George Walpole Leake was an Australian barrister, magistrate, judge, and colonial politician. He served repeatedly as Western Australia's Crown Solicitor and Acting Attorney-General, held temporary judicial offices including Acting Chief Justice, and sat in the Legislative Council from 1890 to 1894. He was also active in Perth's civic, educational, financial, and military institutions.
Background
George Walpole Leake was born on 3 December 1825 at Stoke Newington, Middlesex, England, the eldest son of Luke Leake and Mary Ann Walpole Leake. His father went to Western Australia in 1829, and his mother followed in 1833 with George and his brother Luke Samuel aboard the Cygnet. The family became prominent in the civic and political life of the Swan River Colony.
Leake returned to Western Australia during his youth, spent several years in Melbourne, and settled in Perth after completing legal preparation in South Australia. He belonged to a colonial generation whose professional careers developed as Perth's courts, legislature, commercial institutions, and civic organizations were becoming more established.
Education
Leake was educated at King's College, London, which had been founded by royal charter in 1829 within the Church of England tradition and became one of the founding colleges of the University of London in 1836. He later studied law in Adelaide under Richard Davies Hanson, a leading South Australian lawyer who subsequently became Chief Justice of South Australia. This combination of English schooling and Australian legal training preceded his settlement in Perth and his admission to practise as a notary public in 1852.
His legal education took place while the Australian colonies were developing separate courts and legal professions based on British models. The training he received in Adelaide connected him with the early professional legal community of South Australia before he returned to Western Australia and established a long career in colonial law and administration.
Leake began his legal career in Western Australia after spending part of the 1840s in Melbourne and commenced practice in the colony by 1850. He was admitted to practise as a notary public in 1852 and was appointed a magistrate in 1858. He served as Acting Crown Solicitor in 1857 and 1858, with the appointment confirmed in 1860, and later held the Crown Solicitorship while also undertaking other legal and administrative offices.
From 1863 he served as Acting Police Magistrate at Perth and became a magistrate of the local court in 1864. He was Public Prosecutor in 1873–1874 and was appointed Queen's Counsel and Crown Solicitor in 1875. His colonial legal work developed within a court system based on English common-law traditions and administered through the expanding governmental institutions of Western Australia.
Leake served intermittently as Acting Attorney-General in 1872, 1874–1875, 1879–1880, and 1883. These appointments gave him seats in the Executive and Legislative Councils. He acted as Chief Justice in 1879, 1880, and 1887, and as an Acting Puisne Judge in 1887 and 1889–1890. He was also Acting Government Resident at Geraldton in 1886 and resumed the office of Police Magistrate at Perth from 1881 until 1890.
After resigning as police magistrate, Leake was nominated to Western Australia's new Legislative Council on 24 December 1890. The appointment followed the colony's transition to responsible government, under which the Legislative Council initially operated as the upper house of the new Parliament. He remained a nominated member until 1894 and then returned to legal practice as a Queen's Counsel.
His public work extended beyond courts and government. He directed the Western Australian Bank from 1854 to 1886 and served as its chairman, edited the Inquirer in 1865, and served on the Central Board of Education from 1878 to 1886. He was a commissioner for Australian and international exhibitions held in 1862, 1873, 1878, 1880, and 1886. He was also the first captain of the Perth Volunteer Rifles, serving from the unit's establishment in August 1862 until February 1872.
Leake became a leading legal officer of colonial Western Australia, serving as Crown Solicitor, Public Prosecutor, magistrate, Acting Attorney-General, Acting Chief Justice, and Acting Puisne Judge.
He helped shape Perth's civic and institutional life through the Perth Town Trust, the Western Australian Bank, the Swan River Mechanics' Institute, the Central Board of Education, and the Perth Volunteer Rifles.
In 1890 he compiled an index to the statutes of Western Australia and advocated the establishment of a law library, contributing to the organization and accessibility of colonial legal materials.
He served as a nominated member of the first Legislative Council established under responsible government in Western Australia from 1890 to 1894.
Works
legal reference work
Index to the Statutes of Western Australia
(Leake compiled this index to organize the colony's statut...)
1890
newspaper
The Inquirer
(Leake edited the Perth newspaper in 1865.)
1865
Religion
Leake was a member of the Church of England, the Anglican tradition established in England during the Reformation and organized around episcopal governance, the Book of Common Prayer, and the established church's historic public role.
Anglican institutions were prominent in nineteenth-century colonial Australia, where they supported religious worship, education, charitable activity, and civic life. Leake's family and public connections unfolded within this predominantly Protestant environment, and he was buried in the Leake family plot at East Perth Cemeteries.
