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Crowley QC has, from time to time, threatened to publish
the memoirs of his career at the Queensland Bar. This
unpublished - and, perhaps, as yet unwritten - masterpiece has
the working title Two Counsel Rule. This title takes its
inspiration from the autobiographies written by (or, more likely,
"ghost written" for) prominent cricketers, with titles that
play on a phrase or expression common in that sport: Bowled
a Maiden Over, or Fielding in Slips, or Caught in the Covers.
Crowley QC's proposed title is not an allusion to
the (now abolished) rule which once prevented senior counsel
appearing without a junior. It refers, rather, to the
dominance of two particular counsel at the Queensland Bar over
the last quarter-century: Ian Callinan QC and Cedric Hampson
QC.
Now, of course, the "two counsel rule" has been abolished.
Similarly, with the appointment of Callinan QC to the
High Court of Australia, it can no longer be said that two counsel
rule at the Queensland Bar. Cedric Hampson's dominance
has become, and continues to be, unassailable.
Hampson QC was President of the Queensland Bar Association
from 1978 to 1981, and again in 1995-96. Since the death
of Sir Arnold Bennett QC in 1983, he has been leader of the
Queensland Bar. This year sees the 30th anniversary of the Letters
Patent appointing him as one of Her Majesty's Counsel, whilst
2002 will mark his 45th year at the Bar. More than half
of Queensland's barristers were not born when Hampson commenced
in practice; had not commenced to study law when Hampson took
silk; had not graduated from Law School when Hampson first became
President of the Bar Association; and have known no other leader
of the Bar.
At one time or another, Hampson QC has led many of the State's
current judges and senior counsel. To be his junior is
an invaluable educational experience - not only for what one
can learn from his profound knowledge of the law, his finely-honed
forensic techniques, and his wealth of litigious experience,
but also for the courtesy and kindness which he shows to his
instructing solicitors, his clients, and (above all) his juniors.
It is inevitable that, given his preeminence within the profession,
opportunities have arisen for Hampson to accept judicial appointment.
That he has chosen (for whatever personal reasons) not
to accept such offers when they were made has been the judiciary's
loss, but the Bar's gain. As a great believer in the collegiate
spirit which once characterised our Bar - but which, sadly,
is not so evident today as it was in times past - Hampson QC
has continued to maintain an "open door policy" to any member
of the Bar seeking his advice or guidance. Anyone who
has the good fortune to work with him, or the intellectual challenge
of working against him, cannot fail to benefit from the experience.
Hampson QC's service to the Queensland Bar and the legal
profession in this State is not quite unique merely for its
longevity. A.D. McGill QC was in continuous practice from
1911 until his death in 1952. Sir Arnold Bennett's career
spanned 51 years, 35 of them as a silk, although it was interrupted
by a period when he left practice to pursue commercial interests.
Yet few could rival the depth of Cedric Hampson's contribution
to his profession.
The Inns of Court, at the corner of North Quay and Turbot
Street, will stand for many years as a testament to Cedric Hampson's
organisational skills, his foresight, and (above all) his remarkable
ability to cajole even the most parsimonious members of our
profession to give up their dilapidated rooms in a converted
boot factory, and make an investment in their own and the Bar's
future. It is particularly fitting that the dominant feature
which graces the lobby to this building is a sculpture by Catharina,
Hampson's wife of 43 years.
It is quite impossible to catalogue the extent and significance
of Hampson's contribution to the development of the law in Queensland
and Australia, across the vast range of cases in which he has
appeared at every level. A perusal of the Commonwealth
Law Reports and the Queensland Reports since the early 1960s
readily demonstrates, not only the huge number of cases in which
he has appeared, but also the extraordinary diversity of those
cases - crime, personal injuries, defamation, commercial and
industrial matters, town planning cases, property disputes,
and constitutional matters. One might say, as Thomas Moore
said of Sheridan, that he has "run through each mode of the
lyre, and was master of all."
From a practice of such remarkable diversity, it is with
some trepidation that one even hazards to attempt to identify
the highlights. In Hampson's case, they must include his
long-standing retainer (for more than 35 years) on behalf of
sugar mills, in their perennial contest with canegrowers over
the price and conditions for the supply of sugar cane. They
must also include his numerous appearances as counsel for the
Criminal Justice Commission, or as counsel assisting inquiries
conducted by that body - including the Carruthers Inquiry and
the Connolly-Ryan Inquiry. Nor should one overlook his
significant role as counsel assisting numerous Royal Commissions
and Commissions of Inquiry, including two major inquiries concerned
with the illicit drug trade, presided over by (respectively)
the late Sir Edward Williams, and Mr. Justice Donald Stewart
of the New South Wales Supreme Court.
But to identify the highlights of a long and distinguished
career is perhaps misleading, as it draws attention away from
the huge work-load of cases which have attracted very little
publicity, and may have seemed mundane to everyone but those
directly concerned, yet were of overwhelming importance to Hampson's
clients. Whenever members of either branch of the profession
have found themselves in professional difficulties, Cedric Hampson
has been and continues to be their first choice of representation.
Some of the most affluent, influential and powerful members
of society - along with many thousands of ordinary Queenslanders
- have turned to Cedric Hampson for assistance in their time
of need, and will doubtless continue to do so for years to come.
Yet, to write about Cedric Hampson, the barrister, is to
touch on only one facet of an extraordinarily active life. A
keen Rugby footballer in his younger days at Gregory Terrace
and the University of Queensland, he has continued his interest
in sport both as a spectator and as Chairman of the Advisory
Committee to the Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Sport and Recreation
Association (1990-96). Having won a Rhodes Scholarship
in 1955, on the strength of both his academic brilliance and
his sporting prowess, he has been President of the Queensland
Rhodes Scholars' Association since 1996. His membership
of the RAAF Reserve saw him appointed as a Judge Advocate, and
as Honorary ADC to the Queen (1976-78).
The business world has also benefited from his wisdom and
commercial insight, as a director of two listed public companies
- Consolidated Rutile Ltd and Cudgen RZ Ltd (1991-96) - as well
as his Chairmanship of Barristers Chambers Ltd (since 1973),
the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (since 1973), and
the Management Committee of the Bar Practice Centre (1983-89).
Hampson is also active in the affairs of the Catholic Church,
as Queensland Lieutenant of the Equestrian Order of the Holy
Sepulchre of Jerusalem, and a Knight of the Order of St Lazarus
of Jerusalem.
Like his old rival, Ian Callinan, Cedric Hampson's literary
interests have recently borne fruit. His two novels, Shifting
Shadows and Cat's Eye, and his book of short stories, Sicilian
Vespers, all published within the last two years, have achieved
significant sales and some very favourable reviews.
Yet Cedric Hampson remains a very private man. He takes
great delight in the time which he is able to spend with his
four children and six grandchildren, and particular pride in
the success which all of his children have achieved in their
own right. His elder daughter, Dr. Edith Hampson, has
distinguished herself in academic circles as a veterinary scientist,
and is married to one of the state's leading specialist periodontists,
Dr. Peter Clark Ryan. His younger daughter, Alice, is
a highly respected architect, winner of a number of notable
architecture prizes, whose works have been published in Australian
and international architecture journals. His elder son, Leofric, a member of the Queensland
Bar, is presently residing in Europe, where he has recently
completed post-graduate studies in international law at Leiden
University. His younger son, Edmund, is a graduate of
the Queensland University of Technology in building science,
and has established his own very successful business in the
construction industry.
As a young student at Oxford University, Cedric Hampson took
a skiing holiday in Austria which irrevocably changed his life.
There he met Catharina Brans Kremers, from Amsterdam.
They married in 1958, and Cedric brought his young bride
back to Australia to share the privations of a frugal existence
whilst he worked to establish his career at the Queensland Bar.
No doubt Catharina, herself a celebrated sculptor, would
agree that the words of the great Italian Renaissance sculptor,
Michelangelo, could just as well have been spoken by her husband,
if his modesty did not prevent him: "If people knew how hard
I worked to achieve my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful
after all."
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