Robert Walsh,
QC (October 1824 – 24 August 1899) was an Australian lawyer and politician, member of the
Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne.
The presiding ...
and
Attorney-General of Victoria
The Attorney-General of Victoria, in formal contexts also Attorney-General or Attorney General for Victoria, is a minister in the Government of Victoria, Australia. The Attorney-General is a senior minister in the state government and the Firs ...
.
Walsh was born in
Rathfarnham
Rathfarnham () is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council a ...
,
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, Ireland, son of Michael Walsh, a Dublin merchant.
Robert was educated at Chaill's Blackrock School and
Trinity College Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
, where he took his degree in 1846, with a moderatorship in logic and ethics. In November 1847 he was called to the
Irish Bar
The Bar of Ireland ( ga, Barra na hÉireann) is the professional association of barristers for Ireland, with over 2,000 members. It is based in the Law Library, with premises in Dublin and Cork. It is governed by the General Council of the Ba ...
, and in 1853 emigrated to
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
.
[
Walsh practised his profession at ]Ballarat
Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...
for some years from 1855.[ In April 1871 he entered the Legislative Assembly for ]Ballarat East
Ballarat East is a suburb of Ballarat in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. From 1857 until 1921 the suburb had its own council (see below). The suburb covers a large area east of the city centre. It is the oldest urban area in Ballara ...
,[ and was ]Attorney-General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
in the Charles Gavan Duffy
Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, KCMG, PC (12 April 1816 – 9 February 1903), was an Irish poet and journalist (editor of ''The Nation''), Young Irelander and tenant-rights activist. After emigrating to Australia in 1856 he entered the politics of ...
Ministry from July of that year till June 1872. At the 1874 General Election he did not stand for Parliament, and devoted himself to the practice of the legal profession in Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
.[ In December 1886 he was appointed Crown Prosecutor for the metropolitan district, and in 1892 conducted the case for the prosecution against the murderer ]Frederick Bailey Deeming
Frederick Bailey Deeming (30 July 1853 – 23 May 1892) was an English-born Australian murderer. He was convicted and executed for the murder of a woman in Melbourne, Australia. He is remembered today because he was suspected by some of being ...
.[
Walsh was appointed a ]Queen's Counsel
In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...
in 1890, he died in St Kilda, Victoria
St Kilda is an inner seaside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 6 km (4 miles) south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip Local governmen ...
on 24 August 1899,[ survived by his wife and a large family.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Robert
Australian Roman Catholics
19th-century Australian lawyers
Victoria (state) state politicians
Irish emigrants to Australia
1824 births
1899 deaths
People from Rathfarnham
Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
Attorneys-General of the Colony of Victoria
19th-century Australian politicians
Australian King's Counsel
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Lawyers from County Dublin
Politicians from County Dublin
Attorneys-General of Victoria