Guide to the Papers of Sir John Vincent Barry, 1917-1969

 

Collection context

Summary

Collection number:
MS 2505, MS Acc03.094, MS Acc03.143
Creator:
Barry, John Vincent, Sir
Extent:
(81 archives boxes + 3 cartons + 1 elephant folio + 1 folio box)
Language:
English and English
Availability:
Available
Access conditions:
Part available for research; part requires permission for research; part not available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

MS 2505 comprises correspondence, notes, manuscripts, photographs, certificates, publications, scrapbooks and press cuttings relating to every phase of John Barry's life as a barrister, judge, academic, criminologist, penologist and historian. Much of the collection consists of notes and manuscripts of his addresses, articles and monographs. Correspondents include Elmer Barnes, Peter Brett, Sir Zelman Cowen, David Derham, Wilfred Dovey, Sheldon Glueck, Sir Eugene Gorman, Colin Howard, John McClemens, Norval Morris, Vance and Nettie Palmer, Mark Perlman, Sir Arthur Rylah, Geoffrey Sawer, Paul Tappan, E.J. Ward and Lady Barbara Wootton (80 boxes, 1 fol. box, 4 elephant fol. items).

The Acc03.094 instalment includes miscellaneous journals, ca. 1930-ca. 1969, and United Nations Congress and General Assembly papers relating to criminal law, 1955, 1958 and 1960 (1 box, 1 carton).

The Acc03.143 instalment comprises correspondence, legal papers, photographs, certificates, passports, cuttings and a CD-ROM (2 cartons).

Biographical Note:

John Vincent Barry, eldest of the four children of William and Jeanette Barry, was born in Albury, New South Wales on 13 June 1903. After completing his primary education at a convent school in Albury, Barry won a scholarship to St Patrick's College, Goulburn, for the years 1917 to 1920. In 1921 he went to Melbourne to become articled to the legal firm, Luke Murphy and Company, and was admitted as a barrister and solicitor to the Supreme Court in 1926. Barry rapidly built up a wide and successful practice as a barrister, being an able and persuasive advocate before criminal and civil juries. In 1942 he became a King's Counsel.

On several occasions during World War II Barry was engaged by the Governments of John Curtin and J.B. Chifley to conduct or assist commissions of inquiry, notably that which investigated the circumstances under which the civil administration of Papua was superseded by the military in 1942.

During his years at the Bar, Barry was active in many causes and held executive office in several organisations. He was greatly affected by the hanging of Angus Murray, whom he had represented in 1924, and wrote and spoke on many occasions throughout his life in favour of the abolition of capital punishment. A foundation member and Vice-President of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, he was its President from 1944 until 1947. Barry joined the Australian Labor Party in 1939, contested the seat of Balaclava in 1943, and served as a member of the Victorian Central Executive of the Party in the period from 1945 until 1947. An executive member of the Australian Journalists' Association, he was also President in 1948-1949 of the Medico-Legal Society of Victoria.

Barry's outstanding career at the Bar culminated in his appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1947. In 1951 he became the first Chairman of the University of Melbourne's Department of Criminology, and was appointed Chairman of the Parole Board of Victoria when it was created in 1957. Barry had a deep and lasting interest in criminology and penology and during this period he was many times called upon by the Government of Victoria for advice in the preparation of the Penal Reform Act (1956), the Social Reform Act (1960) and as chairman of the committee to report on juvenile delinquency in 1956. The Commonwealth Government sought his advice in the preparation of the Matrimonial Causes Rules in 1960, and as a Judge in Divorce it was his responsibility to interpret and apply the Matrimonial Causes Act (1959) which, from 1961, replaced the State legislation.

In 1955 the Carnegie Foundation awarded Barry a fellowship to investigate developments in criminology and penology in the United States of America and Europe. Later that year he attended the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in Geneva, and the Third International Congress on Criminology in London. In 1960 he travelled to London again, to lead the Australian delegation at the Second U.N. Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders and the Fourth International Congress on Criminology in The Hague. He spent two months in 1964 in Japan as a visiting expert at the U.N. Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, Fuchu, Tokyo.

Barry, who was a prolific reader as well as a writer, was much sought after as a guest speaker during his years at the Bar. Many of his addresses were subsequently published in journals such as Meanjin and the Australian Law Journal. His principal published works were Alexander Maconochie of Norfolk Island (O.U.P. 1958) for which he was awarded the Degree of Doctor of Laws (University of Melbourne) in 1969, The Life and death of John Price (M.U.P. 1964) which won him a share in the Harbison Higinbotham Scholarship; and An introduction to criminal law in Australia (Macmillan 1948), which was written in collaboration with George Paton and Geoffrey Sawer. He was a contributor to the Australian dictionary of biography, a reader for Melbourne University Press, and a book reviewer. From 1955 until 1966 Barry was a council member of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, and in 1968 was elected a Fellow of the Society.

Barry was created a Knight Bachelor in 1961. In 1930 he married Ethel May Pryor of Sydney who died in 1943. There were two children, Joan, Mrs David Hardy, and John Edward. In 1951 he married Nancy Lorraine Hudson of Auckland N.Z. and they had a daughter Susan Jane. Barry died in Melbourne on 8 November 1969.

References: Hetherington, John A. Uncommon men. Melbourne, Cheshire, 1965; Morris, Norval and Perlman, Mark, ed. Law and crime: essays in honour of Sir John Barry. New York, Gordon and Breach, 1972; Ryan, Peter, Sir John Barry. Historical studies, vol. 14, April 1970, p. 329-31; Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 13, 1993

Collection Retrieval Advice:

Please refer to the attached 'Container List' (under the Related Documentation heading) for a summary of the series and item numbering for MS 2505, and the boxes in which these items are held.

Access and use

Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact: