Samuel Griffith

Common card · No. 257283

Sir Samuel Walker Griffith (21 June 1845 – 9 August 1920) was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural chief justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as chief justice of Queensland and two terms as premier of Queensland, and played a key role in the drafting of the Australian Constitution. Griffith was born in Wales arriving in the Moreton Bay district of New South Wales (but now in the state of Queensland) at the age of eight. He attended the University of Sydney, and after further legal training was called to the bar in 1867. Griffith was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1872. He served as the attorney-general from 1874 to 1878, and subsequently became the leader of the parliament's liberal faction. Griffith's terms as premier ran from 1883 to 1888 and from 1890 to 1893. He led the Australian delegation to the 1887 Colonial Conference and took a keen interest in external affairs, giving financial and administrative...

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