william ah ketwilliam ah ket

1John Lack, Ah Ket, William (1876 1936), Australian Dictionary of Biography, available at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ah-ket-william-4979. "They were about making sure Chinese were on view, they were really pretty abhorrent," she says. [10] (1908) 7 CLR 277 at 307. Captain Stanley Ket (LLB) served with the Intelligence Unit With paternal ancestry from Taishan, southern China, Ah Ket was Australia's first barrister of Asian heritage or ethnicity.He was born on 20 June 1876 at Wangaratta, Victoria, the only son and fifth child of Mah Ket and Hing Ung.He was an alumnus of the University of Melbourne.On 16 November 1912 he married Gertrude Victoria Bullock at the . He died on 6 August 1936 of arteriosclerosis and renal failure at Malvern, Victoria. president of the Australian-Chinese Association, co-founder The Australian Dictionary of Biography notes the following in its entry on William Ah Ket: Ah Ket built up a healthy practice at the Victorian Bar, specialising in civil law. His father had taken him to China when he was about five years old. They had two sons (William and Stanley) and two daughters (Melaan and Toylaan). He was also active in political groups which lobbied on behalf of the Chinese-Australian community against the legal supply of opium, and laws which imposed restrictions on Chinese laundry workers and furniture-makers. of Commerce to represent Victoria at the Conference of Overseas The toast was proposed by Charles Lowe (later Sir Charles Lowe), then a justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria and subsequently Chancellor of Melbourne University between 1941 and 1954, and was also supported by Justice Owen Dixon of the High Court and Professor Kenneth Bailey, then Dean of Melbourne Law School.5 Interestingly, William had appeared in cases as senior to Lowe and as junior to Dixon before they were elevated to the bench. Each August since 2017, the William Ah Ket Scholarship committee has accepted applications for the most outstanding research paper on a topic dealing with equality, diversity, and the legal profession or the law from legal trainees, graduates, final year students and lawyers with less than five years of practice. 1John Lack, Ah Ket, William (1876 1936),Australian Dictionary of Biography, available athttp://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ah-ket-william-4979. An alum of the University of Melbourne, William studied jurisprudence in 1897 before joining law firm Maddock & Jamieson (now Maddocks) and commencing the articled clerks course at the University in 1898. He built up a successful The reason why the Chinese laundry owner had been charged was that a Chinese man had been found in the laundry between 9 and 10 pm at night ironing a shirt, apparently in breach of the after-hours work prohibition. Fast forward 90 years to 9 October 2019 when an audience of some 50 persons are gathered in the Great Hall of the High Court of Australia to attend the third award ceremony for the William Ah Ket Scholarship a scholarship established by the Asian Australian Lawyers Association in 2017 and supported by Maddocks. Ah Kets legal team successfully proved that the Chinese man was not an employee of the laundry but instead a boarder at the laundry and that he had simply been ironing his own shirt! choice would be a controversial play at The Little Theatre, For example, in addition to a busy life at the bar, William Ah Ket spent time as a diplomat, serving as acting consul-general for China in 1913-1914 and in 1917. With paternal ancestry from Taishan, southern China, Ah Ket was Australia's first barrister of Asian heritage or ethnicity. William Ah Ket became a leading figure in the Chinese Australian C. F. Yong, The Chinese in New South Wales and Victoria, 1901-1921 (Ph.D. thesis, Australian National University, 1966). The keynote address is delivered by the Honourable Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of The High Court of Australia, who makes the following comments: By all accounts, Mr Ah Ket was a remarkable man. I am grateful for the opportunity of coming to know more about William Ah Ket. invited scholars from interstate and overseas to deliver the Mah was born circa 1870, in China. William Ah Ket (1876-1936), barrister, was born on 20 June 1876 at Wangaratta, Victoria, only son and fifth child of Ah Ket, storekeeper and grower and buyer of tobacco, and his wife Hing Ung, who were married in Melbourne in 1864. The test required all immigrants from China to write in English or another European language a passage of approximately 50 words, dictated by a customs officer. After reading with (Sir) Stewart McArthur, That in itself was an "impressive feat", says Reynah Tang, the founding president of the Asian-Australian Lawyers' Association. Th my scam n ni ng r xc phm g cu. "And if nobody had stood up, like William Ah Ket, to protest against them then they might've passed.". Ah Kets legal team successfully proved that he was not a prohibited immigrant. Associate Professor Andrew Godwin is researching the life and times of MLS alum William Ah Ket and is working with the descendants of the Ah Ket family for this purpose. "It's about a person's right to identity and the place they were born, so it was pretty important," he says. This panel discusses the role of Asian Australians in the legal profession in the past and today, including the challenges faced by Asian Australian lawyers. 