predecessor successor death_date birth_place office birth_date term_start article_title term_end name nominator
albert piddington sir frank kitto 14 may 1956 braidwood , new south wales , australia justice of the high court of australia 3 may 1863 5 april 1913 george rich
 5 may 1950 sir george rich andrew fisher
george rich

rich was born in the town of braidwood , new south wales , in 1863 .
he was educated at sydney grammar school , and later studied at the university of sydney , where he graduated with a bachelor of arts in 1883 and a master of arts in 1885 .
in 1887 , rich was admitted to the new south wales bar .
around this time he married betha bowker , with whom he would have two sons and a daughter .
rich remained involved with the university of sydney , founding the student magazine `` hermes '' , the first publication by the university of sydney union , in 1886 .
he also started the boat club at the university , and in 1889 , was among those who established the women 's college at the university .
in his legal work , rich was principally an equity specialist .
from 1890 to 1910 , rich lectured in equity part-time at the university of sydney 's law school .
he was also the co-author of the first new south wales-specific textbook on equity practice .
he was made a king 's counsel in 1911 , and in the same year was appointed as an acting judge of the supreme court of new south wales .
he was made a full judge in 1912 .
in 1913 , rich was appointed to the newly created seventh seat on the bench of the high court of australia , taking up his seat on 5 april of that year .
he was appointed following the resignation of albert piddington , who never took up his seat on the high court , and quit amidst a controversy over his appointment .
there has been some suggestion that rich was a `` safe '' choice , because of his uncontroversial and uncombative nature , but rich 's legal ability was rarely questioned .
rich had a long career on the high court , not retiring until 5 may 1950 .
during world war i , rich 's associate was edward mctiernan , a future justice of the high court , and indeed a future colleague .
rich was also a judge of the commonwealth court of conciliation and arbitration , from 1921 to 1922 , and later in 1922 he served as australia 's delegate to the league of nations .
he was made a knight commander of the order of st michael and st george in 1932 , and in 1936 was appointed to the judicial committee of the privy council .
from 1940 to 1941 , rich was acting chief justice of australia , while john latham took leave to serve in tokyo as australia 's first minister -lrb- ambassador -rrb- to japan .
rich 's judgments are generally considered to be clear and concise .
some commentators attribute this more to laziness than to a knack for clarity .
it was often rumoured that fellow justice -lrb- and later chief justice -rrb- owen dixon wrote many of rich 's judgments for him , and dixon recorded in his papers that on one occasion -lrb- the case of `` isaacs v mckinnon '' -rrb- , in an appeal from the federal court of bankruptcy , rich 's judgment was written by the judge whose decision was being appealed .
rich , who retired at age 87 , holds the record for being the oldest justice to sit on the bench of the high court .
this record will almost certainly not be broken , since high court justices must retire at age 70 .
it is said that following the funeral of former justice sir isaac isaacs in 1943 , hayden starke said to rich -lrb- who at that stage was 80 years old -rrb- `` george , are you sure it 's worth your while going home ? ''
rich retired on his eighty-seventh birthday in 1950 .
geoffrey sawer has suggested that rich delayed his retirement until after the 1949 federal election -lrb- at which the conservative menzies government came to power -rrb- in order to prevent the labor chifley government from being able to appoint a judge .
following his retirement , the members of the honourable society of the inner temple elected rich as an honorary master .
later that year , he married his second wife , letitia woodward -lrb- betha had died in 1945 -rrb- .
rich died in 1956 , at age 93 .
an obituary in the australian law journal described rich as : '' ... patient , helpful to counsel , wise in his sense of judgment and he had a rare but unobtrusive humour .
his contribution as a justice of the high court to constitutional problems is by no means as insignificant as the brevity of many of his judgments might suggest , for he had the facility for expressing complex propositions in clear and succinct terms . ''
