Sir Kenneth Whistler Street

The Honourable Sir Kenneth Whistler Street KCMG, KStJ
10th Chief Justice of New South Wales
In office 6 January 1950 – 27 January 1960
Appointed by	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Sir Frederick Jordan
Succeeded by	Herbert Evatt
16th Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales
In office 6 January 1950 – 19 February 1972
Preceded by	Sir Frederick Jordan
Succeeded by	Sir Leslie Herron
Personal details
Born	(1890-01-28)28 January 1890 Sydney, New South Wales
Died	15 February 1972(1972-02-15) (aged 82) Sydney, New South Wales
Nationality	Australia
Spouse(s)	Lady Jessie Street
Children	Sir Laurence Whistler Street
Father	Sir Philip Whistler Street
Relatives	Street family & House of Grey
Alma mater	Sydney Law School

Sir Kenneth Whistler Street, KCMG, KStJ, (28 January 1890 – 15 February 1972) was the 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales. These vice-regal roles were held by his father Sir Philip Whistler Street KCMG before him and his son Sir Laurence Whistler Street AC KCMG QC after him. He was the third generation of the Street family to engage in Australian politics.^[1][2]

Early years

He was born on 28 January 1890 at Woollahra, Sydney, eldest son of Sir Philip Whistler Street, a Sydney-born barrister, and his wife Belinda Maud, née Poolman, who came from Melbourne. He attended Homebush and Sydney Grammar schools, entered St Paul's College, University of Sydney (B.A., 1911; LL.B., 1914), and won scholarships and prizes in law.^[3] World War One began while he was holidaying in England.^[2] He was commissioned on 29 September 1914 in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and sent to France. His brother Lieutenant Lawrence Whistler Street, after whom Sir Laurence Street was named, was killed in action in Gallipoli serving the Allied forces in World War One. Lawrence had volunteered for national service in August 1914, making him one of the earliest of his generation to do so.^[4]

Returning to Sydney, Street was appointed lieutenant, 18th (North Sydney) Infantry Regiment, in December 1915. He served in the Adjutant General's Department, Army Headquarters, Melbourne, and was promoted temporary captain in September 1917.^[4] Although he had been admitted to the New South Wales Bar Association on 12 March 1915, he did not practise until he ceased full-time military duties in December 1919.^[5]

Juridicial career

Between 1921 and 1927 Street lectured part time at the University of Sydney Law School. Meanwhile, he continued his career in the Militia as a legal staff officer (1922-28) and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.^[3] He was a considerable scholar in and beyond the law, being an authority on the writings of Pepys and an accomplished Latinist. Absorbed in his family's history, he privately published Annals of the Street Family of Birtley (1941), a book in which he demonstrated ancestral links to the English judiciary.^[6]

Street enjoyed a wide general practice and would have taken silk but for his appointment to serve on the reconstituted Industrial Commission of New South Wales from 16 December 1927. He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on 7 October 1931. He thus joined the bench of which his father was then Chief Justice.^[7]

In 1949, as senior puisne judge, Street acted as Chief Justice when Sir Frederick Jordan died. Confirmed in that office from 6 January 1950, he was sworn in on 7 February, thus becoming the second of three generations of the Street family to serve New South Wales as Chief Justice. In 1951 he was appointed a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (1956), and awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Sydney (1952), Sir Kenneth became lieutenant-governor and administered the State several times. Farewelled in court in December 1959, he retired from the bench on his seventieth birthday.^[8]

Family

Members of the Street family have been prominent in politics and law, especially in Australia and the state of New South Wales, since the 19th Century. Various ancestral lines of the family were prominent throughout the second millennium in the United Kingdom as members of the Berkeley family. The Street family is the only dynasty in Australian judicial appointments with three consecutive vice-regal appointments to their name; men of the 2nd through 4th generations of the family having become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales. The patriarch of the family’s legal tradition is Sir Thomas Street, an English Chief Justice and Baron of the Exchequer whose ancestors were well-established in Worcester, his father having been the mayor of the city. Thomas was Chief Justice for Brecknock, Glamorgan and Radnor from 1677 to 1681, and a Baron of the Exchequer from April 1681 to 1684. Sir Thomas had his children by Lady Penelope Berkeley, by whom the successive generations of the Streets descend from William the Conqueror, via the Berkeley family, whose ancestor Sir Maurice de Berkeley bore his progeny by Isabella FitzRoy (married 1247), daughter of Richard FitzRoy, a feudal baron of Chilham in Kent and a son of King John of England.

Further details

Street was married to Lady Jessie Mary Grey Street, a prominent human rights activist and social reformer, a descendent of the old noble House of Grey of England.^[6] They had four children including Sir Laurence Street AC KCMG QC, who also attained the position of Chief Justice. A daughter, Philippa, married the Australian Test cricketer and journalist Jack Fingleton.^[9]

Sir Kenneth died on 15 February 1972 and was accorded a state funeral.^[10] He was a high ranking Freemason.^[7] Street House at Cranbrook School, Sydney is named in his honour.^[11]

References

External links

• Kenneth Whistler Street at the Australian Dictionary of Biography