 1930, theLabor Prime Minister,James Scullin, appointed the 75-year-old Isaacs as chief justice, succeeding SirAdrian Knox.
Shortly after Isaacs became Chief Justice, the office of governor-general fell vacant and, after Cabinet discussion, Scullin offered the post to Isaacs. Although the proposal was supposed to be confidential until communicated toKing George V, word got out. While Isaacs was personally esteemed, public opinion divided strongly over whether a governor-general should be an Australian, with perceived risks of local political bias. During Scullin's 1930 trip to Europe he personally advised the King to make the appointment and, although the King shared the concern about local political bias, he reluctantly accepted Scullin's advice,[13] while noting in his diary that he thought the choice would be “very unpopular” in Australia.
Isaacs's appointment was announced in December 1930, and he was sworn in on 22 January 1931. He was the first Australian-born governor-general. Thus Isaacs agreed to a reduction in salary and conducted the office with great frugality. He gave up his official residences in Sydney and Melbourne and most official entertaining. Although he was sworn into office in the chamber of theVictorian Legislative Council in Melbourne, rather than inParliament House in Canberra, he was the first governor-general to live permanently atGovernment House, Canberra. This was well-received with the public, as was Isaacs's image of rather austere dignity. Isaacs was promoted to aKnight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in April 1932.[14] His term as governor-general concluded on 23 January 1936, and he retired to Victoria.[6] In 1937, he was further honoured with the award ofKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.[15]
Isaacs married Deborah "Daisy" Jacobs, daughter of a tobacco merchant, at her parents' home in St Kilda on 18 July 1888. They had two daughters, one born in 1890 and the other in 1892. The daughters were Marjorie Isaacs Cohen who died in 1968 and was survived by a son (Thomas B. Cohen), and Nancy Isaacs Cullen.[6] Lady Isaacs died atBowral, New South Wales, in 1960.[16]
Isaacs was 81 when his term ended in 1936, but his public life was far from over. He remained active in various causes for another decade and wrote frequently on matters of constitutional law. In the 1940s he became embroiled in controversy with the Jewish community both in Australia and internationally through his outspoken opposition toZionism. His principal critic wasJulius Stone.[17] Isaacs was supported by RabbiJacob Danglow (1880–1962) andHarold Boas. Isaacs insisted that Judaism was a religious identity and not a national or ethnic one. He opposed the notion of a Jewish homeland inPalestine. Isaacs said "[p]olitical Zionism to which I am irrevocably opposed for the reasons which will be found clearly stated, must be sharply distinguished from religious and cultural Zionism to which I am strongly attached."[18]
Isaacs opposed Zionism partly because he disliked nationalism of all kinds and saw Zionism as a form of Jewish national chauvinism—and partly because he saw the Zionist agitation in Palestine as disloyalty to theBritish Empire, to which he was devoted. Following theKing David Hotel bombing in 1946, he wrote that "the honour of Jews throughout the world demands the renunciation of political Zionism". Isaacs's main objections to Political Zionism were:
Isaacs said "the Zionist movement as a whole...now places its own unwarranted interpretation on the Balfour Declaration, and makes demands that are arousing the antagonism of the Muslim world of nearly 400 millions, thereby menacing the safety of our Empire, endangering world peace and imperiling some of the most sacred associations of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths. Besides their inherent injustice to others these demands would, I believe, seriously and detrimentally affect the general position of Jews throughout the world".[20]
In his later years, Isaacs became embroiled in legal battles with Edna Davis, the wife of his brother John. He forced her out of the family home, reclaimed her wedding ring, and finally had her declared avexatious litigant.[21]
Isaacs died at his home inSouth Yarra, Victoria, in the early hours of 11 February 1948, at the age of 92. He was the last surviving member ofAlfred Deakin's 1905–1906 Cabinet. The Commonwealth government accorded him a state funeral, held on 13 February, and he was buried inMelbourne General Cemetery after a synagogue service.[22][23]
In May 1949 he was honoured with the naming of the Australian ElectoralDivision of Isaacs in the outer southern suburbs of Melbourne. At a redistribution in November 1968, the electorate was abolished and a separateDivision of Isaacs was created in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It exists to this day. TheCanberra suburb ofIsaacs was named after him in 1966.
In 1973 Isaacs was honoured with an Australian postage stamp bearing his portrait.[24]
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| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Attorney-General of Australia 1905–1906 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor-General of Australia 1931–1936 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of Australia | ||
| New division | Member forIndi 1901–1906 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chief Justice of Australia 1930–1931 | Succeeded by |
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Second Deakin Cabinet (1905–08) | ||
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Prime Minister:Alfred Deakin | ||
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