Street family

The Street family is an Australian dynasty, founded by the 19th-century banker and politician John Street and his wife Susanna, the daughter of Australian explorer and politician William Lawson. Their son Sir Philip Street, grandson Sir Kenneth Street, and great-grandson Sir Laurence Street each served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales. Geoffrey Street served as Minister of Defence in the Second World War, his son Anthony "Tony" Street served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Jessie, Lady Street was Australia's first female delegate to the United Nations. Sir Laurence's son Alexander "Sandy" Street, daughter Sylvia Emmett (née Street) and son-in-law Arthur Emmett serve as federal judges.^[1]

1st generation[]

John Rendell Street, MLC (1832–1891) was an Australian banker and politician, born to Maria Wood and John Street, JP. His father descended from Baron Sir Thomas Street, an English Chief Justice who presided on the last King's Bench before the Glorious Revolution of 1688.^[2] Both parents were English immigrants to Australia via the 1822 passenger ship Thalia.^[3] In 1886, John founded the Perpetual Trustee Company as managing director with fellow trustees Edmund Barton and James Fairfax. He succeeded Edmund Barton, Australia's 1st Prime Minister, in his New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of East Sydney. John married Susanna Lawson, the daughter of Australian politician William Lawson, MLC, who along with William Wentworth and Gregory Blaxland pioneered the first settler crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813. John and Susanna had seven children, including the future Sir Philip and Ernest, who 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, MLC, managing director of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney (now NAB) and the nephew of CBCS chairman Henry Smith, MLC. Three other Street ancestors via the wives of Sir Kenneth and Sir Laurence were John's contemporaries, namely John Watt, MLC, a director of the Union Bank of Australia (now ANZ), his father-in-law George Holden, MLC, a trustee of the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac), and Edward Ogilvie, MLC.^[5]

2nd generation[]

Sir Philip Street, 1st Chief Justice of the family

Sir Philip Whistler Street, KCMG, KC (1863–1938) was the 8th 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 the future Sir Kenneth.^[6]

Lieutenant Laurence Street, an army officer who fought and died in the Gallipoli campaign, aged 21

3rd generation[]

Lieutenant Laurence Whistler Street (1894–1915) was 21 years of age when he was killed in action in May 1915 during the Gallipoli campaign. A former student of Sydney Law School, he enlisted in the Australian Army in August 1914, among the first of his generation, and was made an officer of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade.^[7]

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Kenneth Whistler Street, KCMG, KStJ, QC (1890–1972) was the 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales. He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on 7 October 1931, thus joining 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 of New South Wales from 1950 to 1972.

Prior to his career as a judge, he served in the First World War, 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 Citizens Military Force. 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 married Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston and named his son Laurence after his brother who died at Gallipoli.

Jessie Mary Grey, Lady Street (née Lillingston; 1889–1970) was a leading suffragette. She was the daughter of Charles Alfred Gordon Lillingston, JP and Mabel Harriet Ogilvie, the daughter of Australian politician Edward David Stuart Ogilvie, MLC.^[9] Jessie campaigned extensively for peace and human rights. She was dubbed "Red Jessie" by her detractors in the right-wing media for her efforts to promote diplomacy with the USSR and ease tensions during the Cold War. She was 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.^[10]

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 the Second World War. He was awarded a Military Cross for his courage in serving the Australian Imperial Force during the Gallipoli campaign, where he was wounded before returning to service in France during the First World War. At the request of his friend Robert Menzies, he stood for and won the seat of Corangamite in 1934.^[12]

He was made Minister of Defence in November 1938 and played a major role in the expansion of the military and munitions prior to the outbreak of the Second World War and pushed the National Registration Act (1939) through parliament despite strong opposition, before dying in the 1940 Canberra air disaster.^[13]

4th generation[]

Commander Sir Laurence Whistler Street, AC, KCMG, KStJ, QC (1926–2018) was the 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales.^[14] 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; the youngest since 1844. He had joined the Royal Australian Navy at age 17 to serve in the Second World War and went on to become a commander of the Royal Australian Navy Reserve and an honorary colonel of the Australian Army Reserve. Sir Laurence pioneered the practice of mediation and became the chairman of Fairfax Media and a director of Monte dei Paschi di Siena.^[15] Sir Laurence's sister Philippa "Pip" Street married the Australian Test cricketer and journalist John "Jack" Henry Webb Fingleton, OBE in 1942.^[16]

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

He was buried with a state funeral at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall in July 2018.^[17] 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."^[18] Incumbent Chief Justice of Australia Tom Bathurst remembered Sir Laurence as "one of the outstanding jurists of the 20th century."^[19]

Susan Gai Watt, AM (born 1932) was the first wife of Sir Laurence Street and the first female chair of the Eastern Sydney Health Service (overseer of hospitals). She is the daughter of Ernest Alexander Stuart Watt (1874–1954), a shipping heir by whom she is the niece of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Oswald Watt, the granddaughter of John Brown Watt, and the great-granddaughter of George Kenyon Holden.^[20]

Anthony Austin "Tony" Street, MP (born 1926), the son of Geoffrey Austin Street, also represented the seat of Corangamite, from 1966 to 1983. A naval veteran of the Second World War, he was Australia's Foreign Minister in the Fourth Fraser Ministry, from 1980 until 1983. He had previously served in the Third Fraser Ministry as Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations and Minister for Industrial Relations. Prior to that, he had served in the Second Fraser Ministry as Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations.^[21]

Recent generations[]

By his first wife, Susan Gai (née Watt), formerly Lady Street, Sir Laurence had four children: Kenneth, Sylvia, Alexander and Sarah.^[22] Kenneth Street is a businessman based in New South Wales. By his wife Sarah Street (née Kinross), he has three children. Judge Sylvia Jane 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, 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 businesswoman and 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.^[23] 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.^[24]

See also[]

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

References[]