5 Law Students Society Dinner to Sir Harrison Moore, Farrago 5(5), April 23, 1929. Over time the costs of maintaining this website have risen substantially (in fact they are probably larger than those of many companies who exist for profit). of the Supreme Court and knights of the realm. and their only son, John Williams, has been acclaimed as one His father Mah Ket had arrived in Australia in the 1850s, during the gold rush era, and his mother in the 1860s. Wu was born in the Straits Settlement in 1842. At that time, people born in Australia were British citizens by right, regardless of their parents origins. If you have any further information about Williams life that you would like to share, I would warmly welcome your contributions. Their youngest All rights reserved. well as a tobacco-grower, store-keeper, and property owner. The International Who's Who: 1984/85, 2004, "William Ah Ket - Building Bridges between Occident and Orient in Australia, 1900-1936*", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Ah_Ket&oldid=1136723876, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 20:35. "He famously won the case that day and then went over afterwards and put on a stereotype Chinese accent and said: 'How you likey my cross-examination?'" amendments to the 1896 Factories & Shops Act to 1John Lack, Ah Ket, William (1876 1936), Australian Dictionary of Biography, available at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ah-ket-william-4979. [12] William Ah Ket, Eastern Thought, with special reference to Confucius (Second Morrison Lecture, 3 May 1933), available at https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/145813/2/Morrison%20Oration%2002.pdf. "Rumpole" of the Victorian Supreme Court, gaining Blossom says her great grand-father's little-known story is still relevant to contemporary Australia. Celebrating Asian Australian Lawyers: From William Ah Ket to Today, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ah-ket-william-4979, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54dd81c6e4b074b4a339bb2e/t/, https://arrow.latrobe.edu.au/store/3/4/5/5/1/public/stories/wahket.htm, https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/145813/2/Morrison%20Oration%2002.pdf. William's father, Mah Ket, became highly respected He advocated and promoted peaceful coexistence.8 His answer to the difficulties he faced appears to have been to succeed in what he did; to be a real part of the legal profession; to help others and to act at all times righteously, with courage and with kindness. Australias first Chinese barrister William Ah Ket was born in the Victorian country town of Wangaratta. William was survived by his wife Gertrude Victoria (nee Bullock) and four children Dr. William, Stanley, Melaan and Toylaan. After his return In the 1970 book The Measure of the Years by Australia's longest-serving prime minister, Robert Menzies, he referred to his colleague and friend Ah Ket as "a phenomenon at the Victorian Bar" but that "a certain prejudice among clients against having a Chinese barrister to an extent limited his practice . government's repeated attempts in 1904, 1905 and 1907 to make His witticisms were aimed less to disarm the witness than [13] Isabel Carter, Woman in a Wig: Joan Rosanove, QC (Lansdowne Press, 1970), 13. 10William Ah Ket Scholarship 2019, Program (9 October 2019). At that time, people born in Australia were British citizens by right, regardless of their parents origins. family. 2Helen Penrose, To Build a Firm: The Maddocks Story (Maddocks, 2010), 11. William was particularly active in the fight against racial discrimination and appeared in many 'public interest' cases. established their home at No.1 Dandenong Road, Malvern where Gertrudewas born on July 11 1887, in Clifton Hill, Victoria, Australia. Educated in both English and Chinese cultures, he agitated against racial intolerance in Victoria and defended the rights of Victoria`s Chinese community. eyewitness of the Test matches between England and Australia. would provide all Australians with a better knowledge of the Following his youthful introduction to country horse-racing Fast forward 90 years to 9 October 2019 when an audience of some 50 persons are gathered in the Great Hall of the High Court of Australia to attend the third award ceremony for the William Ah Ket Scholarship a scholarship established by the Asian Australian Lawyers Association in 2017 and supported by Maddocks. Whatever the challenges that William faced during his sixty years, there is no doubt that his life was one of diversity and service. AALA acknowledges the past and continuing trauma caused by mistreatment and displacement. invited scholars from interstate and overseas to deliver the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. member of Melbourne's See Yup Society. In 191314 and 1917, he acted as Consul-General for China in Melbourne.[1][5]. Photographs supplied by Chris McLaughlin / Alistair Boyd / Sandra Brown / John Huth, Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au, Monument Australia 2010 - 2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - Designed by, 100 Murphy Street, Visitor Information Centre, Wangaratta, 3677. could well be achieved if the Morrison Lectureship Foundation By Andrew GodwinAssociate Director (Asian Commercial Law), Asian Law Centre, Melbourne Law School. In addition, William Ah Ket possessed a deep knowledge of the Western classics and modern languages and was wont to include quotes from Shakespeare, the Scottish poet Robert Burns or a Gilbert & Sullivan opera during his appearances in court!17. a full primary and secondary education in Wangaratta's public View their profile including current address, phone number 801-571-XXXX, background check reports, and property record on Whitepages, the most trusted online directory. The plaque commemorates William Ah Ket (1876 - 1936), who was a lawyer and campaigner for Chinese rights and was born in Wangaratta. and Cambridge respectively. [1][2] His daughter Melaan was the mother of the guitarist John Williams. 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"But when it came to law, he knew very well what it was like to struggle and be poor and oppressed, so his sympathies were always on the side of the underdog.". He completed his articles with the solicitors Maddison & In its decision, the High Court found that if the immigration legislation had intended to remove the rights of citizenship, it should have expressed its intention clearly. Ah Ket was born in Wangaratta in 1876 and died in 1936. Felvons 1. practice in Selbourne Chambers alongside such famous neighbours In an interview with the National Library of Australia in 1993, she remembered her affluent childhood. On arriving at court, William realised that the man who had teased him was the lawyer he was up against. William Ah Ket was educated at Wangaratta High School and was also taught at home by a Chinese tutor. William Ah Ket [] was born in Wangaratta in the state of Victoria, Australia, in 1876. Prior to completing [3], Ah Ket fought against the requirements of the 1907 Factories (Employment of Chinese) Act, which discriminated against Chinese residents,[4] and successfully opposed legislative amendments in 1904, 1905, and 1907 which would have specifically discriminated against Chinese residents in the furniture industry. 7Citing Sir Robert Menzies, The Measure of the Years (Cassell Australia, 1970) at 249. William's father, Mah Ket, was one of Australia's earliest tobacco farmers. Sir Robert Menzies wrote that he and Mr Ah Ket "were great friends". K Tn : Cuong. He added, "A certain prejudice among clients against having a Chinese barrister to an extent limited his practice, though instructing solicitors thought very well of him".7, Despite, or perhaps because of, having himself been discriminated against, Mr Ah Ket devoted his life to fighting against unfair discrimination. Dr Couchman says the changes William spoke out against were "very invasive". He went to the bar the following year and is widely understood to have become the first Australian lawyer of Chinese descent to practise as a barrister at the independent bar in Victoria. He sold opium, among other supplies. His father had taken him to China when he was about five years old. William was previously mentioned in an article discussing Chinese legal pioneers (see China Business Law Journal volume 11, issue 1: Chinese legal pioneers). the subject of 'Reconciliation between Eastern and Western Even though the laws he fought against no longer exist, she says Australia continues to treat new migrant groups with suspicion. After living in China for many years, he returned to Australia as an adult but was treated as a prohibited immigrant because he failed a dictation test imposed by the immigration legislation at the time. As the first #ChineseAustralian to join the Victorian Bar, William was born. 9The Hon Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of Australia, William Ah Kets contribution to diversity in the legal profession (Asian Australian Lawyers Association, William Ah Ket Scholarship Presentation, Great Hall, High Court of Australia, Canberra, 9 October 2019, 5:30pm). "They were about making sure Chinese were on view, they were really pretty abhorrent," she says. For the next twenty years he worked tirelessly for the The dictation test required all immigrants from China to write in English a passage of not less than 50 words that was dictated by a customs officer. "[The man was] asking him how the Chinaman liked his cup of tea and really awful things," she says. which he moved. William Ah Ket fought social prejudice in and out of court. 