29 Facts About Ninian Stephen

Sir Ninian Martin Stephen was an English-born Australian judge who served as the 20th governor-general of Australia, in office from 1982 to 1989.

Ninian Stephen was previously a justice of the High Court of Australia from 1972 to 1982.

Ninian Stephen was appointed to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1970, and then to the High Court in 1972, aged 48.

Ninian Stephen was considered a member of the court's "moderate centre".

In 1982, Ninian Stephen was appointed governor-general on the recommendation of Malcolm Fraser.

Ninian Stephen approved two double dissolutions during his time in office, the only governor-general to do so.

Ninian Stephen died at the age of 94, making him Australia's longest-lived governor-general.

Ninian Stephen was born in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, England, to Scottish parents, Barbara and Frederick Brown Ninian Stephen.

Ninian Stephen's mother, formerly a lady's maid was a paid companion for Nina Mylne, the wealthy heiress of the Queensland pastoralist Graham Mylne; his given name was in her honour.

In 1940, the three of them moved to Melbourne to avoid the war, booking first into the Oriental Hotel then taking a flat in Linden Hall opposite Scotch College which Ninian Stephen attended for two terms, and was then accepted into the University of Melbourne to study law.

In December 1941, following the end of his first year at university, Ninian Stephen enlisted in the Citizens Military Force to serve part-time in the Melbourne University Regiment.

Ninian Stephen subsequently transferred to the Second Australian Imperial Force.

In late 1943, Ninian Stephen transferred to the Royal Australian Engineers, serving in New Guinea from April to August 1944 with the 43rd Australian Water Transport Company.

Ninian Stephen then attended courses, culminating in a commissioning course in April 1945.

Ninian Stephen completed his studies after the war's end, and was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1949.

On 30 June 1970, Ninian Stephen was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Ninian Stephen held this position until 29 February 1972, relinquishing it to take up his appointment as a justice of the High Court of Australia.

Ninian Stephen joined the "moderate centre" of the court, between the arch-conservatism of Sir Garfield Barwick and the radicalism of Lionel Murphy.

In March 1982, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser announced that Queen Elizabeth II had approved his recommendation of Sir Ninian Stephen to succeed Sir Zelman Cowen as Governor-General of Australia.

Ninian Stephen's appointment was praised by both sides of politics.

Ninian Stephen was sworn in on 29 July 1982, the first former High Court justice to become governor-general since Sir Isaac Isaacs in 1931.

When Fraser was defeated by the Labor Party under Bob Hawke in 1983, Ninian Stephen had no difficulty working with a Labor government.

In 1989, Ninian Stephen became Australia's first Ambassador for the Environment and, in his three-year term, was particularly energetic in working for a ban of mining in Antarctica.

Ninian Stephen served as chairman of the Australian Citizenship Council from 1998.

Ninian Stephen later moved back into the legal field, becoming president of an arbitral tribunal constituted under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement, charged with the adjudication of an investment dispute between Mondev, a Canadian investor, and the United States.

Ninian Stephen was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 20 April 1972 "for distinguished services to the Law", and sworn of the Privy Council in 1979.

Ninian Stephen therefore had the unusual distinction of holding five separate knighthoods and joined Lord Casey and Sir Paul Hasluck as one of the few Australian Knights of the Order of the Garter.

In June 1949, Ninian Stephen married Valery Mary Sinclair and they had five daughters.

Ninian Stephen died in Melbourne on 29 October 2017, aged 94.