{{Short description|Former Chief Justice of South Australia (1912–1995)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=May 2015}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = [[The Honourable]] | name = John Jefferson Bray | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=AUS|AC|QC}} | office = 9th [[List of University of Adelaide people#Chancellors|Chancellor of the University of Adelaide]] | term_start = 1968 | term_end = 1983 | predecessor = Sir Kenneth Wills | successor = [[Roma Mitchell|Dame Roma Mitchell]] | order1 = [[List of Judges of the Supreme Court of South Australia|Chief Justice of South Australia]] | term_start1 = 28 February 1967 | term_end1 = 28 November 1978 | predecessor1 = [[Mellis Napier|Sir Mellis Napier]] | successor1 = [[Len King]] | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1912|09|16}} | birth_place = [[Adelaide|Adelaide, South Australia]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1995|06|26|1912|09|16}} | death_place = | spouse = | relations = | children = | alma_mater = [[University of Adelaide]] }}
'''John Jefferson Bray''', {{postnominals|AC|QC|country=AUS}} (16 September 1912 – 26 June 1995) was an Australian [[lawyer]], [[judge]], academic, [[university administrator]], Crown officer, and [[poet]]. From 1967 to 1978, he served as [[Chief Justice]] of the [[Supreme Court of South Australia]].
==Early life and parents== Bray was born in [[Adelaide]], [[South Australia]] on 16 September 1912, the elder son of Harry Midwinter Bray (1879–1965), an Adelaide [[stockbroker]], and his wife, Gertrude Eleanore Stow (members of whose family were [[Congregational church|Congregationalist]] missionaries in South Australia). His father's family had a history of involvement in South Australian politics and current affairs: Bray's grandfather was the Honourable Sir [[John Cox Bray]], a former [[Premier of South Australia]]. On his mother's side, Bray claimed a collateral relationship to the third [[United States|U.S.]] president, [[Thomas Jefferson]].
==Education== Bray was educated at the state school at [[Sevenhill, South Australia|Sevenhill]] in the [[Clare Valley]]; at [[St Peter's College, Adelaide]]; and at the [[University of Adelaide]], where he earned a B.A. in 1932, an LL.B.(Hons.) in 1933 and an LL.D. in 1937. He was granted an [[Honorary Doctorate]] in 1983.
==Legal career== Bray trained as a lawyer and was admitted to the South Australian Bar in 1933, being appointed [[Queen's Counsel]] in 1957.<ref name=samem/>
He was acting lecturer in jurisprudence at the [[University of Adelaide]] for the years 1941, 1943, 1945 (due to his being medically unfit to serve in [[World War II]] owing to extremely poor eyesight<ref name=samem/>), and in 1951.<ref name=fountain/>
He served as a lecturer in Legal History at the University of Adelaide from 1957 to 1958, and then as a lecturer in [[Roman Law]] from 1959 until 1966. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia on 28 February 1967 and served until his retirement from the judiciary on 28 November 1978.<ref name=fountain/> Appointed by then [[Attorney-General of South Australia]], [[Don Dunstan]], he was appointed directly without having first served as a judge, which was an unusual occurrence.<ref name=samem/>
Bray was appointed Chancellor of the University of Adelaide in 1968, and also served as Deputy to the [[Lieutenant-Governor of South Australia]] from 1968 until retirement.<ref name=fountain/>
==Other activities== Bray was an active member of the [[Libraries Board of South Australia]] between 1944 and 1989, the longest-serving Libraries Board member until that point. After he retired, the [[State Library of South Australia]] named its reference section as the Bray Reference Library, a name given to a suite of rooms when the library was redeveloped in 2001.<ref name=samem>{{cite web | website=Welcome to SA Memory|title=Bray, John Jefferson 1912-1995|publisher= [[State Library of South Australia]]| url=https://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=438&c=5155 | access-date=13 February 2021}}</ref>
He was vice-president of the South Australian branch of the [[Fellowship of Australian Writers]], and was closely involved with the organisation of the first three [[Adelaide Writers' Week|Festival of Arts Writers' Weeks]] (1960, 1962, 1964), with his first volume of poetry launched at the second Writers' Week in 1962.<ref name=fountain/><ref name=samem/>
He was at the inaugural meeting of [[Friendly Street Poets]], and remained an active member and contributor to the society's annual anthologies, the ''Friendly Street Reader''. The Satura Prize is a poetry prize funded by a bequest from his estate and awarded by Friendly Streets.<ref name=bestof>{{Citation | author1=Evans, Steve | author2=Deller-Evans, Kate | title=Best of Friends: The First Thirty Years of the Friendly Street Poets | year=2008 | publication-date=2008 | publisher=Friendly Street Poets, in association with [[Wakefield Press (Australia)|Wakefield Press]] | isbn=978-1-86254-793-3}}</ref>
Bray's first book of poetry was published in 1962.<ref name=samem/>
==Honours, recognition and legacy== Bray was made a [[Companion of the Order of Australia]] in 1979, and is said, by his younger brother, Dr Robert Stow Bray, to have refused a [[knighthood]]. He described his views as "æsthetic - traditional; social - emancipated; political - fluctuating" and his philosophies as "sceptical, some tendencies to [[Platonism]]". He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the [[Australian Academy of the Humanities]] in 1991.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nerlich |first=John |date=1995 |title=John Jefferson Bray |url=https://www.humanities.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/AAH-Obit-Bray-1995-2.pdf |access-date=2024-08-12 |website=Australian Academy of the Humanities}}</ref> [[File:Address to the pigeons in Hurtle Square.jpg|right|thumb|"Address to the pigeons in Hurtle Square", a poem by Bray, features on the western face of the John Jefferson Bray Memorial Fountain in [[Hurtle Square, Adelaide]], where he once lived.]]
