Barristers at Gallipoli

05/05/2015

With the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli imminent it is worth remembering the members of the legal community, especially the barristers who went ashore on 25 April 1915, or soon after. Commanding the New South Wales First Brigade was a well-known Sydney barrister, Henry Normand MacLaurin. He had formed the four battalions of the First Brigade with the assistance of a number of other lawyers including, Charles MacNaghten, an English born solicitor. Also in the landing party was Bertie Vandeleur Stacy, later a judge of the District Court, Adam Simpson, the son of Mr Justice Simpson, the chief judge in Equity, Laurence Whistler Street, the son of Mr Justice Philip Whistler Street of the Supreme Court and Hector Clayton, who founded the Law Firm Clayton Utz. Within two days MacLaurin was shot and killed much to the shock and distress of the Phillip Street legal community. Young Laurence Whistler Street was to be killed on 19 May 1915 . The former chief justice of New South wales, Sir Laurence Street was named after his uncle and has visited his grave on the peninsula.

When he was in Egypt, prior to landing on the Dardenelles, Colonel Maclaurin wrote a a letter to Justice Ferguson which refers to "young Street" who has barely two months to live. A reproduction of that letter is available here.