Sir Redmond Barry is perhaps the best-known of Melbourne’s early legal practitioners. Although he neither studied nor taught at the University of Melbourne, he was a central figure in the University's early history.
Barry was born in Ireland in 1813. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, and was admitted to the Irish Bar in 1838.
Arriving in Melbourne in 1839, Barry was soon an active member of Melbourne’s legal community. He was appointed Solicitor-General of the newly-founded colony of Victoria in 1851 and Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1852. He was the judge at the trial of Ned Kelly in 1880.
Barry also had a key role in the creation of some of Melbourne's oldest cultural institutions, including the State Library of Victoria, the National Gallery of Victoria and the University of Melbourne. As the University's founding Chancellor, he took the leading role in the establishment of its first law course in 1857.
Barry died in 1880 and is buried near the University, in the Melbourne General Cemetery.
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