The [[Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature#John Bray Poetry Award|John Bray Poetry Award]], awarded biennially since 1986 as part of the [[Adelaide Festival]], was so named to honour his distinguished services to Australian poetry.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110821151302/http://www.adelaidefestivalawardsforliterature.com.au/awards/national/john-bray-poetry-award/ Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature: John Bray poetry award] (archived page)</ref>
The John Jefferson Bray Memorial in [[Hurtle Square, Adelaide]], was commissioned by the [[Adelaide City Council]] in 1994.<ref name=fountain>{{cite web |author= Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia |url= http://adelaidia.sa.gov.au/things/john-jefferson-bray-memorial-fountain |title= John Jefferson Bray Memorial Fountain |work= Adelaidia |date= 8 July 2019 |publisher= adelaidia.sa.gov.au }}</ref>
Bray died on 26 June 1995 in Adelaide.<ref name=samem/>
There is a [[bronze]] bust of Bray, sculpted by local sculptor [[John Dowie (artist)|John Dowie]], in the State Library.<ref name=samem/>
==Selected publications== Bray's publications reflected his interests, which he listed as "poetry, history, classics". As author, these included:
:* ''Poems'' (Melbourne, Cheshire Press, 1962) :* ''Poems 1961-1971'' (Brisbane, Jacaranda Press, 1972) :* ''Poems 1972-1979'' (1979) :*''Bay of Salamis and other Poems'' (1986) :*''Satura: Selected Poetry and Prose'' (1988) :*''Seventy Seven'' (Adelaide, Wakefield Press, 1990)
He co-edited ''No. 7 Friendly Street Poetry Reader'' (1983) with [[Jan Owen (poet)|Jan Owen]].<ref>{{Citation | author1=Owen, Jan|author1-link = Jan Owen (poet)| author2=Bray, John Jefferson | title=No. 7 Friendly St. poetry reader | publication-date=1983 | publisher=Friendly Street Poets | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10820078 | access-date=13 February 2021}}</ref>
He wrote two plays:<ref>{{cite web | title=John Jefferson Bray | website=[[AusStage]] | url=https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/432894 | access-date=13 February 2021}}</ref> * ''Papinian'' (performed 1955) * ''The Women of Troy'' (performed 1966)
He also made contributions to: :* ''Well and Truly Tried'' (1982), a [[festschrift]] for Sir [[Richard Eggleston]] :* ''Adelaide Law School Centenary Essays'' (1983) :* ''[[Australian Law Journal]]''
==See also== {{portal|Poetry}} * [[Judiciary of Australia]]
==References== {{reflist}} *''Australian Who's Who'' (see also similar Australia, British, and international biographical publications), *Richard Carruthers-Żurowski,''The Bray Family of England, Canada, and Australia''(1986), deposited in the libraries of the Hampshire Family History Society and the South Australian Society for Genealogy and Heraldry. *{{cite book|last1=Emerson|first1=John|title=John Jefferson Bray: A Vigilant Life |date=2015|publisher=[[Monash University]] Press |location=Clayton, Vic|isbn=9781922235619|url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/journals/law-review/issues/37-2/alr-37-2-ch09-kirby.pdf}}
==Further reading== *{{cite journal|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190201185048/https://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/journals/law-review/issues/37-2/alr-37-2-ch09-kirby.pdf|title=John Jefferson Bray: A Vigilant Life [Book review]|url= https://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/journals/law-review/issues/37-2/alr-37-2-ch09-kirby.pdf |archive-date= 1 Feb 2019| date=2016 |issue=37 |journal= [[Adelaide Law Review]]| first=Michael |last=Kirby|author-link=Michael Kirby (judge) }} *{{cite book|chapter-url= https://www.michaelkirby.com.au/images/stories/speeches/2014/2731%20-%20FOREWORD%20-%20THE%20UNIVERSITY%20OF%20ADELAIDE%20PRESS%20-%20JOHN%20JEFFERSON%20BRAY%20-%20A%20BIOGRAPHY%20BY%20DR%20JOHN%20EMERSON.pdf| title=John Jefferson Bray: A Biography, by John Emerson |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/192503511 |chapter=Foreword| pages=1–7 |date=1 October 2014| first=Michael |last=Kirby|author-link=Michael Kirby (judge) }}
==External links== *{{cite web | title=[Books by John Bray] | website=[[Trove]] | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/advanced/category/books?creator=Bray,%20John%20Jefferson }}
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-bef|before=[[Mellis Napier|Sir Mellis Napier]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[List of Judges of the Supreme Court of South Australia|Chief Justice of South Australia]] |years=1967–1978}} {{s-aft|after=[[Len King]]}} {{s-aca}} {{s-bef |before= [[Kenneth Wills|Sir Kenneth Wills]] }} {{s-ttl |title= [[List of University of Adelaide people#Chancellors|Chancellor of the University of Adelaide]] |years= 1968{{ndash}}1983}} {{s-aft |after=[[Roma Mitchell|Dame Roma Mitchell]]}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bray, John Jefferson}} [[Category:1912 births]] [[Category:1995 deaths]] [[Category:Bray family (Hampshire)|John Jefferson]] [[Category:Chancellors of the University of Adelaide]] [[Category:Chief justices of South Australia]] [[Category:Companions of the Order of Australia]] [[Category:People educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide]] [[Category:Lawyers from Adelaide]] [[Category:Adelaide Law School alumni]] [[Category:20th-century Australian poets]] [[Category:Australian male poets]] [[Category:20th-century Australian male writers]] [[Category:Judges of the Supreme Court of South Australia]] [[Category:20th-century Australian judges]] [[Category:Australian King's Counsel]] [[Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities]]