COOPER, Sir Charles (1795-1887)

first chief-justice of South Australia

was the third son of Thomas Cooper of Henley-on-Thames, and was born in 1795. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in February 1827, practised on the Oxford circuit until 1838, and was then appointed judge at Adelaide. He landed there in March 1839, and was for many years the sole judge, then senior judge, and in June 1856 was appointed the first South Australian chief justice. He retired in 1861 owing to ill-health and was given a pension of £1000 a year. He returned to England in 1862, resided at Bath, and improving much in his health lived to be 92 years of age. He died at London on 24 May 1887. He married in 1853 Emily Grace, daughter of C. B. Newenham of South Australia. He was knighted in 1857. Cooper's Creek in central Australia was named after him by his friend, Captain Sturt (q.v.). Cooper was a thoroughly capable judge who earned the esteem of the colonists. He held courts at first in his own house, which had the advantage that he was constantly on the premises. He was a sound lawyer and framed the first insolvency legislation of the colony. Though not robust looking, he was hospitable and interested in the social and intellectual life of the colony.

The Times, 27 May 1887; The South Australian Register, 27 and 28 May, 1887.