Rather His Own Man
Page 50
Mum’s the Word
Munster, George
Murdoch, Rupert
Murphy, Lionel
Murray, Les
music tastes
Muslimeen see Jamaat al Muslimeen
Myer, Ken
name, author’s
Napier, Sir Mellis
Nasser, President
Nation Review
National Service
National Union of Australian University Students (NUAUS)
Neill, A. S.
Neruda, Pablo
Netanyahu, Benjamin
Nettheim, Garth
Neumann, Eddy
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
Neville, Richard
New Statesman
New York
New York Times
New York Times v Sullivan
Newcombe, John
News of the World
Newsnight
Nicol, Andrew (Andy)
Nile, Fred
Nitschke, Phil
Nixon, Richard
Norden, Denis
Norfolk Island
Norman, Samuel Hinga
Norton, Rosaleen
Nuremberg
nurture versus nature
N.W.A. case
Nyerere, Julius
Nygh, Peter
Oakes, Laurie
Oakes, Meredith
Obama, Barack
Obscenity
Ochs, Adolph S.
Old Bailey
Olle, Andrew
opera
O’Regan, Kate
Osborne, Fred
O’Shane, Pat
Oxford University days
Oz
play
trial
Packer, Kerry
Packer, Sir Frank
Page, Bruce
Paine, Tom
Palin, Sarah
Parker, Dorothy
Parkes, Sir Henry
Parthenon Marbles
Paterson, Skene
Pavarotti, Luciano
Payne, Cynthia
Peacocke, Gerry
Pell, George
Penthouse
Perinçek v Switzerland
Perkins, Charlie
Perlez, Jane
Perman, Brian
Personal Services
personality
Pertosi, Giampaolo
Petraeus, General
Petre, Clare
Phelps, Lionel
Phillip, Governor Arthur
phone-hacking scandal
Pilger, John
Pincher, Chapman
Pinochet, General Augusto
Pinza, Ezio
Pix magazine
Playboy
Playford, Thomas
police misconduct
politics
Pompeo, Mike
Pope Benedict
Pope Francis
Post
Post, Joseph
Poverty Law
Pratt & Morgan v Attorney-General for Jamaica
presidential pardon
Preston, Peter
Price, Leontyne
Prince Charles
Prince Philip
Princess Anne
Princess Diana
Princess Margaret
privacy
Private Eye
Privy Council
Professional Conduct Committee complaint
Profumo, John
prostitution
provocation
Provoked
Puberty Blues
public interest defence
Putin, Vladimir
Q&A
Qantas
Quadrant
Queen Elizabeth I
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Mother
Queen’s Counsel
race equality
racism
Radziwell, Elizabeth (Eliza)
Rafi
Rajapaksa, Mahinda
Raleigh, Sir Walter
Ramgoolam, Navin
Ramsey, Alan
Ratshitanga, Robert
Reagan presidency
Redfern Legal Service
relationships
religion
Reluctant Judas
remuneration
René, France-Albert
republican
Returned and Services League (RSL)
Rhodes, Cecil
Rhodes scholarship
Ribbentrop
Rice-Davies, Mandy
Richards, Rebecca
Richardson, Graham
Richardson, Miranda
Rivett, Rohan
Roberts, Sir Stephen
Robertson, Alexander (great-great-grandfather)
Robertson, Bernice Joy (Joy) (née Beattie) (mother)
death
funeral
marriage
meeting husband
Robertson, Christina (great-great-grandmother)
Robertson, Florence (Fol) (née Whatson) (grandmother)
Robertson, Francis Albert (Frank) (father)
death
funeral
marriage
meeting wife
plane crash
Spitfire instructor
war service
Robertson, Georgie (daughter)
Robertson, Graeme (brother)
Robertson, Harold Lancelot (grandfather)
Robertson, Julius (Jules) (son)
Robertson, Lance (uncle)
Robertson, (Piper Bill)
Robertson, (Red Bill) (Red Robbo) (great-grandfather)
Robertson, Ronald Douglas (uncle)
Robertson, (Sandy)
Robertson, Tim (brother)
Robin Hood
Robinson, Jen
Rogers, Richard
Rogers, Ruthie
Rogerson, Roger
Roosevelt, Eleanor
Roper, John
Roper, Tom
Rosewall, Ken
Roxburgh, James
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
royal wills
Rubenfeld family
Rudd, Kevin
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rusbridger, Alan
Rush, Geoffrey
Rushdie, Salman
Ryan, Robert
Rylah, Arthur
Sack, Bob
Saddam Hussein
Salter, David
same-sex marriage
Samuels, Gordon
Sanders, Bernie
Sankoh, Foday
Savarese, Lou
Sayle, Murray
Scargill, Arthur
Scarman, Lord
school days
primary
secondary
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
Sedgman, Frank
Seixas, Vic
Sellers, Peter
separation
sex education
sexism
sexual assault
sexual harassment allegation
Seychelles
Shafee, Muhammad
Shand, Jack
Sharman, Jim
Sharp, Martin
Shawcross, William
Shayler, David
Shead, Garry
Shilton, Lance
Shockley, William
Sideshow
Sierra Leone
Silkin, Sam
Simons, Bernard
The Simpsons
Sindel, Phil
Singapore
Singer, Peter
Skrzynski, Joe
Smith, Clive Stafford
Smith, Dick
Smith, Donald
Smith, Ian
Smith, Sydney
Smyth, John
Snowden, Edward
Soho News
Solomon, Zeke
South Africa
Speight, George
Speig
ht, Robert
Spigelman, Alice
Spigelman, Jim
Spycatcher
Sri Lanka
state education
Stephen Ward Was Innocent, OK
Stephens, Mark
Stephenson, Pamela
Stevenson, Claire
Stone, Professor Julius
Stott, Richard
Strauss, Johann and Caroline
Straw, Jack
Street, Sir Laurence
Strehlow, Ted
Strewth
Strossen, Professor Nadine
Stuart, Rupert Maxwell (Max)
suicide
Sukumaran, Myuran
Summerhill school
Sun
Sun-Herald
Sunday Mirror
Sunday program
Sunday school
Sunday Times
surveillance
Sutherland, Joan
Swanton, Dick
Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Sydney University
Syria
Taafe, Bruce
Tait, Robert
Tarasoff v Regents of the University of California
tax havens
Taylor, A. J. P.
Taylor, Bryce
Taylor, Charles
Tebaldi, Renata
Tebbit, Norman
Telegraph
telephone tapping
television
Television New Zealand
Temby, Ian
Temple
The Tempest
tennis
Thatcher, Margaret
theatre
This Day Tonight
Thomas, Pauline
Thompson, Hunter S.
Thorne, Graeme
Thorpe, Jeremy
Time magazine
Time Out
The Times
Tisdall, Sarah
Titterton, Sir Ernest
Tobin, Peter
Torture Convention
Trabert, Tony
Treason Felony Act 1848
Tribune
Triggs, Gillian
Trimbole, Robert
Trounson, Alan
Trump, Donald
Turnbull, Jane
Turnbull, Lucy
Turnbull, Malcolm
Tymoshenko, Eugenia
Tymoshenko, Yulia
Tynan, Ken
Tyrannicide Brief, The
Tyson, Mike
United Nations
UN War Crimes Court
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
university days
University of Sydney
Uris, Leon
Utzon, Jørn
Van Dyck
Van Wolf
Vatican
verdict delivery
victim impact statements
Victoria, Queen
Vietnam
Vietnam War
Viking/Penguin
Village Voice
Vincent, Robin
Vogue
voluntary euthanasia
Walker-Smith, Jonah
Wall, Dorothy
Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal Asia
Walsh, Mike
Walsh, Richard
Walsh, Richie
‘War on Poverty’
Ward, Diana
Ward, Stephen
Washington, Denzel
Washington Post
Webber, Andrew Lloyd
Wentworth, W. C. (Billy)
Westacott, Jack
Westacott, John
Weston, Elizabeth
Weston, John
Weston, Squire
Weston, William Francis
Whatson, Florence see Robertson, Florence
Wheatley, Nadia
Wheelwright, ‘Red Ted’
White Australia policy
Whitehouse, Mary
Whiteley, Brett
Whitlam, Gough
Whitlam, Margaret
Who Do You Think You Are?
WikiLeaks
Wilhelm, Prince
William Nicol
Williams, Bill
Williams, Kim
Williams, Professor George
Williamson, David
Williamson, Kristin
Willis, Eric
wills, royal
Wilson, Harold
Wilson, Rebel
Windschuttle, Keith
Wintour, Anna
Withers, Reg
Wolf, Van
Wolfensohn, Jimmy
Women’s Weekly
Woodward, Roger
World in Action
World War II
Wran, Neville
Wright, Peter
Wyatt, Oscar
Xi Jinping
Yanukovych, Viktor
Yates, Paula
‘yellow peril’
Yeltsin, Boris
Yes Minister
Young, Nancy
Zemiro, Julia
Zimbabwe
Acknowledgements
This book began in 2016 as a way of saying farewell to my parents: I sat beside them overlooking the bay in Longueville, asking them to relive their early lives, and the stories in chapter 2 (‘My Parents’ War’) came with their assistance. Notwithstanding the book’s subtitle, memory of the past is never consistently reliable: while some events are seared in my mind, details are the devil – I was so sure that Lew Hoad won the fifth set 11–9 against Tony Trabert in the 1953 Davis Cup that I felt annoyed with my editor for even checking – to find, of course, that it was 7–5. But thank you, Catherine Hill, for scrupulous editing, together with Amanda O’Connell, whose knowledge of law added to mine. Alex Courtnage, my PA, researched facts, interpreted my handwriting and compiled the footnotes, while Nikki Christer saw the book through to publication, as she has my other Random House/Vintage books ever since The Justice Game. Georgie and Tim Robertson, and Kathy Lette, have added to or subtracted from my memories; Giampaolo Pertosi, Lesley Holden, Mary Ellen Barton and Patrick George have assisted; John Fairley and Andrew Robertson have provided family photos; and I am grateful to clients, friends and lovers who have allowed me to reminisce.
