Herbert Raine Curlewis (22 August 1869 – 11 October 1942) was an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

and writer.

Early life and education

Curlewis was born in

Bondi, New South Wales Bondi () is a suburb of eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, seven kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council. It is often colloquially referred to as "Bond ...

and was the eldest son of Frederick Charles Curlewis, a brickmaster, and his wife Georgina Sophia, née O'Brien. He attended

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

commencing in 1881. In 1885 and again in 1886, he won the Wigram Allen Scholarship, endowed by

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

George Wigram Allen Sir George Wigram Allen (16 May 1824 – 23 July 1885) was an Australian politician and philanthropist. He was Speaker in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 1875–1883. Allen was held in high esteem. As speaker he showed dignity, courtes ...

, for

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

. At the end of 1886 Curlewis was named Dux of the College and received the Schofield Scholarship. He went up to the University of Sydney and in 1890 graduated as a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

and in 1892

LL.B Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

. He later lectured in law at the university.

Marriage and family

On 22 April 1896 he married

Ethel Turner Ethel Turner (24 January 1870 – 8 April 1958) was an English-born Australian novelist and children's literature writer. Life She was born Ethel Mary Burwell in Doncaster in England. Her father died when she was two, leaving her mother Sarah J ...

, the author of ''

Seven Little Australians ''Seven Little Australians'' is a classic Australian children's literature novel by Ethel Turner, published in 1894. Set mainly in Sydney in the 1880s, it relates the adventures of the seven mischievous Woolcot children, their stern army father ...

'' and they had two children,

Jean Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jean ...

and

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin language, Latin given name Adrianus (given name), Adrianus or Hadrianus (disambiguation), Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria (river), Adria from the Venetic language, Venetic and ...

(later Sir Adrian).

Publications

As a student Curlewis showed literary talent and in 1906 he wrote The Mirror of Justice, a layman's introduction to the legal process. He was also editor of the Australasian Annual Digest. Other publications held by the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

include: *Comparative tables showing the English laws and statutes in force in New South Wales, and the English statutes corresponding to New South Wales enactments (Sydney: 1904) Law Book Company of Australasia *Pleading at common law in New South Wales : being notes of lectures delivered in the Law School of the University of Sydney / by Herbert Curlewis revised by David Edwards (Sydney: 1921) Law School of the University of Sydney, 1921 *Procedure at common law and in the inferior courts: being notes of lectures delivered in the Law School of the University of Sydney / by Herbert Curlewis revised by David Edwards (Sydney: 1929) Published for the Law School of the University of Sydney *Introduction to the law of evidence (Sydney: 1940) University of Sydney

Legal career

He was admitted to the Bar in 1893 and practised in common law. In 1917 he was appointed an additional judge of the

Court of Industrial Arbitration of New South Wales A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance w ...

. Following the abolition of that court in 1926, he was appointed a judge of the

NSW District Court The District Court of New South Wales is the intermediate court in the judicial hierarchy of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is a trial court and has an appellate jurisdiction. In addition, the Judges of the Court preside over a ra ...

in 1928. Curlewis retired in 1939 and died in 1942.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curlewis, Herbert Raine 1869 births 1942 deaths 20th-century Australian judges People educated at Newington College University of Sydney alumni Judges of the District Court of NSW