Education
Anderson was educated at Xavier College Melbourne, and became a Clerk of Courts in what is now the Magistrates Court of Victoria on leaving school in 1929. He completed a part-time Bachelor of Laws at the University of Melbourne in 1937.
Anderson was educated at Xavier College Melbourne, and became a Clerk of Courts in what is now the Magistrates Court of Victoria on leaving school in 1929. He completed a part-time Bachelor of Laws at the University of Melbourne in 1937.
During the Second World War he was commissioned in the Royal Australian Navy, and served in Operations and Naval Intelligence. Towards the end of the War, he was a liaison officer in the Manila headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur, and was present at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay in September 1945. He was admitted to the Victorian Bar on 24 November 1945 and became a Queen"s Counsel (Queen's Counsel) on 14 August 1962.
The report of this inquiry is still regarded as controversial by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, in the context of the recognition of new religious movements in Australia"s increasingly multicultural society.
Anderson served as Chairman of the Victorian Bar Council in 1966–1967, and on 29 April 1969 he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He became a figure of controversy again in 1971 when the Victorian Parliament passed the second Evidence (Boards and Commissions) Acting.
This Acting amended the Evidence Acting, 1958 to grant retrospective immunity from suit to persons who had been associated with a Royal Commission or a Board of Inquiry, equivalent to the immunity of those associated with an action in the Supreme Court. Anderson was knighted on 14 June 1980 and retired from the Bench on 31 August 1984.
He was a devout Catholic, and after his retirement argued for the retention of the traditional swearing-in of witnesses in court.
He died on 14 October 1999 aged 87.