Sir James Gobbo AC CVO QC (1931–2021), governor and judge, was born to Italian parents in Melbourne and gained a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford in 1951. He left Oxford with a BA, an MA and a rowing blue, and after returning to Australia in 1957 he lectured at the University of Melbourne for five years. He practised as a barrister through the 1960s and was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1978 and was knighted in 1982. Through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s he served on a great many boards and foundations, particularly to do with health and community welfare. After he retired from the bench in 1994 he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Victoria; he became Governor of Victoria in 1997, becoming the first person of Italian heritage appointed to a state governorship. He served as the Chairman of the Council of the National Library of Australia, of the National Advisory Commission on Ageing and of the Council for the Order of Australia. Among his many honours were the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, and the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Gregory, the latter one of the highest honours the Vatican confers.
Paul Fitzgerald depicted Gobbo in the robes of a Knight of the The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta.
Gift of Mercy Health and Aged Care 2006
© Estate of Paul Fitzgerald
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