Former high profile Australian barrister and politician Tom Hughes AO KC, has died two days after his 101st birthday.
His daughter Lucy Turnbull, the wife of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, shared a heartwarming tribute to her father following his death about midday on Thursday.
‘Farewell to a wonderful father. What an incredibly long and good life,’ she wrote online.
Hughes finished a law degree at University of Sydney in 1941 after graduating from St Ignatius’ College.
But rather than jumping straight to practice, Hughes joined the Royal Australian Air Force and was awarded the French Legion of Honour for his service in World War II.
He was admitted as a barrister in 1949 and was appointed the Queen’s Counsel in 1962.
Several high-profile defamation cases were headed by the legal whizz, including those for NRL legend Andrew Ettingshausen and late stockbroker Rene Rivkin.
Mr Hughes was also a respected leader in commercial and constitutional law.
Former high profile barrister and politician Tom Hughes AO KC, (pictured) has died aged 101
Tom Hughes’ daughter Lucy Turnbull, the wife of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, farewelled her father on Thursday. Pictured Lucy and Malcolm Turnbull with their family and Mr and Mrs Hughes outside Government House in 2015
Hughes was elected to federal parliament in 1963 with his young daughter Lucy by his side.
He served as the member for Parkes and later Berowra under the Liberal Party, and attorney-general in the Gorton government.
Close friend and former prime minister John Howard worked as Hughes’ campaign manager for the seat of Parkes.
Howard described the election as a ‘very dramatic campaign … punctuated by the assassination of [US] president Kennedy’, and ‘we had an extraordinary victory’, he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Hughes ended his political career in 1972 and ‘returned to the bar with a vengeance’ and ‘built a massive practice’.
Tom Hughes died two days after his 101st birthday. He’s pictured with his daughter Lucy Turnbull and son-in-law, then PM Malcolm Turnbull at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in 2016
NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell described Hughes as ‘one of the finest trial lawyers and advocates in our nation’s history’ and, ‘quite simply, an icon of the Australian legal profession’.
Howard said of Hughes: ‘He retained a lively mind to the very end.’
He retired from his legal practice in 2013, just short of his 90th birthday, and proudly gripped a cricket bat at his 100th birthday and saying ‘100 not out’, a nod to the time he waved a cricket bat at anti-conscription protesters outside his home during the Vietnam War in 1970.
Hughes’ biographer, Ian Hancock, described the legal genius as ‘probably the last of his kind’.
‘He taught himself watching other barristers. He had four careers: he was a farmer, airman, barrister and politician,’ he said.
NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell described Hughes (pictured with his portrait in 2004) as ‘one of the finest trial lawyers and advocates in our nation’s history’
Hughes was regarded as a leader of the NSW bar for about 30 years, and ‘was charging the highest fees’, according to Mr Hancock.
Howard praised Hughes for achieving a ‘hell of a lot’ during his time as attorney-general between November 1969 and March 1971 – including his work on the Concrete Pipes case, which interpreted the power of corporations under the Constitution.
‘That interpretation has permitted the Commonwealth to control and regulate most of the business and economic life and much of the social life of Australia,’ former High Court judge Michael McHugh said in 2005.
Hughes is survived by his wife, Christine, his children Lucy, Tom and Michael, and their families.
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