Исаак Альфред Исаакс: Австралияның бірінші туған жерлік генерал-губернаторы

Early 20th century Australian politician, lawyer, and judge
the governor general

Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs, (6 August 1855 – 11 February 1948) was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge who served as the ninth Governor General of Australia, in office from 1931 to 1936. He had previously served on the High Court of Australia from 1906 to 1931, including as Chief Justice from 1930. Isaacs was born in Melbourne and grew up in Yackandandah and Beechworth (in country Victoria). He began working as a schoolteacher at the age of 15, and later moved to Melbourne to work as a clerk and studied law part time at the University of Melbourne. Isaacs was admitted to the bar in 1880, and soon became one of Melbourne's best known barristers. He was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1892, and subsequently served as Solicitor General under James Patterson, and Attorney General under George Turner and Alexander Peacock. Isaacs entered the new federal parliament at the 1901 election, representing the Protectionist Party. He became Attorney General of Australia in 1905, under Alfred Deakin, but the following year left politics in order to become a justice of the High Court. Isaacs was often in the minority in his early years on the court, particularly with regard to federalism, where he advocated the supremacy of the Commonwealth Government. The balance of the court eventually shifted, and he famously authored the majority opinion in the Engineers case of 1920, which abolished the reserved powers doctrine and fully established the paramountcy of Commonwealth law. In 1930, Prime Minister James Scullin appointed Isaacs as Chief Justice, in succession to Sir Adrian Knox. Later that year, Scullin nominated Isaacs as his preferred choice for governor general. The selection of an Australian (rather than the usual British aristocrat) was unprecedented and highly controversial. King George V was opposed to the idea but eventually consented, and Isaacs took office in January 1931 as the first Australian born holder of the office. He was the first governor general to live full time at Yarralumla, and throughout his five year term was popular among the public for his frugality during the Depression. Isaacs was Australia's first Jewish High Court Justice, the first Jewish Chief Justice of Australia and also the first Jewish Governor General of Australia. He was a strong Anti Zionist.

Isaacs was the son of Alfred Isaacs, a tailor of Jewish ancestry from the town of Mława, Poland. Seeking better prospects, Alfred left Poland and worked his way across what is now Germany, spending some months in Berlin and Frankfurt. By 1845 he had passed through Paris and arrived to work in London, where he met Rebecca Abrahams; the two married in 1849. After news of the 1851 Victorian gold rush reached England, Australia became a very popular destination and the Isaacs decided to emigrate. By 1854 they had saved enough for the fare, departing from Liverpool in June 1854 and arriving in Melbourne in September. Some time after arriving the Isaacs moved into a cottage and shopfront in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, where Alfred continued his tailoring. Isaac Alfred Isaacs was born in this cottage on 6 August 1855. His family moved to various locations around Melbourne while he was young, then in 1859 moved to Yackandandah in northern Victoria, close to family friends. At this time Yackandandah was a gold mining settlement of 3,000 people. Isaacs had siblings born in Melbourne and Yackandandah: John A. Isaacs, who later became a solicitor and Victorian Member of Parliament, and sisters Carolyn and Hannah were all born in Yackandandah. A brother was born in Melbourne, and another sister was born in Yackandandah, but both died very young. His first formal schooling was from sometime after 1860 at a small private establishment. At eight he won the school arithmetic prize, winning his photograph by the schoolmaster, who was also a photographer and bootmaker. Yackandandah state school was opened in 1863 and Isaacs enrolled as a pupil. Here he excelled academically, particularly in arithmetic and languages, though he was a frequent truant, walking off to spend time in the nearby mining camps. To help Isaacs gain a better quality education, in 1867, his family moved to nearby Beechworth first enrolling him in the Common school then in the Beechworth Grammar School. He excelled at the Grammar School, becoming dux in his first year and winning many academic prizes. In his second year he was employed part time as an assistant teacher at the school, and took up after school tutoring of fellow students. In September 1870, when Isaacs was just 15 years old, he passed his examination as a pupil teacher and taught at the school from then until 1873. Isaacs was next employed as an assistant teacher at the Beechworth State School, the successor to the Common school. While employed at the State School, Isaacs had his first experience of the law, as an unsuccessful litigant in an 1875 County Court case. He disputed a payment arrangement with the headmaster of his school, resigning as part of the dispute. After returning to teaching, now back at the Grammar School, he expanded his interest in the law; reading law books and attending court sittings. As a child Isaacs became fluent in Russian, which his parents spoke frequently, as well as English and some German. Isaacs later gained varying degrees of proficiency in Italian, French, Greek, Hindustani and Chinese.

