Thomas Wells (judge)

Thomas Alexander Wells (c. 1888 – 13 September 1954) was a judge of the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

History

Wells was a court reporter for a Sydney newspaper. He served overseas in WWI and on returning to Australia studied law in Sydney, where he practised at the Bar for nine years. In 1933 he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory,[1] following the retirement of Justice Mallam (1878–1954).[2]

He presided over some of the Territory's most high profile trials, including that of Tuckiar, a Caledon Bay native who was convicted of murdering Constable Albert Stewart McCall at Woodah Island on 1 August 1933, then allowed to go free on appeal because the judge misdirected the jury. He was noted for ordering the doors of Fannie Bay Gaol open following the Japanese air raids in 1942, rather than have them suffer should the jail receive a direct hit.[3] He was himself evacuated to Alice Springs following the air raids, returning in 1945.[4] He suffered a stroke in 1951, and retired the following year. He died in Darwin Hospital in September 1954.

Recognition

Wells Street, Ludmilla and Parap, is named for him.

(Wells Street in the Litchfield area, Wells Creek and Mount Wells were named for the presumably unrelated Charles Frederick Wells (died 1896), a cadet surveyor with the Goyder Survey Expedition of 1869.)[5]

References

  1. ↑ "N.T. Judge". Northern Standard (54). Northern Territory, Australia. 25 August 1933. p. 11. Retrieved 19 January 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ "An extraordinary man of wit and wisdom". NT News. 1 July 2017.
  3. ↑ "Mr. Justice Wells Dies in Darwin". The Advertiser (Adelaide). 97, (29, 927). South Australia. 14 September 1954. p. 3. Retrieved 19 January 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ "NT Place Names Register". NT Government. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  5. ↑ "NT Place Names Register". NT Government. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
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