View source for Robert Garran

{{Short description|First Solicitor-General of Australia}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = Sir
| name = Robert Garran
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|GCMG|QC}}
| image = Robert Garran 1931.jpg
| caption = Garran in 1931
| alt = Photo of Garran in 1931
| office = [[Department secretary|Secretary]] of the [[Attorney-General's Department (Australia)|Attorney-General's Department]]
| term_start = 1 January 1901
| term_end = 9 February 1932
| predecessor = ''New office''
| successor = [[George Knowles]]
| office1 = [[Solicitor-General of Australia]]
| term_start1 = 1 September 1916
| term_end1 = 9 February 1932
| predecessor1 = ''New office''
| successor1 = George Knowles
| birth_name = Robert Randolph Garran
| birth_date = {{birth date|1867|2|10|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Sydney]], Colony of New South Wales
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1957|1|11|1867|2|10}}
| death_place = [[Canberra]], Australian Capital Territory
| occupation = {{hlist|Public servant|lawyer}}
| spouse = {{marriage|Hilda Robson|1902}}
| father = [[Andrew Garran]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Sydney]]
}}
'''Sir Robert Randolph Garran''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|GCMG|QC}} (10 February 1867 – 11 January 1957<ref name="ADB" />) was an Australian lawyer who became "Australia's first public servant" – the first [[Government of Australia|federal government]] employee after the [[Federation of Australia|federation of the Australian colonies]]. He served as the [[departmental secretary]] of the [[Attorney-General's Department (Australia)|Attorney-General's Department]] from 1901 to 1932, and after 1916 also held the position of [[Solicitor-General of Australia]].

Garran was born in [[Sydney]], the son of the journalist and politician [[Andrew Garran]]. He studied arts and law at the [[University of Sydney]] and was [[called to the bar]] in 1891. Garran was a keen supporter of the federation movement, and became acquainted with leading federalists like [[George Reid]] and [[Edmund Barton]]. At the [[Constitutional Convention (Australia)|1897–98 constitutional convention]] he served as secretary of the drafting committee. On 1 January 1901, Garran was chosen by Barton's [[caretaker government]] as its first employee; for a brief period, he was the only member of the [[Commonwealth Public Service]]. His first duty was to write the inaugural edition of the ''[[Commonwealth Gazette]]'', which contained [[Queen Victoria]]'s proclamation authorising the creation of a federal government.

Over the following three decades, Garran provided legal advice to ten different [[Prime Ministers of Australia|prime ministers]], from Barton to [[Joseph Lyons]]. He was considered an early expert in [[Australian constitutional law]], and with [[John Quick (politician)|John Quick]] published an annotated edition of the [[Constitution of Australia|constitution]] that became a standard reference work. Garran developed a close relationship with [[Billy Hughes]] during World War I, and accompanied him to the [[Imperial War Cabinet]] and the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]]. Hughes, who was simultaneously prime minister and [[Attorney-General of Australia|attorney-general]], appointed him to the new position of solicitor-general and delegated numerous powers and responsibilities to him. He was knighted three times for his service to the Commonwealth, in 1917, in 1920 and in 1937.

In addition to his professional work, Garran was also an important figure in the development of the city of [[Canberra]] during its early years. He was one of the first public servants to relocate there after it replaced [[Melbourne]] as the capital in 1927. He founded several important cultural associations, organised the creation of the [[Canberra University College]], and later contributed to the establishment of the [[Australian National University]]. Garran published at least eight books and many journal articles throughout his lifetime, covering such topics as constitutional law, the history of [[federalism]] in Australia, and German-language poetry. He was granted a [[state funeral]] upon his death in 1957, the first federal public servant to receive one.

==Early life==
Garran was born in [[Sydney]], New South Wales, the only son (among seven children) of journalist and politician [[Andrew Garran]] and his wife Mary Isham.<ref>{{Citation |last=Parker |first=R. S. |title=Sir Robert Randolph Garran (1867–1957) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/garran-sir-robert-randolph-410 |access-date=2024-07-26 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref> His parents were both devout and committed to [[social justice]], Mary campaigning for issues such as the promotion of education for women.<ref>{{Citation |last=Bramsted |first=E. K. |title=Andrew Garran (1825–1901) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/garran-andrew-3594 |access-date=2024-07-26 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Collingwood |first=Lyn |date=September 2014 |title=Who Lived in Your Street? |url=https://glebesociety.org.au/wp-content/uploads/bulletins/2014_07.pdf |work=Glebe Society Bulletin}}</ref> Andrew had studied to become a church minister before becoming a journalist, with one biographer summing him up as "Congregationalist, Conservative, Liberal Reformer."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr Andrew GARRAN, LL.D (1825 - 1901) |url=https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/member-details.aspx?pk=557 |access-date=2024-07-26 |website=www.parliament.nsw.gov.au}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walker |first=R. B. |date=1972 |title=Andrew Garran; Congregationalist, Conservative, Liberal Reformer |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8497.1972.tb00603.x |journal=Australian Journal of Politics & History |language=en |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=386–401 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8497.1972.tb00603.x |issn=0004-9522|url-access=subscription }}</ref>  He advocated free trade and [[Federation of Australia|Federation]] while editor of ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'' and later promoted these ideas as a member of the [[New South Wales Legislative Council]].{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=292}}

The family lived in [[Phillip Street]] in central Sydney. Garran's mother "had a deep distrust, well justified in those days, of milkman's milk" and so she kept a [[cow]] in the backyard, which would walk on its own to [[The Domain, Sydney|The Domain]] each day to graze and return twice a day to be milked.{{sfnp|Zines|2006|p=2}}{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=65}} The Garrans later lived in the suburb of [[Darlinghurst]], just to the east of the centre of the city.<ref name="ADB" />

Garran attended [[Sydney Grammar School]] from the age of ten, starting in 1877. He was a successful student, and became [[School Captain]] in 1884. He then studied arts and law at the [[University of Sydney]], where he was awarded [[scholarship]]s for classics, mathematics and general academic ability.{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=1}} Garran graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1888 and subsequently won the University's Medal in Philosophy when he was conferred with a Master of Arts with first-class honours in 1899.{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=1}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133599440|title=The Sydney University conferral of degrees|date=29 April 1899|newspaper=[[The Maitland Weekly Mercury]]|access-date=27 April 2020|page=9|via=Trove}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://calendararchive.usyd.edu.au/Calendar/1901/1901.pdf |title=Calendar |author=University of Sydney |publisher=Angus and Robertson |year=1901 |access-date=5 June 2020}}</ref>

