
Sir Robert
Garran photograph neg.3739 National
Library of Australia
|
THE NATIONAL
LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA'S FEDERATION
GATEWAY
GARRAN, SIR ROBERT RANDOLPH (1867-1957)
Born in Sydney on 10 February 1867.
Lawyer and public servant.
Garran was educated at Sydney Grammar School
and the University of Sydney. He was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in
1891 and soon afterwards became an active supporter of Edmund Barton and the
Federation movement.
Throughout the 1890's he worked tirelessly for the
cause of Federation. He published The Coming Commonwealth and the
Australian Handbook of Federal Government, became secretary of the
Adelaide drafting committee and was on the press committee for the 1898 and
1899 Federation referendums.
Garran became the first Australian public
servant when, on 1 January 1901 he was appointed Secretary to the
Attorney-General's Department.
During World War I he was
Solicitor-General (1916) and a member of the Australian delegation at the Paris
Peace Conference (1919). He was knighted in 1917 and appointed KCMG in 1920. He
retired from the Public Service in 1932.
Upon his retirement Garran
resumed his legal practice. Until his death on 11 January 1957 he remained
active in political and legal circles. He did much to help establish the
Australian National University.
Books of
interest
National Library of Australia. Manuscript
Section. Andrew Garran and Sir Robert Garran; A Guide to their Papers in the
National Library of Australia. Canberra, 1971.
Dawkins, John.
1947-The 1984 Garran oration Reforms in the Canberra System of Public
Administration. [Perth, W.A.: RAIPA Conference, 1984?]
Garran,
Robert, Sir. (1958)Prosper the Commonwealth. Sydney: Angus and
Robertson.
Garran, Robert, Sir. The Making and Working of the
Constitution. [Sydney.:Australian Quarterly?, 1932](Sydney: New Century
Press)
Garran, Robert, Sir. [1924?]The Development of the
Australian Constitution. Melbourne: Ruskin Press.
National Library
holdings include an 1898 version of the Federation Bill and personal and
political papers at MS 471, 2102 and 3666. |