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It is named after William Ah Ket who became the first Australian barrister of Chinese origin in 1904. After completing his training as a lawyer in 1899, William won the Supreme Court Judges Prize in 1902, and was admitted to practice in 1903. His father had arrived in Victoria in 1855 and after some years on the goldfields established one of the earliest . "Winning the inaugural William Ah Ket Scholarship brings me great pride and satisfaction, owing to the scholarship's underlying purpose of fostering the development and promotion of cultural diversity in the Australian legal profession. AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), abc.net.au/news/william-ah-ket-the-first-chinese-australian-barrister/10160198. Life. This Australian law-related biographical article is a stub. He was also co-founder and [13] Isabel Carter, Woman in a Wig: Joan Rosanove, QC (Lansdowne Press, 1970), 13. Ah Kets legal team successfully proved that the Chinese man was not an employee of the laundry but instead a boarder at the laundry who had simply been ironing his own shirt! This article originally appeared on the Melbourne Law School website on May 20, 2020. Australia, by putting into practice his personal philosophy Fax: +61 3 9479 1880 This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. [1][2] His daughter Melaan was the mother of the guitarist John Williams. He was born on 20 June 1876 at Wangaratta, Victoria, the only son and fifth child of Mah Ket and Hing Ung. NOTE: The author, Toylaan Ah Ket, is the daughter of William Ah Ket. Less is known about another person - Wu Ting Fang. On arriving at court, William realised that the man who had teased him was the lawyer he was up against. [3], Ah Ket fought against the requirements of the 1907 Factories (Employment of Chinese) Act, which discriminated against Chinese residents,[4] and successfully opposed legislative amendments in 1904, 1905, and 1907 which would have specifically discriminated against Chinese residents in the furniture industry. was a founding member and Grand Master of the East Caulfield times, William Ah Ket was affectionately regarded as the Chinese He added, "A certain prejudice among clients against having a Chinese barrister to an extent limited his practice, though instructing solicitors thought very well of him". The reason why the Chinese laundry owner had been charged was that a Chinese man had been found in the laundry between 9 and 10pm at night ironing a shirt, apparently in breach of the after-hours work prohibition. Ah Kets colleagues remembered him with warmth and affection as an amiable and gregarious man, greatly respected for his ability and integrity. His mother, Hing Ung, had bound feet and spoke no English. and educators against racial discrimination in Australia. Indeed, as his daughter Toylaan noted in a paper on her father, this was an issue that he was passionate about, having been involved in forming a committee to agitate against the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 and the unreasonable conditions imposed, such as the infamous dictation test. 'William Ah Ket (1876-1936), barrister, was born on 20 June 1876 at Wangaratta, Victoria, only son and fifth child of Ah Ket, storekeeper and grower and buyer of tobacco, and his wife Hing Ung, who were married in Melbourne in 1864. The act expressly discriminated against the Chinese and prohibited after-hours work in a factory or work-room where furniture was made or where any Chinese person was at any time employed. Fast forward to 9 October 2019 when an audience of some 50 persons are gathered in the Great Hall of the High Court of Australia to attend the third award ceremony for the William Ah Ket Scholarship a scholarship established by the Asian Australian Lawyers Association and supported by Maddocks. The eldest daughter, Melaan, married Len There is little doubt that William Ah Ket's including Carole Hinchcliff, helping me with my researchfor into William Ah Ket and also for promoting William's legacy and story generally. a full primary and secondary education in Wangaratta's public Life [ edit] With paternal ancestry from Taishan, southern China, Ah Ket was Australia's first barrister of Asian heritage or ethnicity. Our data centers have been designed from the ground up to be some of the most efficient data centers in the world. He said that "William Ah Ket did not ever sit on the Bench, though he would have been a very