Politics
Leake was a conservative colonial politician who served in Western Australia's Legislative Council without a documented modern party affiliation. His political views included support for free trade and opposition to increases in duties on necessities, while he resisted public pensions and what he regarded as unnecessary expenditure from colonial funds.
He strongly opposed the introduction of responsible government and was associated with opposition to the administrations of Governors John Stephen Hampton's successors Frederick Weld and Frederick Barlee. His political career belonged to the period when Western Australia was moving from appointed and partly representative colonial institutions toward responsible government. In December 1890 he became a nominated member of the first Legislative Council formed under responsible government, serving until 1894.
Views
Leake's documented political outlook emphasized fiscal restraint, opposition to public extravagance, and resistance to the expansion of government obligations through public-service pensions. His support for free trade and opposition to higher duties on necessities reflected a preference for limited interference with commerce and household consumption.
His strong opposition to responsible government reflected a conservative preference for the established colonial constitutional order and the authority of appointed institutions. These views placed him among Western Australia's conservative public figures during the transition from a governor-centered system to parliamentary government.
Membership
Leake participated in Perth's civic, educational, commercial, humanitarian, and military institutions during the formative decades of colonial self-government. He was a foundation member of the Perth Town Trust, held leadership roles in the Swan River Mechanics' Institute, directed the Western Australian Bank, and served on educational and Aboriginal-protection bodies.
The Swan River Mechanics' Institute belonged to the nineteenth-century movement that provided lectures, libraries, and opportunities for self-education to working and professional communities. Leake's long presidency connected him with Perth's principal institution for public learning and cultural improvement.
Foundation member; briefly chairman in 1856 and later auditor.
Perth Town Trust
,
Australia
1842
Vice-president in 1863–1865 and president from 1866 to 1878.
Swan River Mechanics' Institute
,
Australia
1863 - 1878
First captain of the unit.
Perth Volunteer Rifles
,
Australia
August, 1862 - February, 1872
Member of the colonial board responsible for public education matters.
Central Board of Education
,
Australia
1878 - 1886
Member and chairman from 1892 to 1894.
Aborigines Protection Board
,
Australia
1891 - 1894
Personality
Contemporary descriptions characterized Leake as large, genial, charitable, and possessed of an eccentric wit. He was also described as sharp-tempered and capable of unconventional judicial decisions and controversial opinions. His public speaking was effective despite a slight hesitation.
Physical Characteristics:
He was described as a large man and was noted as having a slight hesitation in speech.
Quotes from others about the person
Leake was remembered in biographical accounts as a colourful and prominent figure in Perth public life, combining legal ability with geniality, charity, wit, and a readiness to take controversial positions.
Interests
Civic institutions, public education, banking, military volunteering, exhibitions, and legal reform.
Connections
Leake married Rose Ellen Gliddon at Trinity Church, Adelaide, on 6 September 1850. They had eight children, of whom seven survived him; their only son to reach adulthood was George Leake, who became a Queen's Counsel and Premier of Western Australia. Rose Ellen died on 21 February 1888.
On 7 January 1893 Leake married Amy Mabel May in Perth. They had an infant daughter. His brother Luke Samuel Leake became a prominent merchant and the first Speaker of the Western Australian Legislative Council, while his son George later continued the family's legal and political presence in Western Australia.
Father:
Luke Leake
He was a prominent early settler and the father of George Walpole Leake and Luke Samuel Leake.
Mother:
Mary Ann Walpole Leake
She was the daughter of the Walpole family and followed her husband to Western Australia in 1833.
Wife:
Rose Ellen Gliddon
They married at Trinity Church, Adelaide, on 6 September 1850; she died on 21 February 1888.
Wife:
Amy Mabel May
They married in Perth on 7 January 1893 and had an infant daughter.
Brother:
Luke Samuel Leake
He was a merchant and the first Speaker of the Western Australian Legislative Council.
Son:
George Leake
He became a Queen's Counsel and Premier of Western Australia in 1901–1902.
Members' Biographical Register: George Leake
The Parliament of Western Australia's register records Leake's birth, place of birth, gender, family, nominated Legislative Council service, and dates of parliamentary office.
George Walpole Leake QC
An archival biography documenting Leake's birth, death, parents, spouses, children, siblings, public identity, and connection with the Leake family.
East Perth Cemeteries: Leake Family
A cemetery history describing Leake's legal career, public offices, family prominence, and burial in the Leake family plot at East Perth.
