William Webb

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For other persons named William Webb, see William Webb (disambiguation).

Webb in 1940, as the newly appointed Chief Justice of Queensland.

Hon Sir William Flood Webb KBE (21 January 1887 – 11 August 1972), Australian judge, was a Justice of the High Court of Australia.

Webb was born in Brisbane, and was educated at St Mary's School in Warwick, Queensland. He studied at the University of Queensland, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws.

On 4 June 1913, Webb was admitted to the Queensland Bar, after scoring a very high 71.5% on the bar examination on 20 May. In 1915, he was the State Public Defender for Queensland, and from 1917 to 1922 he was the Crown Solicitor. On 17 March 1917, he married Beatrice Agnew at the Sacred Heart Church in Sandgate. He was elevated to be the Solicitor-General of Queensland in 1922, a position he held until 1925. Webb was also a Judge of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration from 1922 to 1927, and from 1925 to 1945 was President of the Queensland Court of Arbitration.

In 1925, Webb was made a Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland, and in 1940 was made the Chief Justice of Queensland. In 1943, Webb was appointed by the Government of Australia to investigate into allegations of Japanese war crimes during World War II. Between 1943 and 1945, he produced three reports, known as the Webb reports, into crimes against Australian prisoners of war. ^[1] He also visited London in 1944 to give advice on his reports to the United Nations' War Crimes Commission. Webb continued as Chief Justice of Queensland until 16 May 1946, when he was appointed to the bench of the High Court.

Webb presiding over the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in 1946.

During his time on the High Court, he was President of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the tribunal which tried Japanese war crimes from World War II, from 1946 to 1948. Webb was involved in a minor scandal late in 1947, in the leadup to the bank nationalisation case, the Government of Australia tried to recall Webb from Tokyo, by requesting General Douglas Macarthur to release him, because they believed that he would decide the case in a way that was favourable to the Commonwealth. However, after pressure from Justice Owen Dixon, Chief Justice John Latham contacted Webb and encouraged him not to leave Japan. ^[2] On 12 November 1948, after more than two years of trials, Webb, as President of the Tribunal, handed down the sentences on all of the people whom the Tribunal had found guilty. Webb said that the series of trials conducted in Tokyo were the most "important criminal trials in all history." ^[3]

In 1954, he was made a Knight of the British Empire. Webb retired from the High Court on 16 May 1958, after serving exactly twelve years on the bench. In 1967, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by the University of Queensland. Webb died in Brisbane in 1972.

The road William Webb Drive in the district of Belconnen, Canberra is named after him.