Edward Dundas Holroyd , QC

From 'A Branch of the Holroyd Family' by Thomas Holroyd, 1879:

Edward Dundas Holroyd was educated at Winchester College, which he entered as a Commoner in February, 1841. He obtained several prizes, amongst others Bishop Maltby's prize for speaking, competed for by boys below the sixth form, the second Heathcote, and the Duncan; and carried off in two consecutive years (1845, 1846) the Queen's Gold Medal for the best Latin and English prose essays. In July, 1846, he left Winchester and proceeded in October of the same year to Trinity College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. in January 1851, (having lost a year through illness), and was in the first class of the classical tripos; he took the degree of M.A. in 1854. He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn, on the 6th June 1855, and on the 27 July, 1859, was admitted to practice as a Barrister in the Supreme Court of Victoria, and subsequently became a Member of the Bar of Tasmania. In 1872 he was offered an appointment as one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the Colony of Victoria, but declined it, and on the 14th January, 1879, he was appointed a Q.C. in Victoria.

From the 'Australian Dictionary of Biography':

HOLROYD, SIR EDWARD DUNDAS (1828-1916), judge, was born on 25 January 1828 in Surrey, England, the second son of Edward Holroyd, a commissioner of the London Bankruptcy Court, and his wife Caroline, nee Pugsley. In 1841 he entered Winchester College, where he twice won the Queen's medal for Latin and English essays, and in 1846 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge (BA., 1851; MA., 1854). He entered Gray's Inn in November 1851, was called to the Bar on 6 June 1855 and practised in London.
Encouraged by his friend, A B Malleson, a former London attorney who had practised in Victoria since 1857, Holroyd migrated and was admitted to the Victorian Bar on 27 July 1859 and to the Tasmanian Bar in 1867. As in London he supplemented his income by free-lance journalism but soon abandoned it as his law practice rapidly expanded. A sound equity lawyer, he also became expert in mining and commercial law. His ability was marked by offers of a seat on the Supreme Court bench in 1872 and 1873. He then declined but accepted elevation on 22 August 1881, two years after he had taken silk. He had been appointed to the royal commission inquiring into the constitution of the Supreme Court in 1880, and later joined in recommending adoption of the English Judicature Acts under which the systems of common law and equity were amalgamated. He helped to prepare Victoria's Judicature Act, passed in 1883 despite the strenuous opposition of the judges, Robert Molesworth and Hartley Williams.
Holroyd's austere manner, dry humour, learned appearance and zeal for detail seemed in sympathy with an equity judgeship. After the Judicature Act he sat chiefly at common law, adapting himself to it most competently, particularly in criminal cases. Ever industrious, he was repected also for his fairness and by the Bar, for his courtesy, though he could strike out warmly and was impatient of loose legal argument. He was no precisian in matters of form but, it was said, often savoured a legal nicety as an artist might delight in a fine picture. These habits delayed proceedings and some counsel claimed that his meticulous noting of evidence cramped their cross-examination style. Otherwise he was practical and authoritative and his judgements, models of prose, had a good record for withstanding appeals.
He became senior puisne judge and sometimes acting chief justice, and was knighted in 1903. Therafter his growing deafness and slowness in court aroused public comment. He resigned on 9 May 1906 and was uniquely complimented on his eightieth birthday by the presentation of a bound address signed by the Victorian Bar.
He was an enthusiastic member of the Imperial Federation League and its president for many years. His speech at its inaugural meeting in the Melbourne Town Hall on 5 June 1885 attracted much notice, especially for its concept of federal inter-responsibility in politics and defence, and for his contention that colonial taxation or subsidy for imperial purposes deserved representation of those who paid. He was a member and sometime president of the Athenaeum and Savage Clubs.
In Melbourne on 19 April 1862 Holroyd had married Anna Maria Hoyles, daughter of Henry Compton, of Totnes, Devon; they had two sons and three daughters. Their household was run somewhat stricty, due partly to Holroyd's dislike of frivolity, though he was otherwise sociable and permitted himself to be 'unconventional in manner and appearance' at home. He was fond of sport and enjoyed good health almost until he died on 5 January 1916 at his home, Fernacres, Alma Road, St Kilda.
Bibl: J L Forde, 'The story of the Bar of Victoria' (Melb 1913); P A Jacobs 'Judges of yesterday' (Melb 1924); P A Jacobs 'A lawyer tells' (Melb 1949); Leader (Melb) 13 June 1885; Argus 6 April 1906, 6 Jan 1916.


