Tipperary’s
Devil AdvocAtes BY LLOYD GORMAN Pennefather is a name that is perhaps more recognisable to Australians than Irish people who actually share a familiarity with the moniker. There is the Pennefeather River on the western Cape York peninsula in far north Queensland but that geographical is unconnected to the name holder of this article. A Pennefather Street in Canberra and much closer to home again, a Pennefather Lane in Cottesloe, are connected with the story of a senior figure in the legal history of the Swan River colony and West Australian state. Richard William Pennefather (16 July 1851 - 16 January 1914) was the Attorney General of Western Australia, an acting Justice of the WA Supreme Court and triple term member of the Legislative Council. Pennefather was born in Tipperary, Ireland but his family moved to Melbourne, Victoria when he was a child. Following a private education at St. Patrick’s College and then Melbourne University he gained his BA and LLB degrees in 1878. He went not o work in the Crown Solicitors office for ten years. He was admitted to the NSW Bar in 1880 where he worked for two years before returning to Melbourne. (He was also admitted to the Queensland Bar in 1880 but never practiced there) In March 1896 he came to Western Australia and was admitted to the Bar here at the end of 1896. A year later he convincingly won the Legislative Assembly seat for Greenough. He was then appointed Attorney General in the Cabinet by Premier John Forrest and served for two terms until March 1901 when he resigned his parliamentary position to be appointed KC and Acting-Justice of the WA Supreme Court during a leave of absence by the Chief Justice. In 1902 he spent another three years in private practice before eventually returning to politics, winning a place in the Legislative Council. The Cottesloe Civic Centre was originally his family home (he had a wife and daughter) that he had built in 1898. He died there in January 1914 and is buried at Karrakatta Cemetery. Incredibly there was another Richard Pennefather from Tipperary who carved out a reputation at the Bar before this Richard Pennefather and who had a parliamentary career. It is not clear if or what connection there might be between the two men but this writer could not find a link, and there is evidence to suggest they were not of the same family. Richard Pennefather who came to Australia was a Catholic - who we know for example was married in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Perth - while the other Richard Pennefather came from a Protestant family. Our second Richard Pennefather was a judge who lived from 1773 until 1859. He was the eldest son of one William Pennefather of Knockeevan, a member of the Irish House of Commons for Cashel. Amongst his siblings Richard had a slightly younger brother Edward who was also a distinguished barrister and judge and would hold the office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Richard went to primary school in Portarlington, Co. Laois and then in Clonmel, graduated from University College Dublin and the Middle Temple (one of four Inns of Court in London) and was called to the Irish THE IRISH SCENE | 50
From top to bottom: Richard William Pennefather; Charles Gavan Duffy; Sir Walter Dwyer.
Bar in 1795. He and his brother Edward were amongst the leading practitioners in the Irish Court of Chancery (established in the year 1232 as a court to exercise ‘equitable jurisdiction’ in Ireland). English Prime Minister Robert Peel made Pennefather solicitorgeneral of Ireland during his
