Redmond Barry

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Sir Redmond Barry , KCMG (June 1813 - November 23, 1880) was a British colonial judge in Victoria, Australia.

The son of Major-General H. G. Barry, of Ballyclough, Co. Cork, he was educated at a military school in Kent, and at Trinity College, Dublin, and was called to the Irish bar in 1838. He emigrated to Australia, and after a short stay at Sydney went to Melbourne in 1839, a city with which he was ever afterwards closely identified. After practising his profession for some years, he became commissioner of the Court of Requests, and after the creation in 1851 of the colony of Victoria, out of the Port Phillip district of New South Wales, was the first Solicitor-General, with a seat in the Legislative Council and a member of the Executive Council. In 1852 he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He also served as acting Chief Justice and Administrator of the government.

Barry was noted for his service to the community, and convinced the state government to spend money on public works, particularly education. He was instrumental in the foundation of the Royal Melbourne Hospital (1848), the University of Melbourne (1853), and the State Library of Victoria (1854). He served as the first chancellor of the university until his death, and was president of the trustees of the State Library.

Redmond Barry was the judge for the Eureka Stockade treason trials in the Supreme Court in 1855. The thirteen miners were all acquitted.

He represented Victoria at the London International Exhibition of 1862 and at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876. He was knighted in 1860 and was created a KCMG in 1877.

In 1880 he presided at the final trial of Ned Kelly. When he sentenced Kelly to death by hanging, Barry uttered the customary words "may God have mercy on your soul". Kelly is reported to have replied "I will see you there when I go". On November 23, twelve days after Kelly's execution, Redmond Barry died after a short illness.

The State Library of Victoria has named a reading room after Barry who was the first Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Melbourne Public Library.[1]

[edit] References

• Serle, Percival (1949). “Barry, Sir Redmond”, Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.