Roma Mitchell

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Statute of Dame Roma Mitchell, North Terrace, Adelaide

Dame Roma Flinders Mitchell, AC, DBE, CVO, QC, (October 2, 1913 - March 5, 2000) was an Australian lawyer and judge. Mitchell was the first Australian woman to be a judge, a Queen’s Counsel, a chancellor of an Australian university and the first woman Governor of an Australian state.

Mitchell was born in Adelaide in 1913 and was the second daughter of Harold and Maude Mitchell.

A graduate of St Aloysius Convent College, Adelaide, Roma Mitchell was made a Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia in 1965.

She was Governor of South Australia from 1991-1996; the first female Governor in Australia. Mitchell also served as Chancellor of the University of Adelaide from 1983-1990 and was a member of the Council for the Order of Australia from 1981-1990.

Dame Roma Mitchell was considered to be a pioneer of the Australian women's rights movement.

Her grandfather, Samuel James Mitchell, was the first Chief Justice of the Northern Territory.