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Owen Dixon was a judge and diplomat. As a junior barrister, he took Menzies as a pupil in 1918. Dixon was a High Court judge from 1929 to 1952. Curtin appointed him Australian Minister in Washington (1942-44). He represented Australia on the Pacific War Council and after the war was Australian representative on the council of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In 1950 Dixon was nominated as the United Nations representative to mediate in the dispute between India and Pakistan over the states of Jammu and Kashmir. He was Chief Justice of the High Court from 1952 to 1964. When Dixon died in 1972, Menzies described him as ‘the greatest jurist in the English-speaking world’ (‘Great Jurist Shunned Limelight’).

Sources

Anderson, Grant. Dixon, Sir Owen (1886-1972), Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Published in hard copy 1996, accessed online 23 September 2012.

‘Great Jurist Shunned Limelight.’ Sydney Morning Herald, 9 July 1972, 49.