13 Facts About Hayden Starke

Sir Hayden Erskine Starke KCMG was an Australian judge who served on the High Court of Australia from 1920 to 1950.

Hayden Starke was a prominent Melbourne barrister before his appointment to the court.

Dr Anthony George Hayden Starke had emigrated from Honiton in Devon in 1863 to take up the position at the new hospital in this bustling town that then rivalled Ballarat.

Hayden Starke was educated at the Scotch College in Melbourne.

Hayden Starke completed a course as an articled clerk in 1892, and was admitted to the Victorian Bar later that year, having won the annual Prize in Law from the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Hayden Starke practised as a barrister until he was appointed to the bench of the High Court in 1920.

Hayden Starke was appointed to the High Court in 1920 by the Hughes government, following the death of Sir Edmund Barton, a foundation member of the court.

Hayden Starke was a mentor to John Latham, an Attorney-General of Australia and later Chief Justice of Australia, although there was later friction between them, when Latham was Chief Justice.

Hayden Starke had a tendency to dissent from the majority opinions offered by the likes of Latham and Owen Dixon.

Hayden Starke thought that some justices, such as Edward McTiernan, and George Rich, were too heavily under the influence of Owen Dixon, and is said to have referred to them as "parrots" and "worms".

Over 60 years after Starke's retirement, Justice Dyson Heydon, in his reasons for allowing an appeal brought by Jayant Patel against manslaughter convictions, noted that Patel's charge sheet listed fraud charges before manslaughter charges and said: "The young Hayden Starke would have applauded this decision to place important questions of dollars and cents ahead of mere manslaughter matters".

In 1939, Hayden Starke was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George.

Hayden Starke resigned from the High Court on 31 January 1950.