Death of Sir Edward Holroyd (Obituary in The Melbourne Age, 6 January 1916)

A distinguished career

Sir Edward Dundas Holroyd, who was for nearly a quarter of the century a member of the Victorian Supreme Court bench, and for a much longer period one of the most prominent figures in the legal and social communities of Melbourne, died at his residence "Fernacres," Alma Road, East St Kilda, yesterday, after a comparatively short illness. He had enjoyed good health up till Monday, when he complained of not feeling well, and on Tuesday night his condition became rather serious, and he gradually sank. He died from pneumonia at 1 pm yesterday.

By members of the legal profession Sir Edward Holroyd was regarded as "father of the bench." Not only was he so in years, but in judicial ability, and his learned colleagues had for him the highest respect and warmest admiration. His decisions, which were mostly written, were models of perfect, vigorous English and sound judgment, and he possessed the faculty of being able to deal lucidly and concisely with the most abstruse questions. Although essentially an equity man, his knowledge of common law was very wide, and there were fewer appeals from his decisions than from any of his contemporaries on the bench. He came of a family which had long been intimately associated with the legal profession. His father was the senior commissioner of the Bankruptcy Court in England, and his grandfather, Sir George Sowley Holroyd, was a distinguished member of the King's Bench -- a judge whose decisions were not infrequently quoted in cases brought before his grandson for trial.

Sir Edward Holroyd was born on 25th January 1828, and was therefore 88 years of age at the time of his death. He received his education at Winchester School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Early in life he determined to follow the profession of his fathers. Obtaining the degree of BA in 1851, he entered as a law student during the same year. Three years later he took out the degree of MA. and in 1855 was called to the English Bar. For a few years he practised in London with success, and utilised his spare time by writing for the press. Indeed, it has been stated that he just escaped becoming editor of a London journal inspired by Disraeli. The editor's chair, however, was not to be his destiny. While he worked hard at the law, he merely dabbled in literature, and although on coming to Melbourne in 1859, he continued to contribute to the press for some years, his energies were in the main devoted to success at the bar. His undeviating devotion to duty was not to be denied. Success came quickly to him. Thirteen years after his arrival in the colony he was offered a vacant judgeship, but declined. So marked were his capabilities that a few years later another offer was made to him to take his seat on the bench. But again he refused. For 22 years he practised his profession. In 1879 he was made a Queens Counsel, and continued to practice with increasing success. On the death of Mr Justice Stephen, in 1881, however, he accepted a vacant judgeship and the bar lost one of its soundest members.

While at the bar Sir Edward Holroyd was a leading figure in equity and mining law suits, and the late Sir Robert Molesworth, the famous equity judge, placed a very high value on his opinions. The suit which probably earned him more reputation than any other, and the winning of which he himself regarded as the greatest achievement, was the sensational mining case of Learmonth v. Bailey and others, in which the character of several public men was challenged. The Messrs Learmonth, having sold the Egerton mine at a figure assessed by their manager, brought the action to set aside the sale on the ground that the property had been wilfully undervalued, and that the defendants were in collusion to obtain a cheap purchase of a mine which turned out a fortune for the buyers. Sir Edward Holroyd was senior counsel for the defendants, who secured the verdict after a momentous trial. On the bench his name had been associated with many famous trials. It was before him that the trial of Groom v. "The Age," the forerunner of the prolonged litigation in which "The Age" was plunged by reason of its fearless denunciation of the administration of the railways under the Speight regime, took place. In the criminal jurisdiction of the court he dealt with several banking prosecutions. Notable among these was the trial of the directors of the City of Melbourne Bank -- a trial which extended over nearly 30 days, and which, bristling as it did with legal difficulties, caused him so much anxiety and care that it was many days before he recovered from the continued and close attention which it demanded of him. Another notable criminal case of recent years was that in which he dealt with Butler, the New Zealand "lifer," whose daring highway robberies earned for him a very heavy sentence. The trial was a sensational one. On hearing his sentence Butler boldly cursed the judge, and almost foaming at the mouth, heaped maledictions on him. Sir Edward Holroyd paled somewhat as the prisoner spoke. For the moment he seemed dumbfounded. Then, looking forward, he calmly said, "Nothing that you may say, prisoner, can induce me to add one day more to your sentence. I cannot tell you how utterly I despise you. I take no notice of words from such a man as you." Then, turning to the warden, he said. "Take this man away." Some judges would have sentenced the audacious criminal to an increased time of imprisonment for this gross contempt of court. Sir Edward had a keen sense of humour, and when a happy thought struck him, a merry twinkle in his eyes presaged the coming joke. He was the life of the Full Court, and the dreariness of arguments on intricate questions of law was often dissipated by his droll interjections.

