Patrick Alphonsus Buckley

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Sir Patrick Alphonsus Buckley (1841–18 May 1896) was a New Zealand soldier, lawyer, stateman, and judge who held several high government posts in Wellington in the early 1890s.

Born near Castletownsend, County Cork, Ireland, he was educated at the Mansion House School, Cork; St. Colman's College, Paris; the Irish College, Paris; and the Catholic University, Leuven.^[1] Buckley was in Leuven when the Piedmontese invaded the Papal states in 1860, and at the request of Count Carlo MacDonnell, Private Chamberlain to Pius IX, he brought the recruits of the Irish Papal Brigade from Ostend to Vienna, where they were placed under representatives of the Holy See. He served under General Lamoriciere, and after the war returned to Ireland.

He emigrated to Queensland, where he completed his legal studies and was admitted to the bar. After a short residence in Queensland he settled in New Zealand, and began his law practice in Wellington. Soon after his arrival, he became a member of the Wellington Provincial Council. Buckley was Provincial Solicitor in the Executive when the Provincial Parliaments were abolished in 1875. He was called to the Legislative Council in 1878, where he served to 1895 when he resigned. He was Colonial Secretary and leader of the Upper House in the Stout-Vogel Ministry (1884-87), and Attorney-General 1893-95, Colonial Secretary, and leader of an overwhelmingly Opposition Upper House under the First Liberal Government from 1891 until 1895, when he accepted the position of Judge of the Supreme Court. He was created Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George in 1892.

In 1869 he married Alice Jane, a daughter of Sir William FitzHerbert. He had land in the Wellington suburb of Melrose and Buckley Road, Melrose is named after him (Irvine-Smith).

He died at Lower Hutt, New Zealand.