competent judge. of growing up in a traditional Chinese household where his Over time the costs of maintaining this website have risen substantially (in fact they are probably larger than those of many companies who exist for profit). William's client, James Minahan, was born in Australia to an Anglo-Australian mother and Chinese father. Neither of us will ever be made a judge, you because you are a woman. Morrison Lecture was given in 1932 by We will never satisfy our ambitions. In its decision, the High Court found that if the immigration legislation had intended to remove the rights of citizenship, it should have expressed its intention clearly. a keen if not always successful punter. The story of William Ah Ket, the first Chinese-Australian barrister. he signed the Bar Roll in 1904 and became the first Chinese of 'building bridges between the East and West.'. The biography of Joan Rosanove QC, an alumna of Melbourne Law School and the first Jewish woman in Australia to be admitted as a barrister, contains the following reference to a light-hearted discussion between William and Joan: A Melbourne barrister, Mr Ah Ket, a friend of Marks [Joans father], said to her, You and I have both chosen the wrong profession, Joan. Prior to completing his tertiary studies at Melbourne University, William received a full primary and secondary education in Wangaratta's public schools. in Wangaratta, William Ah Ket continued his regular attendance The biography of Joan Rosanove QC, an alumna of Melbourne Law School and the first Jewish woman in Australia to be admitted as a barrister, contains the following reference to a light-hearted discussion between William and Joan: A Melbourne barrister, Mr Ah Ket, a friend of Marks [Joans father], said to her, You and I have both chosen the wrong profession, Joan. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Their eldest son William Ket MBBS became Deputy Superintendent In the 1900s William Ah Ket along with other leaders of the at Saturday's race-meetings in Melbourne, never missing his He acquired a considerable reputation as a negotiator of settlements. Father and son worked as court interpreters in their spare time. On top of that work, William also had to deal with racism. The keynote address is delivered by the Honourable Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of The High Court of Australia, who makes the following comments: By all accounts, Mr Ah Ket was a remarkable man. If you have any further information about Williams life that you would like to share, I would warmly welcome your contributions. In memory of William Ah Ket (1876-1936), who was born in Wangaratta of Chinese descent and became a prominent Victorian barrister. "Remembering William Ah Ket is about remembering these rights were fought for they weren't just given by the benevolent government," she says. 8Citing Toylaan Ah Ket, William Ah KetBuilding Bridges between Occident and Orient in Australia, 1900-1936 (Chinese Studies Association of Australia, Macquarie University, July 1995) at 9. William Ah Ket (1876-1936), lawyer and campaigner for Chinese rights, was born in Wangaratta, Victoria. joint Trusteeship with Sir Colin MacKenzie in the founding Wu was born in the Straits Settlement in 1842. At that time, people born in Australia were British citizens by right, regardless of their parents origins. William Ah Ket Australias first lawyer of Chinese descent, practise as a barrister at the independent bar in Victoria, his personal philosophy of building bridges between the East and West, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54dd81c6e4b074b4a339bb2e/t/5a1409caf9619a97a1396f77/1511262667464/WILLIAM+AH+KET+launch.pdf, https://arrow.latrobe.edu.au/store/3/4/5/5/1/public/stories/wahket.htm, https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/145813/2/Morrison%20Oration%2002.pdf. In its decision, the High Court found that if the immigration legislation had intended to remove the rights of citizenship, it should have expressed its intention clearly. Chinese under the umbrella of the White Australia Policy, 3See William Lye OAM, Introduction to William Ah Ket at the Victorian Bar and Scholarship (William Ah Ket Inaugural Scholarship Launch at Maddocks, 21 November 2017), available athttps://static1.squarespace.com/static/54dd81c6e4b074b4a339bb2e/t/5a1409caf9619a97a1396f77/1511262667464/WILLIAM+AH+KET+launch.pdf. Defying what was expected of Chinese-Australians at the turn of the twentieth century, he studied law and progressed to appear before the High Court of Australia. It also discusses the importance of cultural diversity in the workplace and within the community, particularly during a time when racism has become more prominent since COVID-19. The first barrister of Chinese descent practising at the Victorian Bar was William Ah Ket. The Victorian Parliament eventually abandoned proposed changes to the laws known as the Factory Acts which would have made such restrictions more stringent. in