After graduating, Garran began to study for the Bar examination. He was employed for a year with a firm of Sydney [[solicitor]]s, and in 1890 served as associate to Justice [[William Charles Windeyer]] of the [[Supreme Court of New South Wales]].{{sfnp|Francis|1983|pp=1–2}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222115238|title=Appointment of Clerk Associate to His Honor Mr Justice Windeyer|date=3 April 1890|newspaper=[[New South Wales Government Gazette]]|access-date=27 April 2020|page=2906|via=Trove}}</ref> Windeyer had a reputation for being a harsh and inflexible judge, particularly in criminal cases, where he was said to have "a rigorous and unrelenting sense of the retribution that he believed criminal justice demanded, [and] a sympathy verging on the emotional for the victims of crime."<ref name="ADB Windeyer">{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |title=Windeyer, Sir William Charles (1834–1897) |volume=6 |pages=420–422 |id2=windeyer-sir-william-charles-1062 |access-date=27 April 2020}}</ref> Garran however offered a different view, saying that "those who knew him well knew that under a brusque exterior he was the kindest of men", and his reputation had to some degree been created by misrepresentation.{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=78}} In 1891, Garran was admitted to the [[New South Wales Bar]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article227248271|title=Admission of Barristers: Dr Garran's son admitted|date=28 August 1891|newspaper=[[The Australian Star]]|access-date=27 April 2020|page=6|via=Trove}}</ref> where he commenced practice as a [[barrister]], primarily working in [[Equity (law)|equity]].<ref name="ADB" />

==Federation movement==
[[Image:Andrew Garran.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Portrait of Andrew Garran, Robert's father, in 1896]]
Garran, like his father, was strongly involved in the Australian Federation movement, the movement which sought to unite the [[British colonies]] in Australia (and, in early proposals, New Zealand) into one [[federation|federated]] [[country]]. The first [[Constitutional Convention (Australia)|Constitutional Convention]] was held in 1891 in the chamber of the [[Legislative Council of New South Wales]] in [[Macquarie Street, Sydney]], around the corner from Garran's chambers in Phillip Street; Garran regularly attended and sat in the public gallery to see "history... in the making under my very eyes."{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=22}}{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=92}} Garran later recalled with approval that the 1891 convention was the first with the courage to face the "lion in the path", the issue of [[customs]] duties and [[tariff]]s, which had previously divided states such as [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], who were in favour of [[protectionism]], and states such as New South Wales, who were in favour of [[free trade]]. In Garran's view a clause proposed at the convention, which allowed for tariffs against international trade while ensuring free trade domestically (the predecessor to the final [[section 92 of the Constitution of Australia]]), "expressed the terms on which New South Wales was prepared to face the lion."{{sfnp|Garran|1958|pp=96–97}}

On joining the bar soon he became involved with [[Edmund Barton]] K.C., later the first [[Prime Minister of Australia]], and the ''[[de facto]]'' leader of the federation movement in New South Wales. Garran, along with others such as [[Atlee Hunt]], worked essentially as secretaries to Barton's federation campaign, drafting correspondence and planning meetings.<ref name="Barton adb">{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |first=Martha |last=Rutledge |title=Barton, Sir Edmund (Toby) (1849–1920) |id2=barton-sir-edmund-toby-71 |access-date=10 June 2020}}</ref> At one late night meeting, planning a speech Barton was to give in the Sydney suburb of [[Ashfield, New South Wales|Ashfield]], Barton expressed the phrase "For the first time, we have a nation for a continent, and a continent for a nation"; Garran later claimed that the now famous phrase "would have been unrecorded if I had not happened to jot it down."{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=101}}

In June 1893, when Barton's [[Australasian Federal League]] was formed at a meeting in the [[Sydney Town Hall]], Garran joined immediately and was made a member of the executive committee. He was one of the League's four delegates to the 1893 [[Corowa Conference]] and a League delegate to the 1896 "People's Convention", or [[Bathurst Conference]], a conference attended by Barton, Reid, League  members, the [[Australian Natives' Association]] (mainly Victorian) and other pro-federation groups.<ref name="ADB" /> At Corowa he was part of an impromptu group organised by [[John Quick (politician)|John Quick]] which drafted a resolution, passed at the Conference, calling for a directly elected Constitutional Convention to be charged with drafting the Bill for the [[Constitution of Australia]]. The proposal, which came to be known as the Corowa Plan, was later accepted at the 1895 Premiers' Conference and formed the basis for the federation process over the following five years.<ref name="Irving Corowa">{{cite web |first=Helen |last=Irving |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/senate/pubs/pops/pop32/c02.pdf |title=When Quick Met Garran: the Corowa Plan |work=Papers on Parliament No 32 |date=December 1998 |access-date=10 June 2020 |publisher=Parliament of Australia}}</ref>{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=104}}

In 1897, Garran published ''The Coming Commonwealth'',<ref name="The coming Commonwealth"/> an influential book on the history of the Federation movement and the debate over the 1891 draft of the Constitution of Australia. The book was based on material he prepared for a course on [[federalism]] and federal systems of government, which he had planned to give at the University of Sydney, but which failed to attract a sufficient number of students.{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=292}} Nevertheless, the book was both unique and popular, as one of the few books on the topic at the time, with the first edition quickly selling out. Soon after its publication the [[Premier of New South Wales]], [[George Reid]], who had been elected as a New South Wales delegate to the 1897–1898 Constitutional Convention, invited Garran to be his secretary. At the Convention, Reid appointed him secretary of the Drafting Committee, at Barton's request; he was also a member of the Press Committee.<ref name="NLA gateway">{{cite web | title = Garran, Sir Robert Randolph (1867–1957) | work = National Library of Australia's Federation Gateway | url = http://www.nla.gov.au/guides/federation/people/garran.html | access-date = 20 July 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060708000619/http://www.nla.gov.au/guides/federation/people/garran.html <!--Added by H3llBot--> | archive-date = 8 July 2006}}</ref>

Garran recorded in a letter to his family during the convention's [[Melbourne]] sitting that:
<blockquote>
The committee professes to find me very useful in unravelling the conundrums sent down by the finance committee... The last two nights I have found the drafting committee fagged [tired] and despairing, and now they have pitched the conundrums at me and gone out for a smoke; and then I worked out [[algebra]]ic formulas to clear the thing up, drafted clauses accordingly, and when the committee returned we had plain sailing.{{sfnp|Garran|1958|pp=119–120}}
</blockquote>
Garran joked that the long work of the drafting committee breached the ''[[Factory Acts]]'', the group (primarily Barton, [[Richard O'Connor (politician)|Richard O'Connor]], [[John Downer]] and Garran) often working late into the night preparing drafts for the convention to consider and debate the next morning. On the evening before the convention's last day, Barton had gone to bed exhausted in the small hours, Garran and [[Charles Gavan Duffy]] finishing the final schedule of amendments at breakfast time.{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=122}} The convention concluded successfully, approving a final draft which ultimately, aside from a small amendment arranged at the last minute in [[London]], became the Constitution of Australia.{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=292}}<ref name="Barton adb"/>