Off the bench he devoted his spare time to athletic exercises. He was rarely seen in society. From early youth he took a personal part in athletics, and would think nothing of walking 20 miles, even after he was past sixty years of age. Unlike the majority of his learned colleagues, he found no charm in cycling, but he was always fond of gymnastic exercises. He had a gymnasium at his private house, and although he was short and slim in stature, the attention which he gave to athletics made him very strong. He played a good game of tennis -- most of the judges play tennis -- and it is also said by those who knew him well that he played a very strong game at billiards. Nor was he unacquainted with the noble art of self-defence. While at college he had been seen in the ring with Bendigo, the one time champion pugilist of England, who was instructor of the students and, in short, it might be said that he was a good all-round athlete.

A good story, characteristic of the man, was told by a writer in the "Review of Reviewers" some time ago. "Walking up from the train to the law courts," the story goes, "Sir Edward Holroyd one morning observed a larrikin attack an inoffensive Chinese and upset his cart of fruit and vegetables. The judge appeared on the scene and the larrikin made off, but not before Judge Holroyd had time to shake his fist at him and call him a young scoundrel, with an intimation that one day he would have him in the dock, and then...! But the larrikin did not wait to hear the unofficial sentence. The judge helped the Chinese to pick up his fruit and vegetables, and went on to the court house, mentally condemning the offender to countless years of solitary, and if ever that youth should come for him Judge Holroyd would in all human certainty ask another judge to try the case. That is characteristic of the man."

Apart from his large store of legal knowledge, his intensely scrupulous application of that knowledge in the trial of the causes which came before him was a leading characteristic. He applied his mental grasp to everything came in his way in other phases of life, and was consequently brimfull of information on many subjects. He made two visits to Great Britain, travelled over part of America, and visited almost every city of note in Europe. It was always a delight to him to impart to friends the results of his experiences as a traveller, and no one left his company without having learned something. He took an early and active part in the Australian Federation movement, and later on lent his assistance to Imperial Federation, and became an active president of the league formed to further this movement. He always pronounced federal "feederal." Beyond the occasions on which he appeared to advocate this cause, he was rarely if ever seen in public life. The greater portion of his time was given to his duty. He was so exacting, so painfully conscientious in his work on the bench, that in his anxiety to lose no atom of evidence he came to be considered very slow in later years. He was unsparing in the devotion of his time off the bench to the preparation of his judgements. As a rule he rarely left the judge's chambers in the Law Courts before 6 pm. He was generally the first to come and the last to leave.

The late Sir Edward Holroyd retired from the bench in 1905. From that date he has been living quite privately, although for some five or six years he retained the offices of president of the Athenaeum Club and of the Melbourne Savage Club, and at the periodic convivial functions of the latter his genial presidency was a marked feature of the evening's enjoyment. Since he resigned from those positions he had lived very quietly at his own home. He leaves three married daughters (Mrs O'Hara Wood, Mme Van Assche and Mrs Web- Ware) and two sons (Messrs Arthur G Holroyd and S. E. Holroyd). The funeral will take place tomorrow, leaving all Saints Church, Chapel-street at 12 noon for St Kilda's Cemetary.