John Peter Bourke QC (30 June 1901 – 19 October 1970) was an Australian politician. Born in Chiltern to schoolteacher William Richard Bourke and Mary Anne Clancy, he attended Christian Brothers College in

East Melbourne East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. East Melbourne recorded a population of 4,896 at the 2021 ce ...

before studying law at

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state of Victoria. Its ...

, working as a journalist to finance his study. He received a

Bachelor of Law A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

and was called to the bar in 1925. On 4 April 1931 he married Anastasia Maud Mulcahy. He was elected to the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the states and territories of Australia, state lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the state upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament H ...

as the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member for St Kilda in 1952, and was appointed

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1954. Following his defeat in 1955 he returned to law and was a County Court judge from 1959 to 1967. He died in 1970 at Fitzroy.

References

1901 births 1970 deaths Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Australian King's Counsel Australian barristers Melbourne Law School alumni 20th-century Australian judges Politicians from Melbourne 20th-century Australian lawyers Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-Victoria-MP-stub