Throughout 1898, following the completion of the proposed Constitution, Garran participated in the campaign promoting Federation leading up to the referendums at which the people of the colonies voted whether or not to approve the Constitution. He contributed a daily column to the ''[[Evening News (Sydney)|Evening News]]'', and had humorous poems critiquing opponents of federation published in ''[[The Bulletin (Australian periodical)|The Bulletin]]''.{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=292}} The following year, he began working with Quick on the ''Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth'',<ref name="annotated con">{{cite book |last1=Quick |first1=John |author-link1=John Quick (politician) |last2=Garran |first2=Robert |name-list-style=amp |title=The Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth |url=https://archive.org/details/annotatedconstit00quicuoft |publisher=[[Angus & Robertson]] |year=1901 |location=Sydney |isbn=978-0-9596568-0-0}}</ref> a reference work on the Constitution including a history, and detailed discussion of each section analysing its meaning and its development at the Conventions. Published in 1901, the ''Annotated Constitution'', commonly referred to simply as "Quick & Garran", soon became the standard work on the Constitution and is still regarded as one of the most important works on the subject.{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=292}}

==Public service==
[[Image:Garrans&Grooms.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Garran and his wife Hilda (second and first from left respectively), and their friends Sir [[Littleton Groom]] and his wife Jessie (first and second from right respectively), photographed at [[Telopea Park]] in 1926]]

On the day that Federation was completed and Australia created, 1 January 1901, Garran, feeling like "a junior barrister suddenly promoted to the final court of appeal",<ref>William Coleman,''Their Fiery Cross of Union. A Retelling of the Creation of the Australian Federation, 1889-1914'', Connor Court, Queensland, 2021, p29.</ref> was appointed secretary and Permanent Head of the [[Attorney-General's Department (Australia)|Attorney-General's Department]] by the first [[Attorney-General of Australia]], [[Alfred Deakin]]. Garran was the first, and for a time the only, public servant employed by the [[Government of Australia]].{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=292}}<ref name="ADB" /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232126348 |title=Appointment of members of staff – Attorney-General's department |newspaper=[[Commonwealth of Australia Gazette]] |date=12 July 1901 |access-date=30 May 2020 |page=116 |via=Trove}}</ref> Garran later said of this time that:
<blockquote>
I was not only the head [of the department], but the tail. I was my own clerk and messenger. My first duty was to write out with my own hand [[Commonwealth Gazette]] No. 1 proclaiming the establishment of the Commonwealth and the appointment of ministers of state, and to send myself down with it to the government printer.<ref name="armchair chat">{{cite web |last=Rayner |first=Michelle |title=Sir Robert Garran: a memoir of federation |work=Armchair chat |publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=1950s |url=http://www.abc.net.au/ourplace/national/garran.htm | access-date=27 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060715213556/http://abc.net.au/ourplace/national/garran.htm |archive-date=15 July 2006 |url-status=dead | df=dmy-all}}</ref>
</blockquote>

In this role, Garran was responsible for organising the [[1901 Australian federal election|first federal election]] in March 1901, and for organising the transfer of various government departments from [[states and territories of Australia|the states]] to the federal government, including the [[Department of Defence (Australia)|Department of Defence]], the [[mail|postal]] and [[telegraph]]ic services (now part of the [[Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts]]) and the Department of Trade and Customs (now part of the [[Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia)|Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade]]).{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=292}} As parliamentary drafter, Garran also developed legislation to administer those new departments and other important legislation.<ref name="ADB" /> As head of the Attorney General's department, Garran was also responsible for advice on the consistency of legislation with the Constitution, including the ''Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902'' which by disenfranchising Aboriginals appeared to offend the Constitution's Section 41, which guaranteed the right to vote federally of anyone entitled to vote in a state. Garran advised that the Section could be neutered by interpreting it as no more than a [[grandfather clause]] of the right to vote of existing Aboriginal voters.<ref>William Coleman,''Their Fiery Cross of Union. A Retelling of the Creation of the Australian Federation, 1889-1914'', Connor Court, Queensland, 2021, p.431.</ref> The Act also conferred the right to vote on women federally, a cause Garran was, in private, gently mocking of.

Garran and his fellow staff aimed for a simple style of legislative drafting, a goal enabled by the fact that there was no pre-existing federal legislation on which their work would have to be based.<ref name="ADB" /> In Garran's opinion the approach, which was put into practice many years before the similarly principled [[plain English]] movement became popular in government in the 1970s, was intended "to set an example of clear, straightforward language, free from technical [[jargon]]."{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=61}}{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=145}} Subsequent parliamentary drafters have noted that Garran was unusual in this respect for deliberately setting out to achieve and improve a particular drafting style, and that it was not until the early 1980s that such discipline among drafters re-emerged.<ref name="penfold words">{{cite conference |first=Hilary |last=Penfold |title=When words aren't enough: Graphics and other innovations in legislative drafting |publisher=[[Office of Parliamentary Counsel (Australia)|Office of Parliamentary Counsel]] |date=8 December 2001 |url=http://www.opc.gov.au/plain/docs/words_arent_enough.pdf |access-date=11 December 2006 |conference=Language and the Law Conference |location=University of Texas at Austin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060918060624/http://www.opc.gov.au/plain/docs/words_arent_enough.pdf |archive-date=18 September 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

However, Garran himself admitted that his drafting could be overly simplistic, citing the first customs and excise legislation,{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=145}}<ref>{{cite Legislation AU|Cth|num_act|ca190161901151|Customs Act 1901}}<br>{{cite Legislation AU|Cth|num_act|tea190191901137|Excise Act 1901}}</ref> developed with the Minister for Trade and Customs [[Charles Kingston]] and Assistant Parliamentary Draftsman Gordon Castle,<ref name="AGS Castle"/> as an example of the style taken to excess.{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=145}} The style was also once [[parodied]] by foundation [[High Court of Australia|High Court]] Justice Richard O'Connor as follows:
<blockquote>
Every man shall wear –<br />
&nbsp; (a) Coat<br />
&nbsp; (b) Vest<br />
&nbsp; (c) Trousers<br />
Penalty: £100.<ref name="armchair chat" />{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=61}}
</blockquote>

The Attorney-General's Department also managed [[litigation]] on behalf of the government. Initially the department contracted private [[law firm]]s to actually conduct the litigation, but in 1903 the office of the [[Commonwealth Crown Solicitor]] was established, with [[Charles Powers]] the first to hold the job.<ref name="Powers adb">{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |first=Colin |last=Forster |title=Powers, Sir Charles (1853–1939) |id2=powers-sir-charles-8092 |access-date=9 July 2013}}</ref> The other Crown Solicitors that Garran worked with were Gordon Castle (with whom he had also worked as a drafter)<ref name="AGS Castle">{{cite web |url=https://legalopinions.ags.gov.au/opinionauthor/castle-gordon-harwood |title=Castle Gordon Harwood |work=Legal opinions |publisher=Australian Government Solicitor |access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref> and [[William Sharwood]].<ref name="AGS Sharwood">{{cite web |url=https://legalopinions.ags.gov.au/opinionauthor/sharwood-william-henry |title=Sharwood William Henry |work=Legal opinions |publisher=Australian Government Solicitor |access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref><ref name="ADB Sharwood">{{cite AuDB |id2=sharwood-william-henry-8403 |title=Sharwood, William Henry (1872–1944) |first=Matthew |last=Dicker |access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref> In 1912, Garran was considered as a possible appointee to the High Court, following the expansion of the bench from five seats to seven and the death of Richard O'Connor. [[Billy Hughes]], Attorney-General in the [[Andrew Fisher|Fisher]] government at the time, later said Garran would have been appointed "but for the fact that he is too valuable a man for us to lose. We cannot spare him."{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=292}}

Garran worked with eleven Attorneys-General as Permanent Head of the Department.<ref name="AGS Garran">{{cite web |url=https://legalopinions.ags.gov.au/opinionauthor/garran-robert-randolph |title=Garran Robert Randolph |work=Legal opinions |publisher=Australian Government Solicitor |access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref> Garran regarded the first Attorney-General, Alfred Deakin, as an excellent thinker and a natural lawyer, and on occasion "[spoke] of Deakin as the [[Arthur Balfour|Balfour]] of Australian politics."{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=156}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27926129 |title=Books of the week: the Balfour of Australian politics |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=13 January 1945 |access-date=14 June 2020 |page=7 |via=Trove}}</ref> He was also very much impressed with the fifth Attorney-General, [[Isaac Isaacs]], who was an extremely diligent worker, and two time Attorney-General [[Littleton Groom]], who was "probably one of the most useful Ministers the Commonwealth has had."{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=158}}

===Solicitor-General===
[[Image:Paris 1919 Australian delegation.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Australian delegation to the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919]]. Garran is in the front row, seated, second from left. Also pictured are [[Billy Hughes]], front centre, and Sir [[Joseph Cook]], seated, second from right.]]

In 1916, Garran was made the first [[Solicitor-General of Australia]] by Billy Hughes, who had since become Prime Minister as well as Attorney-General.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232455006 |title=Appointment of Solicitor-General for the Commonwealth |newspaper=[[Commonwealth of Australia Gazette]] |date=9 September 1916 |access-date=4 June 2020 |page=2561 |via=Trove}}</ref> The creation of the office and Garran's appointment to it represented a formal delegation of many of the powers and functions formerly exercised by the Attorney-General.<ref name="ADB" />{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=8}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232455003 |title=War Precautions (Supplementary) Regulations 1916: delegation by Attorney-General to Solicitor-General |newspaper=[[Commonwealth of Australia Gazette]] |date=9 September 1916 |access-date=4 June 2020 |page=2562 |via=Trove}}</ref>

Garran developed a strong relationship with Hughes, giving him legal advice on the [[World War I]] [[Conscription in Australia#World War I|conscription plebiscites]] and on the range of [[regulation]]s which were made under the ''[[War Precautions Act 1914]]''.{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=7}} The ''War Precautions Regulations'' had a broad scope, and were generally supported by the High Court, which adopted a much more flexible approach to the reach of the Commonwealth's [[defence power]] during wartime.<ref>{{cite book |last=Scott |first=Ernest |year=1941 |title=[[The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918]] |volume=XI |chapter=Chapter XIX – Prices and Price Fixing |chapter-url=https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1069860/document/5519336.PDF |pages=642 |publisher=Angus and Robertson |location=Sydney }}<br>{{Cite AustLII|HCA|36|1916|litigants=Farey v Burvett |link=Farey v Burvett |parallelcite=[http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1916/36.pdf (1916) 21 {{abbr|CLR|Commonwealth Law Reports}} 433]}}</ref> A substantial amount of Garran's work during the war involved preparing and carrying out the regulations.{{sfnp|Zines|2006|p=7}} Many of them were directed at maximising the economic aspect of the war effort and ensuring supplies of goods to Australian troops;<ref>{{cite book |last=Scott |first=Ernest |year=1936 |title=[[The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918]] |volume=XI |chapter=Chapter XVI – The Wool Purchase |chapter-url=https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1069857/document/5519333.PDF |pages=571–572 |publisher=Angus and Robertson |location=Sydney }}</ref> others were directed at controlling citizens or former citizens of the enemy [[Central Powers]] living in Australia.<ref>{{cite book |last=Scott |first=Ernest |year=1936 |title=[[The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918]] |volume=XI |chapter=Chapter IV – The enemy within the gates |chapter-url=https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1069971/document/5520719.PDF |publisher=Angus and Robertson |location=Sydney |page=110}}</ref> On one occasion, when Hughes had been informed that at a party hosted by a [[Germans|German]] man, the band had played "[[Das Lied der Deutschen]]", Hughes asked Garran "By the way, what is this tune?" to which Garran replied that it was [[Haydn]]'s melody to "[[Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser]]", and as it was used as the tune to several [[hymn]]s "it was probably sung in half a dozen churches in Sydney last Sunday." Hughes then said "Good Heavens! I have played that thing with one finger hundreds of times."{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=223}}

The partnership between Garran and Hughes is regarded by some as unusual, given that Garran was "tall, gentlemanly, wise and scholarly", and patient with his staff, whereas Hughes was "short of stature [and] renowned for bursts of temper."{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=7}} Nevertheless, the partnership was a successful one, with Hughes recognising the importance of Garran's constitutional expertise, remarking once about the World War I period that "the best way to govern Australia was to have Sir Robert Garran at [my] elbow, with a fountain pen and a blank sheet of paper, and the ''War Precautions Act''."<ref name="ADB">{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |last=Parker |first=R S |title=Garran, Sir Robert Randolph (1867–1957) |volume=8 |pages=622–625 |year=1981 |id2= garran-sir-robert-randolph-410 |access-date=27 April 2020}}</ref> Likewise, Garran respected Hughes's strong leadership style, which had been important in guiding the country through the war, although in describing the [[Nationalist Party of Australia|Nationalist Party]]'s loss in the [[1922 Australian federal election|1922 federal election]], Garran later said that "Hughes also overestimated his own hold on Parliament [although] his hold on the people was probably undiminished."{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=280}}

Garran accompanied Hughes and [[Joseph Cook]] (then the Minister for the Navy) to the 1917 and 1918 meetings of the [[Imperial War Cabinet]] in London, United Kingdom, and was also part of the [[British Empire]] delegation to the 1919 [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] in [[Paris]], France. There he was on several of the treaty drafting committees, and contributed to many provisions, notably the portions of the [[League of Nations]] Covenant relating to [[League of Nations mandate]]s.<ref name="ADB"/> Though focusing mainly on League of Nations matters, Garran and [[John Latham (Australian jurist)|John Latham]] (the head of Australian Naval Intelligence) had the status of technical advisers to Hughes and Cook, and so could attend the main conference and any of the associated councils.{{sfnp|Zines|2006|p=8}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=Papers of Sir John Latham|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-323428403|access-date=14 June 2020|website=nla.gov.au|series=Series 20. 1918 Imperial War Conference, 1917–1919|language=en}}</ref> Observing the proceedings, Garran admired the "moral and physical courage"{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}<!-- confirm{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=260}} --> of French premier [[Georges Clemenceau]], whom he regarded as determined to protect France from Germany but in a measured and temperate way; in Garran's words, Clemenceau "always withstood the excessive demands of the French chauvinists, of the French army, and of [[Foch]] himself".{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=260}} Garran viewed some similarities between [[British Prime Minister]] [[David Lloyd George]] and [[United States President]] [[Woodrow Wilson]] where others saw only differences, since Lloyd George "also had a strong vein of idealism in his character", and Wilson could be pragmatic when the situation called for it, such as in discussions relating to American interests.{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=262}} Garran also met other political and military leaders at the conference, including [[T. E. Lawrence]], "an [[Jesus College, Oxford|Oxford]] youth of 29 – he looks 18", who was modest and "without any affectation... in a company of two or three [he] could talk very interestingly, but at a larger gathering he was apt to be dumb."{{sfnp|Garran|1958|p=264}}

[[Image:Garran house.jpg|thumb|left|The Garran family house in Canberra, 22 Mugga Way, [[Red Hill, Australian Capital Territory|Red Hill]]]]

Following the war, Garran worked with Professor [[Harrison Moore]] of the University of Melbourne and [[South Australia]]n judge Professor [[Jethro Brown]] on a report about proposed constitutional amendments which ultimately became the referendum questions put forward in the [[1919 Australian referendum|1919 referendum]].<ref name="ADB" /> Garran attended two [[Imperial Conference]]s, accompanying Prime Minister [[Stanley Bruce]] in 1923 and in 1930 joining Prime Minister [[James Scullin]] and Attorney-General [[Frank Brennan (Australian politician)|Frank Brennan]], chair of the Drafting Committee which prepared drafts of agreements on various topics, such as [[merchant shipping]].{{sfnp|Zines|2006|p=8}} He also attended the eleventh League of Nations conference that year with them in [[Geneva]], [[Switzerland]].<ref name="ADB" /> At the [[Royal Commission on the Constitution (Australia)|Royal Commission on the Constitution]] in 1927, Garran gave evidence over five days, where he discussed the history and origins of the Constitution and the evolution of the institutions established under it.{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=293}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16405684 |title=Constitution Royal Commission |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=22 September 1927 |access-date=30 May 2020 |page=12 |via=Trove}}<br>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16405784 |title=Constitution Royal Commission. Sir Robert Garran's evidence: where amendment is needed |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=23 September 1927 |access-date=30 May 2020 |page=11 |via=Trove}}<br>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16406322 |title=Constitution health, pensions and trade |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=24 September 1927 |access-date=30 May 2020 |page=15 |via=Trove}}<br>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16407244 |title=Constitution Royal Commission Solicitor-General's evidence Dominion powers |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=28 September 1927 |access-date=30 May 2020 |page=14 |via=Trove}}<br>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16407313 |title=Federal powers, child endowment: evidence before Royal Commission |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=29 September 1927 |access-date=30 May 2020 |page=11 |via=Trove}}</ref>

Through the 1920s and early 1930s, Garran prepared annual summaries of legislative developments in Australia, highlighting important individual pieces of legislation for the ''Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law''.<ref name="JCLIL">For example, {{cite journal |last1=Garran |first1=Robert |last2=Groom |first2=Littleton |author-link2=Littleton Groom |last3=Bean |first3=Edgar Layton |last4=Solomon |first4=H J |last5=Zichy-Woinarski |first5=Cazimir |last6=Zichy-Woinarski |first6=S H |last7=Stow |first7=Francis Leslie |last8=Gore |first8=Ralph Thomas |display-authors=3 |title=Commonwealth of Australia |journal=[[Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law]] |volume=12 |number=2 |year=1930 |pages=95–130 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |jstor=753366 |oclc=1680994}} and<br>
{{cite journal |last1=Garran |first1=Robert |last2=Broadbent |first2=Joseph Edward |last3=Bean |first3=Edgar Layton |last4=Solomon |first4=H J |last5=Zichy-Woinarski |first5=Cazimir |last6=Zichy-Woinarski |first6=S H |last7=Stow |first7=Francis Leslie |last8=Gore |display-authors=3 |title=Commonwealth of Australia |journal=[[Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law]] |volume=14 |number=2 |year=1932 |pages=73–107 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |jstor=753896 |oclc=1680994}}</ref>

Towards the end of his time as Solicitor-General, Garran's work included the preparation of the Debt Conversion Agreement between the Government of Australia and the governments of the states, which involved the federal government taking over and managing the debts of the individual states, following the [[1928 Australian referendum|1928 referendum]].{{sfnp|Garran|1958|pp=336–338}}{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is Garran's memoirs.|date=June 2020}} In 1930, he was asked by the Scullin government to provide an opinion on whether [[Norman Lindsay]]'s novel ''[[Redheap]]'' was indecent and obscene within the terms of section 52(c) of the ''Customs Act 1901''. He concluded that it was,<ref name="Redheap opinion">{{cite web |url=https://legalopinions.ags.gov.au/legalopinion/opinion-1459 |first=Robert |last=Garran |title=Customs: 'indecent or obscene': tendency to corrupt and deprave |work=Legal opinion number 1459 |publisher=Australian Government Solicitor |access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref> and the [[Department of Trade and Customs]] subsequently banned the book from being imported into Australia, the first book by an Australian author to suffer such a ban. It has been suggested that [[Frank Forde]], the Acting Minister for Trade and Customs, had already decided to ban the book, and sought Garran's advice primarily as a buffer against political criticism.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Banning of Redheap: Sober Facts about an Inflammatory Fiction|first=Robert|last=Darby|year=2013|journal=Labour History|issue=105|pages=171–186|doi=10.5263/labourhistory.105.0171}}</ref>

==Personal life and retirement==
In 1902, Garran married Hilda Robson.<ref name="Marriage">{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14465300 |title=Marriages: Garran - Robson |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=26 April 1902 |access-date=12 May 2020 |page=1 |via=Trove}}</ref> Together they had four sons, Richard (born 1903), [[John Garran|John]] (1905),<ref name="ADB John Garran">{{cite AuDB |id2=garran-john-cheyne-10278 |title=Garran, John Cheyne (1905–1976) |first=C C |last=Creswell |access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref> Andrew (1906) and Isham Peter (1910).<ref name="ADB" /> At this time the family lived in Melbourne, and the boys all attended [[Melbourne Grammar School]] and later studied at the [[University of Melbourne]], attending [[Trinity College (University of Melbourne)|Trinity College]] there.<ref name="ADB John Garran"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205780288 |title=About people |newspaper=[[The Age]] |date=18 October 1927 |access-date=29 May 2020 |page=9 |via=Trove}}<br>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202284897 |title=Rhodes Scholar: Andrew Garran (Trinity) |newspaper=[[The Age]] |date=11 November 1927 |access-date=29 May 2020 |page=10 |via=Trove}}<br>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8151665 |title=Diplomat's wife in Melbourne |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |date=29 March 1941 |access-date=29 May 2020 |page=5 |via=Trove}}</ref>

[[Image:Canberra Rotary 1928.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The presentation of the Charter of the Canberra Rotary Club, 1928, at the Hotel Canberra. Garran is seated, front centre.]]

In 1927, Garran had moved from his home in Melbourne to the newly established capital [[Canberra]], one of the first public officials to do so (many government departments and their public servants did not move to Canberra until after [[World War II]]).<ref name="ADB" /> He also worked within the Government to facilitate housing in Canberra for officials who needed to move there from other cities, and was involved in establishing cultural organisations in the city.{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=17}} In 1928 he was the inaugural President of the Canberra [[Rotary Club]].{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=11}} In 1929, he formed the Canberra University Association in order to promote the formation of a university in Canberra, and in 1930 organised the establishment of [[Canberra University College]] (essentially a campus of the University of Melbourne) which taught undergraduate courses, chairing its council for its first twenty-three years.<ref name="ADB" /> Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Garran "consistently advocated the establishment of what he prophetically called 'a National University at Canberra' ",<ref name="ADB" /> which would be primarily for specialist research and [[postgraduate]] study, in areas particularly relating to Australia, such as foreign relations with Asia and the Pacific region.<ref name="ADB" /> This vision was evidently influential on the establishment of the [[Australian National University]] (ANU) in 1946,<ref name="ADB" /> the only research-only university in the country (although in 1960 it amalgamated with Canberra University College to offer undergraduate courses).<ref name="merger anu cuc">{{cite web |title=Canberra University College 1930–1960 |work=Information Services @ ANU |publisher=Australian National University |url=https://information.anu.edu.au/daisy/infoservices/279.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080721112333/http://information.anu.edu.au/daisy/infoservices/279.html |archive-date=21 July 2008}}</ref>

Garran retired from his governmental positions on 9 February 1932, a fixed retirement date on the day before his sixty-fifth birthday. He soon returned to practise as a barrister, and within a month he was made a [[King's Counsel]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16842854 |title=Sir Robert Garran appointed KC|date=24 February 1932 |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |access-date=27 April 2020 |page=10 |via=Trove}}</ref> However, he occasionally carried out more prominent work. In 1932, he was selected on the advice of the then Attorney-General John Latham to chair the Indian Defence Expenditure Tribunal, to advise on the dispute between India and the United Kingdom regarding the costs of the military defence of India.<ref name="ADB" /> In 1934, along with [[John Keating (Australian politician)|John Keating]], William Somerville and David John Gilbert, he formed a committee which prepared ''The Case for Union'',<ref name="case for union">{{cite book |last1=Garran |first1=Robert |last2=Keating |first2=John |author-link2=John Keating (Australian politician) |last3=Somerville |first3=William |last4=Gilbert |first4=David |display-authors=2 |title=The Case for union: a reply to the case for the secession of the state of Western Australia |url=http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/90902 |publisher=Commonwealth Government Printer |year=1934 |location=Canberra}}</ref> the Government of Australia's official reply to [[Secessionism in Western Australia|the secessionist movement]] in the state of [[Western Australia]].{{sfnp|Zines|2006|p=10}}

Garran served on ANU's council from 1946 until 1951. Garran was also involved with the arts; he was a founding member of the [[Australian Institute of Arts and Literature]] and its president 1922-1927.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223626046 |title=Home Hunt |newspaper=[[The Sun (Sydney)]] |issue=5169 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=2 June 1927 |access-date=27 September 2022 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He was the vice-president of the Canberra Musical Society, where he sang and played the [[clarinet]], and in 1946 won a national song competition run by the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]].{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=293}} Garran also published translations of [[Heinrich Heine]]'s 1827 work ''Buch der Lieder'' ("Book of Songs") in 1924,<ref name="book of songs">{{cite book |author1=Heine, Heinrich |author2=translated by Garran, Robert | title = The book of songs | publisher = Keating-Wood | year = 1924 | location = Melbourne}}</ref> and of the works of [[Franz Schubert]] and [[Robert Schumann]] in 1946.<ref name="schu">{{cite book | author = Garran, Robert | title = Schubert and Schumann : songs and translations | publisher = Melbourne University Press | year = 1946 | location = Melbourne}}</ref> 

He was known to be a great lover of poetry and languages.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Gageler |first=Stephen |date=12 October 2017 |title=SIR ROBERT GARRAN: MEDIO TUTISSIMUS IBIS |url=https://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/speeches/current-justices/gagelerj/Gageler_-_Garran_FLR.pdf |website=High Court of Australia}}</ref> Geoffrey Sawer, the ANU Law professor, believed Garran had brought his quiet religious faith to bear in his life of service:<blockquote>"The Commonwealth was fortunate in having through so much of its early history the services of such a man—superbly intelligent, with great practical commonsense, a Christian both in moral rectitude and in loving-kindness, selfless, devoid of any faintest touch of arrogance, priggishness or conceit, with a sense both of humour and of fun."<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>Garran died in 1957 in Canberra. He was granted a [[state funeral]], the first given to a public servant of the Government of Australia, and was buried at [[St John the Baptist Church, Reid|St John's, Reid.]]<ref name="ADB" /> He was survived by his four sons; his wife Hilda had died in 1936. His [[memoir]]s, ''Prosper the Commonwealth'', were published posthumously in 1958, having been completed shortly before his death.{{sfnp|Garran|1958}}