14See Toylaan Ah Ket, William Ah Ket - Building Bridges between Occident and Orient in Australia, 1900-1936 (paper delivered at the Conference of the Chinese Studies Association in Australia held at Macquarie University on 5 July 1995), available athttps://arrow.latrobe.edu.au/store/3/4/5/5/1/public/stories/wahket.htm. community, such as Quong Tart in Sydney and Cheok Hong. William Ah Ket did not ever sit on the Bench, though he would have been a very competent judge. It is fitting and proper that this scholarship is named for him.9, In the program notes, the recipient of the 2019 William Ah Ket Scholarship, Ms Tienyi Long, Legal and Governance Officer at Glen Eira City Council, Victoria writes that [l]awyers, courts and legislators continue to grapple with the question of how equal justice can be achieved for diverse communities in a multifaceted and increasingly complex societydiversity intelligence is an essential skill to facilitate equal access to justice for diverse communitiesit should be included as part of mandatory continuing professional development requirements under the Legal Profession Uniform Law.10. Noting that music had a peculiar charm for Confucius, he mused that had Confucius lived then, it is quite likely that he would have found in the music of the bagpipes something particularly stirring and satisfying to the soul.15 William would have had an affinity with bagpipes as his wife, Gertrude Bullock, was of Scottish descent. AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), abc.net.au/news/william-ah-ket-the-first-chinese-australian-barrister/10160198. youthful experience in 'bridging' the two worlds of East and West enabled him to become one of the few Chinese Australians Your help would be greatly appreciated. his tertiary studies at Melbourne University, William received 2Helen Penrose,To Build a Firm: The Maddocks Story (Maddocks, 2010), 11. "There was definitely a fresh wave of discrimination that was being put in place," she says. Association in Australia held at Macquarie University on 5 July 1995. Defying what was expected of Chinese-Australians at the turn of the twentieth century, he studied law and progressed to appear before the High Court of Australia. This Australian law-related biographical article is a stub. 4The Melbourne University Magazine, Volume 1, Number 1, 1907, 20. After reading with (Sir) Stewart McArthur, In his more-than 30-year career, William was never promoted to the rank of senior barrister or appointed judge. Wangaratta Primary School, which William Ah Ket attended as a child.Source: Andrew Godwin. The Inaugural G.E. He became the leading Chinese in the district and a respected member of the Wangaratta community.. This article commemorates the life of William Ah Ket, Australias first barrister of Chinese descent. Tune in as The History Listen explores his story. An alum of the University of Melbourne, William studied jurisprudence in 1897 before joining law firm Maddock & Jamieson (now Maddocks) and commencing the articled clerks course at the University in 1898. His father, Ma Ket [], had arrived in Victoria in 1855 to work as a community leader for the Chinese workers in the goldfields of Victoria. Father and son worked as court interpreters in their spare time. On top of that work, William also had to deal with racism. community during the early years of Federation. paper is based on a paper she gave at the Conference of the Chinese Studies Vivienne Davis, William Ah Ket's great-niece, suspects she actually suffered from post-natal depression. He was also a delegate to the first interstate Chinese convention held at Melbourne in 1905 and was co-founder and president of the Sino-Australian Association, considered to be the first Australian-Chinese club. agitate against the Immigration Restriction Act in Toylaan Margaret Allen,his last surviving child, passed away in New South Wales on 16th July 2015. Despite Ah Ket's legal nous, he still faced prejudice, often from his own clients. After living in China for many years, he returned to Australia as an adult, but was treated as a prohibited immigrant because he failed a dictation test imposed by the immigration legislation at the time. 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