33 Facts About Samuel Griffith

Samuel Griffith served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and two terms as Premier of Queensland, and played a key role in the drafting of the Australian Constitution.

Samuel Griffith attended the University of Sydney, and after further legal training was called to the bar in 1867.

Samuel Griffith was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1872.

Samuel Griffith served as Attorney-General from 1874 to 1878, and subsequently became the leader of the parliament's liberal faction.

Samuel Griffith led the Australian delegation to the 1887 Colonial Conference and took a keen interest in external affairs, giving financial and administrative support to the newly annexed Territory of Papua and establishing the Queensland Maritime Defence Force.

In 1899, Samuel Griffith retired from politics to head the Supreme Court of Queensland.

Samuel Griffith was an ardent federationist, and with Andrew Inglis Clark wrote the draft constitution that was presented to the 1891 constitutional convention.

Samuel Griffith was involved in the drafting of the federal Judiciary Act 1903, which established the High Court of Australia, and was nominated by Alfred Deakin to become the inaugural Chief Justice.

Samuel Griffith presided over a number of constitutional cases, though some of his interpretations were rejected by later courts.

Samuel Griffith was called on to advise governors-general during political instability.

Samuel Griffith was born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, the younger son of the Rev Edward Samuel Griffith, a Congregational minister and his wife, Mary, second daughter of Peter Walker.

Samuel Griffith was educated at schools in Ipswich, where his father was minister from 1854 to 1856, and Sydney, and later at William McIntyre's school in Maitland, where he earned the nickname "Oily Sam" for his "ability to argue on any side of any subject".

Samuel Griffith continued his studies at the University of Sydney, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1863, with first-class honours in classics, mathematics and natural science.

On his return to Brisbane, Samuel Griffith studied law and was articled to Arthur Macalister, in one of whose ministries Samuel Griffith afterwards had his first portfolio.

In 1870, Samuel Griffith returned to Sydney to complete a Master of Arts.

In 1872 Samuel Griffith was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, for East Moreton.

Samuel Griffith was Attorney-General, Minister for Education and Minister for Works, and became leader of the liberal faction in 1879.

Samuel Griffith succeeded in passing an eight hours bill through the assembly which was thrown out by the Queensland Legislative Council.

Samuel Griffith won the next election largely on his policy of preventing the importation of Kanaka labour from the islands.

Samuel Griffith passed an act for this purpose, but it was found that the danger of the destruction of the sugar industry was so great that the measure was never made operative.

Samuel Griffith took a special interest in British New Guinea, and was eventually responsible for the sending of Sir William MacGregor there in 1888.

Samuel Griffith held the office of premier until 1888, and was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1886, before receiving an advancement to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1895.

Samuel Griffith was regarded as a close ally of the labour movement.

Samuel Griffith introduced a bill to legalise trade unions, and declared that "the great problem of this age is not how to accumulate wealth but how to secure its more equitable distribution".

Samuel Griffith was the first of two justices of the High Court of Australia to have previously served in the Parliament of Queensland, along with Charles Powers.

Samuel Griffith was one of five justices to have previously served on the Supreme Court of Queensland, along with William Webb, Harry Gibbs, Susan Kiefel and Patrick Keane.

Samuel Griffith published a translation of Dante's Divina Commedia in 1912.

In January 1918, Samuel Griffith was appointed by Prime Minister Billy Hughes as head of a Royal Commission into the recruitment levels needed to maintain the Australian Imperial Force's fighting strength overseas.

Samuel Griffith was given such narrow terms of reference that his report took only a single week, and was effectively little more than a mathematical problem relating to the "existing size of the AIF, likely future losses of men, the numbers required to replace them, and so on".

Samuel Griffith retired from the Court in 1919 and died at his home in Brisbane on 9 August 1920.

Samuel Griffith is buried in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane, together with his wife, Julia, and their son, Llewellyn.

Samuel Griffith was appointed a vice-president of the Royal Colonial Institute in 1909 and an honorary fellow of the British Academy in 1916.

In July 2016 Samuel Griffith was inducted in to the City of Maitland Hall of Fame.