==Legacy==
[[Image:Garran 1944.jpg|thumb|upright|Garran at [[ANZAC Day]] celebrations at the [[cenotaph]] in [[Martin Place, Sydney]], 25 April 1944]]

Garran's "personality, like his prose, was devoid of pedantry and pomposity and, though dignified, was laced with a quizzical turn of humour."<ref name="ADB" /> His death "marked the end of a generation of public men for whom the cultural and the political were natural extensions of each other and who had the skills and talents to make such connections effortlessly."{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=293}}

Garran's friend Charles Studdy Daley, a long time civic administrator of the [[Australian Capital Territory]], emphasised Garran's contribution to the early development of the city of Canberra, particularly its cultural life, remarking at a celebratory dinner for Garran in 1954 that:
<blockquote>
"There has hardly been a cultural movement in this city with which Sir Robert has not been identified in loyal and inspiring support, as his constant aim has been that Canberra should be not only a great political centre but also a shrine to foster those things that stimulate and enrich our national life... his name will ever be inscribed in the annals, not only of Canberra, but of the Commonwealth as ''clarum et venerabile nomen gentibus''.{{sfnp|Francis|1983|p=17}}<ref name="daley quote lucan">Daley quotes [[Lucan]]'s epic poem ''[[Pharsalia]]''; the phrase may be translated as "Among the people his name is honoured and distinguished."</ref>
</blockquote>

However, Garran is perhaps best remembered as an expert on constitutional law, more so than for his other contributions to public service. At his death, Garran was one of the last remaining of the people involved with the creation of the Constitution of Australia.{{sfnp|Irving|2001|p=293}}  On his experience of Federation and the Constitution, Garran was always enthusiastic:
<blockquote>
"I'm often asked 'has federation turned out as you expected?' Well yes and no. By and large the sort of thing we expected has happened but with differences. We knew the constitution was not perfect; it had to be a compromise with all the faults of a compromise... But, in spite of the unforeseen [sic] strains and stresses, the constitution has worked, on the whole, much as we thought it would. I think it now needs revision, to meet the needs of a changed world. But no-one could wish the work undone, who tries to imagine, what, in these stormy days, would have been the plight of six disunited Australian colonies."<ref name="armchair chat" />
</blockquote>

Former Prime Minister [[John Howard]], in describing Garran, said:
<blockquote>
"I wonder though if we sometimes underestimate the changes, excitements, disruptions and adjustments previous generations have experienced. Sir Robert Garran knew the promise and reality of federation. He was part of the establishment of a public service which, in many ways, is clearly recognisable today."<ref name="howard">{{cite web | last = Howard | first = John | author-link = John Howard | title = The 1997 Sir Robert Garran Oration | work = Prime Minister of Australia | date = 19 November 1997 | url = http://www.ipaa.org.au/documents/2012/05/1997-garran-oration.pdf | access-date = 19 April 2012}}</ref>
</blockquote>

At one level, Garran's remarkable career epitomises the heyday, or [[Indian summer|Indian Summer]], of the meritocratic bourgeois elite born in Australia in the third quarter of the 19th century. At another level, his exceptional influence as an [[Éminence grise|''éminence grise'']] bespeaks his fluency in construction, be it in poetry translation or legislative drafts, even if always out of commonplace materials. He lacked the imagination to range beyond the stock assumptions of the day regarding race, sex and Empire, assumptions he fully shared.<ref>William Coleman,''Their Fiery Cross of Union. A Retelling of the Creation of the Australian Federation, 1889-1914'', Connor Court, Queensland, 2021, p.191, p.379., p.402.</ref> This, inevitably, only made his influence stronger.

==Honours==
Garran was made a Commander of the [[Order of St Michael and St George]] (CMG) on the day that Federation was completed and Australia created, 1 January 1901, "in recognition of services in connection with the Federation of Australian Colonies and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia",<ref name="honour roll">{{London Gazette |issue=27261 |date=1 January 1901 |page=1 |supp=1 |title=Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) entry for Mr Robert Randolph Garran}}<br>{{Cite It's an Honour |ausawardid=1066381 |date=1 January 1901 |recipient=Mr Robert Randolph Garran |award=Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George |postnominal=CMG |access-date=27 April 2020}}</ref>

Garran was first [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1917,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=30022 |date=1 April 1917 |page=3596 |title=Knight Bachelor entry for Mr Robert Randolph Garran CMG}}<br>{{Cite It's an Honour |ausawardid=1083302 |date=17 April 1917 |recipient=Mr Robert Randolph Garran CMG |award=Knight Bachelor |access-date=27 April 2020}}</ref> and was appointed as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1920.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=31712 |date=1 January 1920 |page=4 |supp=1 |title=Knight Commander entry for Sir Robert Randolph Garran Knt CMG}}<br>{{Cite It's an Honour |ausawardid=1082580 |date=1 January 1920 |recipient=Sir Robert Randolph Garran CMG |award=Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George |postnominal=KCMG |access-date=27 April 2020}}</ref> He was knighted a third time in 1937 when he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG).<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=34396 |date=11 May 1937 |page=3081 |supp=1 |title=Knight Grand Cross entry for Sir Robert Randolph Garran KCMG KC}}<br>{{Cite It's an Honour |ausawardid=1073796 |date=11 May 1937 |recipient=Mr Robert Randolph Garran KCMG CMG |award=Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George |postnominal=GCMG |access-date=27 April 2020}}</ref>

Shortly after the establishment of the ANU in 1946, Garran became its first graduate when he was awarded an [[honorary doctorate]] of laws. He had already been awarded such an honorary doctorate from the University of Melbourne in 1937 and later receiving one from his [[alma mater]], the University of Sydney in 1952.<ref name="ADB" />

=== Memorials ===
Garran's influence on Canberra is remembered by the naming of the suburb of [[Garran, Australian Capital Territory]], established in 1966, after him.<ref name="ADB" /> Garran's link with ANU is remembered by the naming of a [[chair (official)|chair]] in the university's School of Law, by the naming of the hall of residence [[Burton & Garran Hall]],<ref name="ADB" /> and by the naming of Garran house at [[Canberra Grammar School]] for his work with that school.<ref name="AGS Garran"/> The Garran oration, established to honour his memory,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Garran Oration |url=https://www.ipaa.org.au/national-activities/the-garran-oration/ |access-date=15 June 2020 |website=Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) |language=en-AU}}</ref> has been given yearly since 1959.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sir Robert Garran and leadership in public service |url=https://www.ipaa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1959_Garran_Oration_Harry_F_E_Whitlam.pdf |work=The Sir Robert Garran oration |year=1959 |last=Whitlam |first=Fred |author-link=Fred Whitlam}}</ref>