In 1875, he moved to Melbourne and found work at the Prothonotary's Office of the Law Department. In 1876, while still working full time, he studied law at the University of Melbourne. He graduated in 1880 with a Master of Laws degree in 1883. He took silk as a Queen's Counsel in 1899.

In 1892 Isaacs was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as a liberal. He was the member for Bogong from May 1892 until May 1893 and between June 1893 and May 1901. In 1893 he became Solicitor General in the Patterson ministry. From 1894 to 1899 he was Attorney General in the Turner ministry, and served as acting Premier on some occasions. In 1897 he was elected to the convention to approve the terms of the Australian Constitution. However, he was not elected to the committee drafting the constitution; Alfred Deakin attributed this failure to "a plot discreditable to all engaged in it" and thought that this antagonizing and humiliating snub sharpened Isaacs's "tendency to minute technical criticism so as to bring him not infrequently into collision" with the committee. Isaacs had many reservations about the draft constitution, but he campaigned in support of it after the Australian Natives' Association gave the draft its full support, rejecting his plea to delay for further consideration.

Isaacs was elected to the first federal Parliament in 1901 to the seat of Indi as a critical supporter of Edmund Barton and his Protectionist government. Isaacs is one of only eight justices of the High Court to have served in the Parliament of Australia prior to his appointment to the court; the others were Edmund Barton, Richard O'Connor, H. B. Higgins, Edward McTiernan, John Latham, Garfield Barwick, and Lionel Murphy. He was also one of two to have served in the Parliament of Victoria, along with Higgins. In April 1930, the Labor Prime Minister, James Scullin, appointed the 75 year old Isaacs as chief justice, succeeding Sir Adrian Knox.

Shortly after Isaacs became Chief Justice, the office of governor general fell vacant and, after Cabinet discussion, Scullin offered the post to Isaacs. Although the proposal was supposed to be confidential until communicated to King George V, word got out. While Isaacs was personally esteemed, public opinion divided strongly over whether a governor general should be an Australian, with perceived risks of local political bias. During Scullin's 1930 trip to Europe he personally advised the King to make the appointment and, although the King shared the concern about local political bias, he reluctantly accepted Scullin's advice, while noting in his diary that he thought the choice would be “very unpopular” in Australia. Isaacs's appointment was announced in December 1930, and he was sworn in on 22 January 1931. He was the first Australian born governor general. Thus Isaacs agreed to a reduction in salary and conducted the office with great frugality. He gave up his official residences in Sydney and Melbourne and most official entertaining. Although he was sworn into office in the chamber of the Victorian Legislative Council in Melbourne, rather than in Parliament House in Canberra, he was the first governor general to live permanently at Government House, Canberra. This was well received with the public, as was Isaacs's image of rather austere dignity. Isaacs was promoted to a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in April 1932. His term as governor general concluded on 23 January 1936, and he retired to Victoria.

Isaacs married Deborah "Daisy" Jacobs, daughter of a tobacco merchant, at her parents' home in St Kilda on 18 July 1888. They had two daughters, one born in 1890 and the other in 1892. The daughters were Marjorie Isaacs Cohen who died in 1968 and was survived by a son (Thomas B. Cohen), and Nancy Isaacs Cullen.

In May 1949 he was honoured with the naming of the Australian Electoral Division of Isaacs in the outer southern suburbs of Melbourne. At a redistribution in November 1968, the electorate was abolished and a separate Division of Isaacs was created in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It exists to this day. The Canberra suburb of Isaacs was named after him in 1966. In 1973 Isaacs was honoured with an Australian postage stamp bearing his portrait.