From Australia’s Jewish Past: Sir Albert Asher Wolff, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Lieutenant Governor of Western Australia
Albert Wolff was born on 30 April 1899 in Geraldton, WA, and registered as Asher Albert.
Albert Wolff
He was the only son and the second of four children of Simon Wolff, an orthodox Russian-born jeweller, and his London-born wife, Bertha. Albert was a good student, having been educated at Geraldton State and Perth boys’ schools, winning a scholarship to Perth Modern School. He studied law, and after serving articles in a legal firm, he was admitted to the Supreme Court on October 20, 1921. He practised in Goomalling and Perth until he was appointed a crown prosecutor in 1926.
Albert was well known for the case where he prosecuted constables J. G. St Jack and R. H. Regan for murder following the 1926 Kimberley massacre. They were, however, acquitted. In 1929, Albert was promoted to crown solicitor and parliamentary draftsman – winning recognition for his drafting skills. He became a Queen’s Counsel in 1936 and was appointed to the Supreme Court bench in 1938, moving on to become a senior justice in 1954.
He was praised for his ‘clear, concise judgement with underlying legal and social reasoning’, particularly in a case – Adamson v the Motor Vehicle Insurance Trust of 1956, which involved the liability of a lunatic for tort. In February 1959 he succeeded Sir John Dwyer as Chief Justice and became Deputy President of the State Arbitration Court. In June that year, he was awarded a Knighthood and between 1968 and 1974 he was Lieutenant-governor of Western Australia.
Albert attempted to reduce administrative red tape within the Supreme Court. Some thought him unfriendly, but his ability and courtesy were respected. He firmly supported an independent Bar after it was founded in 1961. He was a professed advocate of law reform and clarification of parliamentary statutes. He consistently supported final appeals to the Privy Council, disagreeing with a bill of rights as proposed by the Federal Attorney-General, Lionel Murphy. He was seldom wrong in his judgements. He believed in stern retribution or ‘a short, sharp salutary lesson’. Believe it or not, he was also committed to capital punishment. In one of his most contentious criminal cases in 1961, he was the judge at a murder trial of a deaf-mute. Albert pronounced the death sentence, which later became life imprisonment. Following the emergence of fresh evidence, the conviction was quashed in 2005.
Between 1937 and 1938, he presided over a Royal Commission into Youth Unemployment and the Apprenticeship System, in which Albert recommended improving literacy at the primary level, raising the school leaving age to fifteen and reviewing the policy for funding for technical education. By singling out the building industry for inadequate training regulations, he quickened the passage of the Builders’ Registration Act of 1939. His comprehensive Royal Commission Report on the administration of the University of Western Australia in 1941, concentrated on financial and administrative matters, although he was critical of academic standards and ‘student wastage’. He recommended the appointment of a full-time Vice-Chancellor and the reconstitution of the Senate, foreshadowing the introduction of fees. He also served on royal commissions in 1946, when he criticised the government’s purchase of twenty-five unsatisfactory Garratt locomotives and, again in 1965, when he investigated parliamentary salaries. He retired as Chief Justice on April 30, 1969.
In the community, from 1947, Albert was a trustee of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia, becoming President of the Trustees from 1954 to 1958. He was thought by some to be conservative, autocratic and uninspired. He was a stubborn litigant against the Mosman Park Council where he lived. In 1949, Albert presided over an Air Court of Inquiry into the crash of a Douglas DC-3 aircraft at Perth Airport, which killed all eighteen on board. Western Australian MacRobertson Miller Aviation operated the aircraft. However, the court could not determine the accident’s precise cause.
Albert was dark, thickset and of average height. In public, he was formal and, when at home, wore carpet slippers and a carpenter’s apron. He was a keen and competent cabinetmaker and proudly drove a 1964 Silver Cloud Rolls Royce. He was a member of the Weld Club – a private gentlemen’s only club in Perth.
Albert married twice, neither of his wives being Jewish. Albert died on 27 October 1977 in Subiaco, Perth, and was honoured with a state funeral. He was buried in the Jewish section of Karrakatta Cemetery. He was survived by a son and daughter from his first marriage. In 2003 The Albert Wolff Chambers was founded and named in his honour.
The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:-
Australian Dictionary of Biography – Windy Birman; Wikipedia; Sir Albert Asher Chambers, West Australian Government Archives, West Australian Bar Association.
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