In 1983, the former Patent Office building – then occupied by the Federal Attorney General's Department – was renamed Robert Garran Offices.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aussieheritage.com.au/listings/act/Barton/PatentOfficeformer/2316 |title=Patent Office (former) |website=Aussie Heritage |access-date=16 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070505201659/http://www.aussieheritage.com.au/listings/act/Barton/PatentOfficeformer/2316 |archive-date=5 May 2007}}</ref> It was renamed the [[Robert Marsden Hope Building]] in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6175432/new-lease-of-life-for-a-canberra-landmark/|title=New lease of life for a Canberra landmark|date=5 December 2011|website=The Canberra Times|language=en|access-date=27 April 2020}}</ref>

==Publications==
* ''A problem of federation under the crown; the representation of the crown in commonwealth and states'' (1895).<ref>{{cite book |chapter=A problem of federation under the crown; the representation of the crown in commonwealth and states |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/reportaustralas00austa/page/684/mode/2up |title=Report of the sixth meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science |last=Garran |first=Robert |date=January 1895 |location=Brisbane }}</ref>
*''The coming Commonwealth: an Australian handbook of federal government'' (1897).<ref name="The coming Commonwealth">{{cite book |last=Garran |first=Robert |title=The coming Commonwealth: an Australian handbook of federal government |url=https://archive.org/details/comingcommonwea00garrgoog |publisher=[[Angus & Robertson]] |year=1897 |location=Sydney }}</ref>
*''The Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth'' by [[John Quick (politician)|Quick]] and Garran (1901).<ref name="annotated con"/>
*''The government of South Africa'' (1908).<ref>{{cite book |last=Garran |first=Robert |title=The government of South Africa |url=https://archive.org/details/governmentsouth00afrigoog/page/n6/mode/2up |publisher=Central News Agency |year=1908 |location=Cape Town }}</ref>
*''The Making and Working of the Constitution'' (1932).<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Making and Working of the Constitution |last=Garran |first=Robert |journal=The Australian Quarterly |volume=4 |number=14 |date=June 1932 |pages=13–24 |doi=10.2307/20628991|jstor=20628991 }}</ref>
*''The Making and Working of the Constitution (continued)'' (1932).<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Making and Working of the Constitution (continued) |last=Garran |first=Robert |journal=The Australian Quarterly |volume=4 |number=15 |date=September 1932 |pages=5–17 |doi=10.2307/20629006|jstor=20629006 }}</ref>
*''The Case for union : a reply to the case for the secession of the state of Western Australia'' by Garran and 3 others (1934).<ref name="case for union"/>
*''Prosper the Commonwealth'' (1958).<ref>{{cite book |last=Garran |first=Robert |title=Prosper the Commonwealth |publisher=[[Angus & Robertson]] |year=1958 |location=Sydney }}</ref><ref>Reviews: {{bulleted list|{{Cite journal |last=Phillips |first=P. D. |title=Prosper the Commonwealth |date=1958 |jstor=20694688 |publisher=Australian Institute of Policy and Science |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20694688 |journal=The Australian Quarterly |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=112–116 |issn=0005-0091}}|{{Cite news |last=Roberts |orig-date=October 1959 |first=Henry L. |date=8 October 2011 |title=Prosper the Commonwealth |language=en-US |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/1959-10-01/prosper-commonwealth |access-date=7 January 2023 |issn=0015-7120}} }}</ref>
*''The book of songs'' Translated by Garran (1924).<ref>{{cite book |author1=Heine, Heinrich |author2=translated by Garran, Robert |title=The book of songs |publisher=Keating-Wood |year=1924 |location=Melbourne }}</ref>
*''Schubert and Schumann : songs and translations'' Translated by Garran (1946).<ref>{{cite book |author=Garran, Robert |title=Schubert and Schumann : songs and translations |publisher=Melbourne University Press |year=1946 |location=Melbourne }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Francis |first=Noel |title=The Gifted Knight: Sir Robert Garran |publisher=Noel Francis (Australia); Australian National University Press (worldwide) |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/115100/2/b11510420.pdf |year=1983 |location=Canberra |isbn=978-0-9592095-0-1 }}
*{{cite web |url=https://legalopinions.ags.gov.au/opinionauthor/garran-robert-randolph |title=Garran Robert Randolph |work=Legal opinions |publisher=Australian Government Solicitor}}
*{{cite encyclopedia | last=Irving | first=Helen | title=Garran, Robert Randolph | encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia | editor=Blackshield, Tony | editor-link=Tony Blackshield |editor2=Coper, Michael |editor2-link=Michael Coper |editor3=Williams, George |editor3-link=George Williams (lawyer) | year=2001 | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | location=South Melbourne, Victoria | isbn=978-0-19-554022-2 }}
*{{cite web |first=Leslie |last=Zines |author-link=Leslie Zines |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/senate/pubs/pops/pop44/zines.pdf |title=Sir Robert Garran |work=Papers on Parliament No 44 |date=January 2006 |publisher=Parliament of Australia}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Robert Garran}}
{{Spoken Wikipedia|En-Robert_Garran-article.ogg|date=16 December 2007}}
<!--no room for this image: [[Image:Garran and Bruce ANU.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Garran presents the message of greeting from Canberra University College to [[Stanley Bruce]] on his appointment as [[Chancellor (education)|Chancellor]] of [[ANU]], 23 October 1952.]]-->

{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{s-new}}
{{s-ttl |title=[[Solicitor-General of Australia]] |years=1916–1932}}
{{s-aft |after=[[George Knowles]]}}
{{s-gov}}
{{s-new|reason=''Department established''}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Departmental secretary|Secretary]] of the [[Attorney-General's Department (Australia)|Attorney-General's Department]]|years=1901–1932}}
{{s-aft|after=George Knowles}}
{{end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garran, Robert}}
[[Category:Solicitors-general of Australia]]
[[Category:Australian King's Counsel]]
[[Category:Australian federationists]]
[[Category:Australian Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Australian Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:People educated at Sydney Grammar School]]
[[Category:University of Sydney alumni]]
[[Category:1867 births]]
[[Category:1957 deaths]]
[[Category:Colony of New South Wales people]]
[[Category:Lawyers awarded knighthoods]]