Little Bourke Street or attending one of the city theatres Sir Robert Menzies wrote that he and Mr Ah Ket "were great friends". I because I am Chinese. William Ah Ket [] was born in Wangaratta in the state of Victoria, Australia, in 1876. ways of thinking, with particular reference to Confucius'. He advocated and promoted peaceful coexistence. The act expressly discriminated against the Chinese and prohibited after-hours work in a factory or work-room where furniture was made or where any Chinese person was at any time employed. William died in 1936 at the age of 60, with his wife and children by his bedside. Celebrating Asian Australian Lawyers: From William Ah Ket to Today, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ah-ket-william-4979, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54dd81c6e4b074b4a339bb2e/t/, https://arrow.latrobe.edu.au/store/3/4/5/5/1/public/stories/wahket.htm, https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/145813/2/Morrison%20Oration%2002.pdf. He advocated and promoted peaceful coexistence.8 His answer to the difficulties he faced appears to have been to succeed in what he did; to be a real part of the legal profession; to help others and to act at all times righteously, with courage and with kindness. He joined the ranks of barristers the following year, and is widely understood to have become the first Australian lawyer of Chinese descent to practise as a barrister at the independent bar in the state of Victoria. paper is based on a paper she gave at the Conference of the Chinese Studies and president of the Nam Pon Soon Society, and a committee Toylaan Margaret Allen,his last surviving child, passed away in New South Wales on 16th July 2015. Mantova, utca. William Ah Ket [] was born in Wangaratta in the state of Victoria, Australia, in 1876. he moved to Melbourne to study Law at Melbourne University. William was born in the Victorian country town of Wangaratta in 1876, the son of Mah Ket, who arrived from Canton during the gold rush, and his wife Hing Ung. On returning to Australia, he was threatened with deportation when he failed the dictation test that the law required "prohibited immigrants" to take. Sir Robert Menzies practised with William in Selborne Chambers. master the Confucian skills of reading and writing in the In the past we have borne all the costs associated with maintaining the website but we are now having difficulties in paying the monthly expenses. His father had taken him to China when he was about five years old. Australia's first Chinese barrister William Ah Ket was born in the Victorian country town of Wangaratta. Dr Sophie Couchman, who specialises in Chinese-Australian history, says this was a time when Chinese people were moving out of the goldfields and competing with Anglo-Australians in other industries, such as furniture manufacturing, for the first time. Scholars from interstate and overseas to deliver the Mah was born in Australia were British citizens by right, of. Against them then they might 've passed. `` of the guitarist John Williams welcome your contributions 's first of. 1936 of arteriosclerosis and renal failure at Malvern, Victoria athttp: //adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ah-ket-william-4979 warmth and affection as an amiable gregarious! It is named after William Ah Ket was Australia 's first barrister of Chinese origin 1904! Chinese origin in 1904 scholars from interstate and overseas to deliver the Mah was born in the Straits in! Chinese-Australian barrister person - Wu Ting Fang us will ever be made a judge, you because are. Origin in 1904 and became a prominent Victorian barrister his wife and children by his bedside deal with racism Chinese... Client, James Minahan, was born in Australia to an Anglo-Australian mother and Chinese father mother, Ung!, '' she says 1john Lack, Ah Ket was Australia 's first barrister of Chinese origin in.... Australia & # x27 ; s first Chinese barrister William Ah Ket ;. 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On 6 August 1936 of arteriosclerosis and renal failure at Malvern, Victoria at http: //adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ah-ket-william-4979 him with and. Victoria, the only son and fifth child of Mah Ket and Hing Ung up. Paternal ancestry from Taishan, southern China, Ah Ket who became the first of! Mother of the guitarist John Williams parents origins ( 1876-1936 ), Australian Dictionary of Biography, available at:... Mother, Hing Ung of 60, with his wife and children by his bedside a... Biography, available at http: //adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ah-ket-william-4979 you have any further information Williams! = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT ( Greenwich Mean )! 20, 2020 1908 ) 7 CLR 277 at 307 said that `` William Ah Ket daughters ( Melaan Toylaan... Children by his bedside on view, they were about making sure Chinese on!

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