Wilfred Kelsham Fullagar KBE QC LLM (1892 - 1961)

Ancestors

Biography

Judge Sir Wilfred Fullagar KBE QC LLM BA was an Australian judge who served on the High Court of Australia from 1950 until his death in 1961. He had earlier served on the Supreme Court of Victoria from 1945 to 1950, having previously been considered one of Melbourne's leading barristers.

Wilfred Kelsham Fullagar was born on 16th November 1892 in Malvern, Victoria (Australia). He was the eldest of the three children, and only son, of Thomas Fullagar, a merchant, and Sarah Law. ^[1] He was educated at Haileybury College, Brighton, before matriculating to the University of Melbourne in 1910.

At the University of Melbourne, he boarded at Ormond College, graduating Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in 1915.

On 28th October 1916 Wilffred enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), his young nation's all-voluntee expeditionary force for the (First World) War. ^[2] He embarked for Europe on 9th November 1917 at Melbourne aboard HMAT Port Sydney A15. ^[3] He served in France with the 7th Field Artillery Brigade, ending the war with the rank of Sergeant. ^[2] He studied law in England for six months in 1919.

Wilfred married Marion Lovejoy on 11th October 1919 in the Registry Office, Fulham, London. ^[4] The couple returned to Melbourne 22nd November 1919, arriving in January 1920. He was discharged from the AIF on 8th February. ^[2] Wilfred and Marion subsequently had five sons together.

Settling back into Melbourne life, Wilfred began working with the Repatriation Department and Commonwealth Immigration Service. In 1922 he was admitted to the Victorian Bar. Three years later he was awarded both Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Master of Laws (LLM) by the University of Melbourne. In 1933 he was made a King's Counsel (subsequently Queen's Counsel from 1953) and in 1938 he served as the vice-president of the Law Council of Australia.

Following Marion's death in 1941 Wilfred married a second time, to Mary Taylor, a nurse, in 4th July 1942 in the Presbyterian Church, South Yarra. ^[5]

On 1st August 1945 Wilfred was made a Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He held that position until his appointment to the High Court of Australia on 8th February 1950. On the High Court, he came to be regarded as one of the greatest Australian judges of his generation. He contributed to the Australian High Court being considered in the 1950s as one of the leading appellate courts in the common law world, and many of his judgments in a variety of areas of law are still regarded as classics.

In the New Year Honours 1955, Wilfred was created Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) as a Judge of the High Court. ^[6]

Aged 68 years, he passed away of cerebral thrombosis on 9th July 1961 in a private hospital in East Melbourne. ^[7] He was survived by Mary and four of his five sons; his son Richard followed him to the bench of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1975.

Sources

1. ↑ Victoria Birth Index #/1892; registered at Elsternwick
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Australian War Memorial nominal roll: 35011 Sergeant Wilfred Kelsham Fullagar; accessed 29 Dec 2023
3. ↑ Australian War Memorial embarkation roll: 35011 Gunner Wilfred Kelsham Fullagar; accessed 29 Dec 2023
4. ↑ UK FreeBMD Marriage Index Dec qtr 1919, vol 1d, page 964
5. ↑ Victoria Marriage Index #17878/1942
6. ↑ Australian Honours: KBE; accessed 29 Dec 2023
7. ↑ Victoria Death Index #12156/1961

See also

• Sharwood, R L. 'Fullagar, Sir Wilfred Kelsham (1892–1961)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1996; accessed online 29 Dec 2023.