Street family

John Rendell Street, MLC (1832–1891) was an Australian banker and politician. He was the son of John Wood Street of Woodlands, New South Wales, who descended from Sir Thomas Street, an English Chief Justice and Baron of the Exchequer who presided on the last King's Bench before the Glorious Revolution of 1688.[2] In 1886, John founded the Perpetual Trustee Company as managing director with fellow trustees Sir Edmund Barton and Sir James Fairfax. He was the successor of Sir Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia, in his New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of East Sydney.[3] He married Susanna Lawson, the daughter of Commandant William Lawson, who along with William Wentworth and Gregory Blaxland pioneered the first settler crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813, granting Sydney access to the inland pastures that would fuel economic growth thereafter. John and Susanna had seven children, including Philip. Their third son Ernest married Emma Browne, the daughter of Australian author Thomas Browne.[4] John was a director of the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Company (now Commonwealth Bank). His sister Sarah married Thomas Smith, a politician and managing director of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney (now NAB), and nephew of the CBCS chairman and politician Henry Smith. Two other Street ancestors via Sir Laurence's first wife Susan (née Watt) were John's contemporaries in 19th century banking and politics, namely John Watt, a director of the Union Bank of Australia (now ANZ), and his father-in-law George Holden, a trustee of the New South Wales Savings Bank (now Westpac).[5]

Sir Philip Street, 1st Chief Justice of the family

Sir Philip Whistler Street, KCMG, KC (1863–1938) was the eighth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales. On 11 February 1907, he was made a full judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Sir Philip was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on 28 January 1925 and held that office until his 70th birthday in 1933. He was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales in 1930, and administered the state in the absence of the Governor of New South Wales from May to October 1934, January to February 1935, and January to August 1936. He died in 1938 and was buried with a state funeral at St Andrew's Cathedral. He is the second longest-serving judge in New South Wales history. His second son was Laurence, and his eldest was Kenneth.[6]

Lieutenant Laurence Street, an ANZAC officer who fought and died in the Battle of Gallipoli, age 21

Lieutenant Laurence Whistler Street (1894–1915) was 21 years of age when he was killed in action in May 1915 at the Battle of Gallipoli fighting for the Allied forces in World War I. A former student of Sydney Law School, he was made an officer of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade. He volunteered for active wartime service in August 1914, among the first of his generation.[7]

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Kenneth Whistler Street, KCMG, KStJ, QC (1890–1972) was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on 7 October 1931. He thus joined the bench of which his father was then Chief Justice. According to Percival Serle, this is the only known case in Australian history of a father and a son sitting together as judges on the same bench. Sir Kenneth was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 7 February 1950. He was Lieutenant-Governor from 1950 to 1972.

Prior to his career as a judge, he served the Allied forces in World War I, having been commissioned on 29 September 1914 in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and sent to France. He ultimately rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Australian Army. Like his father before him, he was buried with a state funeral at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. Street House at Cranbrook School, Sydney is named in his honour.[8] Sir Kenneth's wife Lady "Red Jessie" Street was a prominent human rights activist. His eldest son Laurence was named after his brother who died at Gallipoli.

Lady "Red Jessie" Street (born Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston; 1889–1970) was the daughter of Charles Alfred Gordon Lillingston and Mabel Harriet Ogilvie, the daughter of Australian politician Edward Ogilvie, MLC.[9] She was an Australian suffragette who campaigned extensively for peace and human rights. Dubbed "Red Jessie" by her detractors in the right-wing media for her efforts to promote diplomacy with the USSR and to ease tensions during the Cold War, Jessie was a champion of the progressive cause.[10] She would be a key figure in Australian and international political life for over 50 years, from the women's suffrage struggle in England to the removal of Australia's constitutional discrimination against Aboriginal people in 1967.

Lady Street as Australia's only female delegate at the post-war establishment of the United Nations conference at San Francisco in 1945

Sir Kenneth Street, 2nd Chief Justice of the family

Jessie was Australia's only female delegate to the establishment of the United Nations conference in San Francisco in 1945, where she played a key role in ensuring that gender was included as a non-discrimination clause, in addition to race and religion, in the United Nations Charter. She is recognised both in Australia and internationally for her activism. The Jessie Street Centre, the Jessie Street Trust, the Jessie Street National Women's Library and the Jessie Street Gardens exist in her honour.[11]

Brigadier Geoffrey Austin Street, MP, MC (1894–1940) was a cousin of Sir Kenneth's who served as Australia's Minister of Defence in the First Menzies Government during World War II. He was awarded a Military Cross for his courage in serving the First Australian Imperial Force at the Battle of Gallipoli, where he was wounded before returning to service in France during World War I. At the request of his friend Sir Robert Menzies, Geoffrey stood for and won the seat of Corangamite in 1934.