BY GEOFFREY ROBERTSON
Reluctant Judas
Obscenity
Freedom, the Individual and the Law
Geoffrey Robertson’s Hypotheticals (Vols 1 & 2)
Does Dracula Have AIDS?
Robertson & Nicol on Media Law
The Justice Game
Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice
The Tyrannicide Brief: The Story of the Man Who Sent Charles I to the Scaffold
The Levellers: The Putney Debates
The Statute of Liberty: How Australians Can Take Back Their Rights
The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse
Mullahs Without Mercy: Human Rights and Nuclear Weapons
Dreaming Too Loud: Reflections on a Race Apart
Stephen Ward Was Innocent, OK: The Case for Overturning His Conviction
An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Now Remembers the Armenians?
Rather His Own Man
RELIABLE MEMOIRS
‘Before I read Geoffrey’s brilliant book, I thought a barrister was a guy who made expensive coffee. I’m much wiser now’
Billy Connolly
‘Be thankful that Geoffrey Robertson is “rather his own man”. Reliable Memoirs tells of legal battles for human rights won and lost in the courts of London, Sierra Leone and The Hague. Witty, clever and compassionate, Geoffrey tells his personal story in the pursuit of the holy grail of social justice and the rule of law’
Gillian Triggs
‘Geoff is one of the choice and master spirits of the age. Written with all the wit and style you’d expect, this is a delightful, absorbing memoir of a life well lived’
Mike Carlton
‘Way to go, Dad!’ How to land a Wirraway on a house, Chiltern, 1943
Flying Officer Frank Robertson, 75 Kittyhawk Squadron, 1944
Flying Officer Ron Robertson, 71 Bomber Squadron, 1943
Christina and Alexander Robertson, from Skye to the Snowy River, c. 1860
The men from Ironbark – Sandy and ‘Red Bill’ Robertson, c. 1880
Corporal Joy Beattie, Townsville, 1942
Harry Beattie – teacher and sometime secretary of the Dapto greyhound racing club – with Peg and Bernice, c. 1950
Depression kids, Drummoyne, 1933. Ron, Frank and Lance, in their father’s cut-down clothes
Two decades later, the next generation looks over the same paling fence. (Submitted by a neighbour to ‘sprout of the week’, Sydney Morning Herald)
Brothers-in-war: Lance and Frank, on furlough, 1945
‘With mangoes and bananas you can pick right off a tree’. Frank in South Pacific, but not the musical …
Florence (Fol) Whatson before her marriage to Harold
F/O Ron, shortly before his fatal posting, with proud father Harold
Frank and Joy marry, Wollongong, 1945
The Robertsons nearly half a century on, at Fol’s ninety-fifth birthday, Harrington, 1989. (From left) Joy, Geoff, Andrew, Lance, Fol, June, Frank, Katrina and Tim
Backyard Eastwood Blues, with Davy Crockett (Graeme), 1954
That weak backhand grip! (1958)
My lucky serviette – Lew Hoad’s autograph, 1954
School debating, Epping Boys High, 1961 (Photo by Bill Lyne)
The trouser-less bank manager, with Dan Lunney (Joe Byrne), John Osborne (Ned Kelly), and Roger Hillman (startled customer) in Douglas Stewart’s Ned Kelly, Epping Boys High, 1962
Orientation Week director, with a limited budget, 1964
My first front page: Honi Soit, 31 March 1965 (Courtesy of the University of Sydney)
My SRC, 1967. I’m in the middle of the front row; Michael Kirby is also in the front row, second from left; David Salter is to my right; Meredith Burgmann is the blonde in the middle of the back row. (Courtesy of the SRC, University of Sydney)
The long way to Oxford, 1970 (never again)
Mata Hari: Jane Turnbull and the Dreaming Spires, 1972
Punting past Magdalen with the wind in the willows
Wizards of Oz: Felix Dennis (giving the V sign) with (to his right) Richard Neville and James Anderson, sprung from Wormwood Scrubs Prison by their long-haired lawyer (far right)