View source for Stan Taylor (barrister)

{{Short description|Australian judge (1896–1982)}}
{{Use Australian English|date=March 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Stan Taylor<!-- include middle initial, if not specified in birth_name -->
| image         = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] -->
| alt           = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption       =
| birth_name    = Stanley Cassin Taylor<!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1896|12|07|df=y}}
| birth_place   = {{NSWcity|Rylstone}}, [[New South Wales]]
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1982|08|09|1896|12|07}}
| death_place   = {{NSWcity|Mosman}}, [[Sydney]], New South Wales
| nationality   = [[Australia]]n
| other_names   =
| occupation    = [[Barrister]]; [[Judge]]
| years_active  =
| known_for     =
| notable_works =
| spouse        = Gwendoline Taylor {{small|(''née'' Cansdell)}}
}}
'''Stanley Cassin Taylor''' (7 December 1896 &ndash; 9 August 1982) was an Australian [[barrister]] and [[judge]]. Taylor served as the President of [[Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales|Industrial Commission of New South Wales]] between 1942 and 1966.
==Background and early career==
He was born at [[Rylstone, New South Wales|Rylstone]] to farmer John Orchard Taylor and Helen Russell, ''née'' Clarke. He attended Burwood Superior Public School before becoming a junior clerk with the State Department of the Attorney-General and of Justice in November 1912. He joined the [[Australian Labor Party]] at the age of seventeen and was active in the anti-[[conscription]] campaigns of 1916&ndash;17. He ran unsuccessfully for [[Electoral district of Ryde|Ryde]] at the [[1925 New South Wales state election|1925 state election]], but was expelled from 1927 to 1930. On his readmittance he was part of the [[Lang Labor]] faction, running for [[Division of North Sydney|North Sydney]] as a Lang Labor candidate at the [[1934 Australian federal election|1934 federal election]]. He was called to the Bar on 25 May 1934. He ran for the reunited Labor Party as the candidate for [[Division of Martin|Martin]] in 1937.<ref name=adb>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|last= Moore|first= Andrew|authorlink= |year=2012 |volume=18 |id2=taylor-stanley-cassin-15680 |title=Taylor, Stanley Cassin (1896-1982) |accessdate=17 February 2013}}</ref>
==Career==
Taylor married shorthand writer Gwendoline Heather Cansdell on 16 June 1934 at [[Windsor, New South Wales|Windsor]]. He continued to rise in Labor politics, partly through his connection to [[William McKell]]. He was appointed deputy director of the wartime Commonwealth security service in 1942 by the [[John Curtin|Curtin]] Labor government, for which he was barely qualified; McKell, as [[Premier of New South Wales|Premier]], appointed him president of the Industrial Commission of New South Wales later the same year, again over the heads of more qualified candidates.<ref name="Moore 2003">{{cite book |title=Laying the Foundations of Industrial Justice: The Presidents of the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW, 1902-1998 |chapter=Ch 9 Stanley Cassin Taylor (1942-1966) |editor=Patmore, Greg |last=Moore |first=Andrew |publisher=Federation Press |year=2003 |ISBN=9781862874633}}</ref> He worked primarily through networking and bargaining, and his greatest success was the mutually satisfactory industrial relations for the [[Snowy Mountains Scheme|Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme]]. His pragmatism saw him well respected by the time he retired in 1966, enough to be employed as an independent arbitrator.<ref name=adb/>
As a judge Taylor was known for informality and boisterousness; he was said to have trained with boxer [[Les Darcy]] and often engaged in wrestling contests during luncheon. His Industrial Commission colleagues became increasingly distant from him and in 1955 his relationship with shady [[Bankstown, New South Wales|Bankstown]] contractor and journalist Ray Fitzpatrick tainted his name. Taylor was accused of turning a blind eye and, indeed, shielding Fitzpatrick from the law, and he probably leaked a document linking Labor MP [[Charles Morgan (Australian politician)|Charles Morgan]] to immigration rackets in the 1930s, which was connected to Morgan's infamous case against [[Frank Browne (journalist)|Frank Browne]].<ref name=adb/>
As an advocate for police awards, in 1946 he handed down the first award for the [[New South Wales Police|NSW Police Service]]; which subsequently enabled the expansion of police awards nationally. Taylor was awarded life membership of the Police Association of NSW.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pansw.org.au/about/life-members/life-member-biographies/taylor-stanley-cassin-1896-1982 |title=Taylor, Stanley Cassin 1896–1982 |work=Life Members Roll |publisher=Police Association of NSW |date= |accessdate=12 March 2018 }}</ref>
On 28 January 1955 Taylor appeared before the royal commission on espionage, where it was alleged that he had compromised the identity of a secret agent by passing information to the [[Communist Party of Australia]].<ref>{{cite thesis |url=https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/22500/2/02whole.pdf |title=The Royal Commission on Espionage, 1954-1955 |author=Dunn, M. G. L. |work=Politics Department |publisher=[[University of Adelaide]] |type=[[PhD thesis]] |date=December 1979 |accessdate=12 March 2018 |page=174 }}</ref> Although he was not indicted by the commission, he was reported on favourably to the [[Comintern]] and further inquiries suggested that the Fitzpatrick affair may not have been an isolated occurrence. He was increasingly ostracised but turned this towards settling disputes in remote areas of New South Wales, winning admiration for effective conciliation tactics.
==Personal life and latter years==
Following his retirement, he remained involved in industrial affairs. His wife died in 1970 and Taylor began work as a yardman, living at the [[Bundarra, New South Wales|Bundarra]] pub. He returned to Sydney with failing health and died at [[Mosman, New South Wales|Mosman]] in 1982; he was survived by his two daughters.<ref name=adb/>
==References==
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[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1982 deaths]]
[[Category:Australian barristers]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian judges]]