Geoffrey was made Minister of Defence in November 1938 and played a major role in the expansion of the military and munitions production prior to the outbreak of World War II and pushed the National Registration Act (1939) through parliament despite strong opposition. In November 1939, Menzies abolished the position of Minister of Defence and appointed Geoffrey Minister for the Army and Minister for Repatriation. Geoffrey died in the 1940 Canberra air disaster, along with two other Cabinet ministers.[12]

Colonel Sir Laurence Whistler Street, AC, KCMG, KStJ, QC (1926–2018) was a judge, jurist and banker. He was the fourteenth and youngest Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales since 1844.[13] He was first made a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in the Equity Division. He was appointed Chief Justice and Lieutenant-Governor in 1974. Sir Laurence had joined the Royal Australian Navy at age 17 to serve in World War II and went on to attain the active rank of Commander of the Royal Australian Navy Reserve and the honorable rank of Colonel in the Australian Army. After his juridical career, he pioneered the practice of mediation and took up a range of offices, foremost as chairman of Fairfax Media and director of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest bank in the world.[14] Sir Laurence's sister Philippa “Pip” Street married the Australian Test cricketer and journalist John "Jack" Henry Webb Fingleton, OBE in 1942.[15]

Foreign Minister Anthony Street advising Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser at the 13th South Pacific Forum

Sir Laurence Street, 3rd Chief Justice of the family

He was buried with a state funeral at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall in July 2018.[16] In an elegy before 700, incumbent Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke of his mentor: "As a barrister, he was as eloquent as he was erudite, as formidable as he was fashionable […] Laurence had movie star good looks coupled with a charisma, charm and intellect, a humility, a humanity that swept all before him […] His nickname, "Lorenzo the Magnificent", was well earned." Incumbent Australian Attorney General Mark Speakman hailed Sir Laurence as "a giant of the law in NSW".[17] Incumbent Chief Justice of Australia Tom Bathurst remembered Sir Laurence as "one of the outstanding jurists of the 20th century."[18]

Susan Gai Watt, AM (1932–) was the first wife of Sir Laurence Street and the first female chair of the Eastern Sydney Health Service (now amalgamated with Illawarra). She is the daughter of Ernest Alexander Stuart Watt (1874-1954), an Australian heir by whom she is the niece of the aviator Oswald Watt, OBE, and granddaughter of the politician John Brown Watt.[19]

Anthony Austin Street, MP (1926–), the son of Geoffrey Austin Street, also represented the seat of Corangamite, from 1966 to 1983. A naval veteran of World War II, he was Australia's Foreign Minister in the Fourth Fraser Ministry, from 1980 until 1983. In the Second Fraser Ministry he served as Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, and Minister assisting the Prime Minister for Public Service Matters. During the Third Fraser Ministry he served as minister in several posts, including Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations and Minister for Industrial Relations.[20]

By his first wife Susan Gai (née Watt), Sir Laurence had four children: Kenneth, Sylvia, Sandy and Sarah.[21] Kenneth Street is a New South Wales-based businessman. By his wife Sarah Street (née Kinross), he has three children. Judge Sylvia Emmett, AM (née Street) is a judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia and a Lieutenant-Commander of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve. She graduated from Sydney Law School (LLB) and is married to Justice Arthur Emmett, AO, QC, a federal judge and Challis Lecturer in Roman Law at Sydney Law School. Arthur became a judge of the New South Wales Court of Appeal in 2013 after 15 years as a judge of the Federal Circuit Court. Judge Alexander "Sandy" Whistler Street, SC is also a judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia and a Commander of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve. He has four children by two wives. Sarah Whistler Farley (née Street) is a board member of the Prince of Wales Hospital Foundation and the Jessie Street Trust. She graduated from Sydney Law School (LLB) and has four children by her husband, financier Gerard Farley.[22] Jessie Street is Sir Laurence's only child by his second wife and widow Lady (Penelope; née Ferguson) Street. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from Sydney Law School and is the god-daughter of HRH Charles, Prince of Wales.[23]

• Dynasties - ABC documentary
• Jessie Street National Women's Library
• Jessie Street Gardens
• Street House