Sir George Whitecross Paton | |
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| Born | 16 August 1902 |
| Died | 16 June 1985 (aged 82) |
| Education | Scotch College, Melbourne (1914-1920) Melbourne University (1921-1925) Magdalen College, Oxford (1926-1929) |
| Parent(s) | Clara Sophia Heyer Frank Hume Lyall Paton |
| Relatives | John Gibson Paton (paternal grandfather) |
SirGeorge Whitecross Paton (16 August 1902 – 16 June 1985) was an Australian legal scholar andVice-Chancellor ofMelbourne University from 1951 until 1968.[1][2]
Paton was born on 16 August 1902 atGrovedale, nearGeelong, Victoria. His parents wereFrank Hume Lyall Paton (son ofJohn Gibson Paton) and Clara Sophia Heyer. He was educated atScotch College, Melbourne (1914–1920), and thenMelbourne University (1921–1925) where he was resident atOrmond College. He won theRhodes Scholarship forVictoria (Australia) in 1925, which allowed him to continue his studies atMagdalen College, Oxford, from 1926 to 1929.
He married Alice Watson (1905–1994) on 11 July 1931 and they had four children.
Paton became abarrister-at-law in 1927 and lectured in law at theLondon School of Economics. In 1931 he was appointedProfessor ofJurisprudence at theUniversity of Melbourne and becamedean of the Faculty of Law in 1943. In 1951 he was appointedvice-chancellor ofMelbourne University and held the position until his retirement in 1968. After retirement he was president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Inc. (ANZSOC) from 1969 to 1971
Paton's major published work,A Text-Book of Jurisprudence, appeared in 1946 and went through further editions. It won theSwiney Prize, a British award for works on jurisprudence.[3] In Australia and elsewhere, it was (in one reviewer's words) "to many studentsthe text-book of jurisprudence".
On 5 February 1953, Paton was appointed Chairman of the Royal Commission on Television in Australia. Other members of the commission were C.B. Bednall, Mrs. Maud Foxton, R.G. Osborne, R.C. Wilson and N.S. Young. Its object was to enable Australia to profit from the experience of other countries in introducing and controlling television. The enquiry considered the numbers of national and commercial channels to be established, the economics involved and standards to be observed.
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