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Judge James Archibald Douglas
James Archibald (Jim) Douglas (1917-1984), judge, was born on 14 August
1917 at Townsville, Queensland, second of five children of
Queensland-born parents Robert Johnstone Douglas, barrister, and his
wife Annie Alice May, née Ball. Jim’s grandfather was
Premier John
Douglas. Educated locally and at St Joseph’s College, Nudgee, Brisbane
(1929-34), he became an associate to his father, who was then northern
judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland at Townsville.
On 15 March 1940 Douglas was appointed as a lieutenant, Australian
Imperial Force. He joined the 2/12th Battalion in Britain in August.
Next year he took part in the defence of Tobruk, Libya, as a platoon
commander. In May he and his men withstood a strong German attack on
their section of the fortress’s perimeter. His comrades believed that he
should have been decorated for his part in the action. He served with
Northern Territory Force in 1942-43. On 1 February 1943 at Holy Spirit
Catholic Church, New Farm, Brisbane, he married Marjorie Mary Ramsay, a
civil servant. From August 1944 he assisted with the repatriation of
Australian prisoners of war as a major with the AIF Reception Group,
United Kingdom. This work took him to Russia and Poland in February-June
1945. His AIF appointment terminated in Australia on 15 October.
Completing his law studies, Douglas was admitted to the Bar on 25
November 1946. He set up chambers in Brisbane; his practice was mainly
in the common law jurisdiction but he was a capable practitioner in all
fields, including appellate work in the High Court of Australia. For
three months in 1956-57 he was an acting-judge of the Supreme Court of
the Northern Territory. In 1960 he was appointed QC. He appeared
(1963-64) for the Queensland Police Union of Employees at the royal
commission into allegations of police corruption in relation to the
National Hotel, Brisbane.
President (1963-65) of the Bar Association of Queensland, he helped
Graham Hart to develop the Inns of Court as a home for the Brisbane Bar.
He was an executive member (1963-65) of the Law Council of Australia and
vice-president (1964-65) of the Australian Bar Association. On 11
February 1965 he was appointed a Supreme Court judge. Conscientious and
careful, he was outstanding in his ability to conduct trials in both
criminal and civil jurisdictions. He could appear stern but his
overriding concern was to ensure litigants were given a fair hearing and
appropriate representation. Members of the profession whom he considered
had not properly discharged their duty to the court or to the client
were reprimanded. He served (1968-71, 1973-74) on the law faculty board,
University of Queensland, and chaired (1972-82) the Central Sugar Cane
Prices Board.
When Sir Charles Wanstall, the chief justice, and George Lucas, the
senior puisne judge, retired on the same day in February 1982, Douglas,
as the next most senior judge, had the support of the attorney-general,
Samuel Doumany, and of the Bar to replace Wanstall. He was passed over
for both offices by (Sir) Johannes Bjelke-Peterson’s cabinet in
politically controversial circumstances—reputedly because he had voted
at the 1972 State election for the Australian Labor Party.
A devout Christian, Douglas was chairman (1967-83) of the advisory board
of Mount Olivet Hospital, Kangaroo Point, and Queensland president for
some ten years of the St Vincent de Paul Society. In the latter role he
helped to serve Christmas lunch to the poor before returning home to his
own family’s festivities. He was made a knight of the Sovereign Military
Order of Malta in 1975. A modest collector of Australian art, he also
retained a love of ballet that had developed in Russia in 1945. He
enjoyed gardening, served as patron of the Queensland Hibiscus Society,
relished convivial meals and fine wines with colleagues, family and
friends, and often attended reunions of his World War II battalion.
Douglas was a member of the Queensland, United Service, Johnsonian,
Tattersall’s and Queensland Turf clubs, and of the Wine and Food
Society. Amply proportioned, he was known affectionately as `Big Jim’ or
`Jumbo’. He was noted for his courtesy, integrity and moral courage.
Survived by his wife, and their daughter and three sons, he died of
cancer on 2 February 1984 in Mount Olivet Hospital and was buried in
Nudgee cemetery. In his valedictory, the president of the Queensland
Bar, Bill Pincus, described him as `one of the last of the great Civil
jury advocates in Queensland’. All three sons became barristers and took
silk. Two, Robert Ramsay (d.2002) and James Sholto, were appointed
judges of the Queensland Supreme Court in 1999. Francis was a member of
the Fiji Court of Appeal in 2009
Notes:
James
Archibald Douglas was author of The Stratigraphical Distribution of the
Cornbrash, 1928, with William Joscelyn Arkell Was it this man?
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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