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John Greig Latham was a politician, diplomat and chief justice of the High Court. Elected to the House of Representatives, Latham was member for Kooyong (Victoria) for the Nationalist/United Australia Party Member 1922-34. Menzies succeeded Latham as member for Kooyong. Latham served as Attorney-General (1925-29) in the Bruce-Page government and (1932-34) in the Lyons government. He was Leader of the Nationalist Party Opposition from 1929 to 1931 during the Scullin Labor government. Latham was Chief Justice of the High Court (1935-52) with an interval from 1940 to 1941 when he was appointed Australia’s first Minister to Japan. He was chancellor of the University of Melbourne (1939-41), president of the Australian-American Association (1951-64) and president of the Free Library Movement of Victoria (1937-48).

Source

Macintyre, Stuart. Latham, Sir John Greig (1877-1964), Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Published in hard copy 1986, accessed online 8 July 2013.