Hayden Starke

Sir Hayden Erskine Starke KCMG (22 February 1871 – 14 May 1958) was an Australian judge who served on the High Court of Australia from 1920 to 1950. He was a prominent Melbourne barrister before his appointment to the court. Early life Starke was born in 1871 in the Victorian gold rush town of Creswick, Victoria, where his father was the Chief Medical Officer of the Creswick Hospital. Dr Anthony George Hayden Starke had emigrated from Honiton in Devon in 1863 to take up the position at the new hospital in this bustling town that then rivalled Ballarat. Hayden Starke was educated at the Scotch College in Melbourne. Barrister Starke completed a course as an articled clerk in 1892, and was admitted to the Victorian Bar later that year, having won the annual Prize in Law from the Supreme Court of Victoria. He practised as a barrister until he was appointed to the bench of the High Court in 1920. Between 1903 (when the High Court was created) and 1920, he appeared before the court 211 times, more than any other justice of the court. High Court Starke was appointed to the High Court in 1920 by the Hughes government, following the death of Sir Edmund Barton, a foundation member of the court. From 1920 to 1921, he was the Deputy President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration.