Dr John Kennedy McLaughlin AM KCSG KGCHS, the last Master in Equity in the Supreme Court of NSW, died peacefully at the age of 85.

The Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court, Dr AS Bell, paid tribute in a condolence message to the Bar, upon learning of his death. At the end of the morning’s court session, the Chief Justice noted the life of a learned and modest man of distinction. John McLaughlin had lived a remarkable life of service and faith.

His Honour retired in 2010 from the court after serving on the Supreme Court since 1989 as a Master of the Supreme Court and as an Associate Justice in 2005 when the title changed.

Born in Wagga Wagga in 1938, the family moved to Sydney shortly thereafter. His mother was an early graduate in medicine of the University of Sydney. His older brother Robert forged an academic career in Australia and for a time in the United States. John McLaughlin had an idyllic childhood in Randwick. He attended Waverly College where he made friendships that would last a lifetime. He lived his entire life in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney in Paddington.

Barely aged 16 he commenced the study of liberal arts and then law at the University of Sydney. He recalled fraternising with his friends at law school and on campus taking some interest in the student union and student politics and debating in the 1950s. Among his cohort of friends were Jim Poulos, Ken Carruthers, Murray Tobias, Bill Windeyer and Terry Cole and the young JJ Spigelman and Michael Kirby (as they were). There also commenced his lifelong interest in academia. Later in life he obtained a PhD on the role of Irish lawyers in Australia from Monash University (2020) and he had a lifelong fascination with his Irish ancestry. He was President and fellow of the Australian Society of Genealogists and a councillor of the Royal Australian Historical Society. He would become an Honorary Fellow of the University of Sydney. He was noted to have been continuously and conspicuously involved in the interests and welfare of the university. He was a fine scholar and citizen.

For a time, he was a tutor in law at St Paul’s College within the University of Sydney.

He was called to the Bar in 1961 and read with the Hon John ‘Jack’ Slattery who would become a QC and a celebrated Supreme Court judge and Royal Commissioner. He worked as Associate to Sir Cyril Walsh for a time when his Honour sat as a judge of the Equity Division (later of the High Court of Australia 1969—1973). He acquired chambers on the 13th Floor of Selborne Chambers and fraternised with the likes of Philip Hallen, David Davies, Frank Hutley QC, Mary Gaudron, Michael Meek, Des Fagan, and JR Sackar (as their Honours were). He loved the company of the inimitable Janet Coombes and Cecily Backhouse and Bill Lee (William Jang Sing Lee 1912—2010). He recalled appearing with Sir Maurice Byers QC and also the late Linton Morris QC. He knew the Hon TEF Hughes AO KC, JB Kerrigan QC, the late Hon Simon Sheller QC, and the late Hon RP ‘Roddy’ Meagher QC. The Hon Dennis Mahony KC was a friend as well as the Hon Keith Mason KC and the Hon JP Bryson KC. John McLaughlin’s chambers were designed and decorated by none other than Harry Seidler in the brutalist taste.

In 2014 John McLaughlin was made a member of the Order of Australia AM ‘for significant service to the judiciary and to the law, particularly through the documentation and preservation of Australian legal and constitutional history, and to the community.’

Initially as a barrister, he appeared in many common law and personal injury cases in those years when Dr Evatt was the Chief Justice of NSW. He garnered the nickname of ‘the Holy Spirit’ by dint of appearing with the famous trio of counsel, the Evatt father son duo Clive Evatt and young Clive and JK McLaughlin. He recalled vividly the night that Sir Douglas Menzies died suddenly of a heart attack in the Bar Common Room (1974) and Lionel Murphy pacing the corridors considering the aftermath.

Over time, he built a large practice in equity especially in Newcastle and preferred it to common law. His specialty areas were to become wills and estates and general equity. His monicker ‘Honest John’ came from his ability to wear an expression of probity before the court. John McLaughlin recalled fondly appearing in the Privy Council (Lord Diplock) with Laurie Gruzman QC in London in the 1970s. He gave unstinting and distinguished service at the Bar and was schooled in the best traditions of the Chancery.

Judicial appointment came first as an acting master in 1989, at the time when it was common to have ‘acting judges’, then he was made a full master (full powers of a Supreme Court judge) in 1992 when such appointments were rare. He was sworn in by the Hon AM Gleeson, the Chief Justice, when aged 51 years. He sat in the Equity Division as a master under the Chief Judges in Equity: the Hon TW Waddell KC, the Hon PW Young KC and then the Hon PA Bergin SC whose leadership he admired. His lengthy and distinguished service at the Bar meant that he had known PW Young, BT Sully QC and John Hamilton KC as younger men in Mena House Chambers in Macquarie Street when they were fledgling barristers. Life comes full circle. While on the court he served on the Education Committee and the court’s Heritage Committee.

As a master of the court, he demonstrated his strong and instinctive sense of justice, and his thoughtful and principled approach to resolving disputes. The judicial burden of a master was heavy and he heard a great many cases over a long period. He kept chambers on 6th Floor of Judges Chambers in Queen’s Square with Masters Macready, Malpass, Joanne Harrison AsJ, and prior to that, Master Windeyer and Master Cohen, among others.

To Master McLaughlin there was nothing small about the cases which he heard; he considered each with care and court approvals for settlements were given only after careful deliberation. He was sensitive to the effects of legal decisions on the vulnerable. The majority of cases were equity and probate suits and his savoir faire was remarkable. It was a joy to ask him about legal questions because he was steeped in the old knowledge and traditions of the Equity Bar and before that of the Chancery. John McLaughlin was deeply valued and much-loved among those on the Bench.

John McLaughlin loved the legal profession and he was particularly interested in legal history. He was a well-known scholar in the field, having prepared an LLM by research about the magistracy. He was a member of the Francis Forbes Society and he avidly attended the lectures and talks which the society hosted. He was a long-time friend of the late Dr John Bennett AO. He gave lengthy service to the Australian Dictionary of Biography and wrote many articles in the Dictionary.

John McLaughlin was a devout Catholic man. His service to the church was important as it was distinguished. He was an adherent of the St Thomas More Society. He attended St Francis of Assisi in Paddington weekly and read the lesson regularly and he loved attending the Cathedral on occasion. In 2020 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great by Pope Francis, following a Knighthood bestowed upon him in 2009 by Pope Benedict in the same order. Modestly, he said his latest achievement was a shared one with many others at parish, archdiocese and state level.

The Archbishop officiated at his obsequies and Justice Francois Kunc delivered a eulogy. Further eulogies were delivered by John McLaughlin’s brother Robert and his friend Richard D’Apice.

He was a patron of the arts and donor to the Australian Ballet with coveted dress circle seats in the Opera House.

Before the pandemic, he travelled annually to London, Athens and Mykonos and often to European locations Nice, Juan-les-Pins, Beaulieu, Florence ... It was a late summer circuit which he loved, and he would stay at the same family-run hotel on Mykonos for over 40 years. John McLaughlin visited his close friends Yvonne and Geoff Larsen (deceased) who lived in London near the Greenwich Observatory. For decades he was a regular visitor to their home before exploring other European locations. On one such occasion he was received by the Margravine of Baden (cousin of the British Royal Family and direct descendant of Queen Victoria). His knowledge of the Almanach de Gotha and Debret’s was extensive. He used to stay at the Royal Over-Seas League just next to the Ritz in Central London and on many occasions breakfasted with judges and barristers from Sydney sojourning in St James’s. Each trip he made was always calibrated to a tight schedule of meetings often travelling by night train somewhere to meet an acquaintance – London – Cahors – Geneva.

John McLaughlin was an enthusiast of fine antique furniture and objets d’art, especially glass items. He had an extensive and exquisite collection of Baccarat crystal, French Daum, Schneider Le verre français and Nancy glass. He also had a penchant for fine Wedgewood and Moorcroft items. He collected Ilias Lalaounis items from Greece, e.g., gold vessels and beaten metal dishes. He had a vast collection of owls (hiboux, chouettes) in every form.

He read only historical crime fiction, e.g., Georgette Heyer’s Georgian novels, and was a long time client of Abbey’s Bookshop in the city. He lived a 19th century gentleman’s life in a commodious house which he referred to as a domiciliary abode suitable to his requirements. The walls of his reception rooms were lined in moiré silk. It might have been in Sloane Street or Montpellier Square London. His conversation and vocabulary were always infused with words of nostalgia and memory, Oú sont les fleurs d’Antan…

He was profoundly committed to kindness in a world which had (as he saw it) unlearnt it, although on rare occasions he could be fierce. One of his perennial comments to younger barristers was to do all that was necessary and also to be kind. A great human trait (as he thought) was to be kind because it equated with selflessness. As the kindest, most generous and delightful man, he had an impish sense of fun – he was always ready for a joke or a wind-up.

John McLaughlin lived a most excellent life, full of conviviality, laughter and fun. It was a life lived in the sunlight among friends. He had a singular devotion to the law and to his faith which never dimmed. He will be deeply missed by all those who knew him. God came swiftly for him. That was a relief. He was a good one and a kindly one. May he rest in peace. BN