Sir Trevor Ernest Henry (9 May 1902 – 20 June 2007) was a New Zealand jurist and member of the well known

Henry family The Henry family migrated to New Zealand from Scotland in the 1870s. In New Zealand they played a major role in forestry, industry, law and philanthropy. They had originally worked as foresters and timbermillers in their homeland and, buttressed by ...

Biography

Henry was born in

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

in 1902, and was the son of John and Edith Henry. He was the eldest of the three sons who include

Jack Henry John or Jack Henry may refer to: *John Henry (folklore), the folklore character and subject of eponymous ballad People Politicians *John Henry, Margrave of Moravia (1322–1375), Royal family member of the Holy Roman Empire *John Henry (Maryl ...

and Clive Henry. He studied law at

Auckland University College , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn ...

before being admitted as a barrister in 1925. He was one of the founding partners of the Auckland law firm, Wilson Henry (now Hesketh Henry), and was involved in several high-profile cases during the 1930s, including the murder trial of

Eric Mareo Raimund Leo Pechotsch (June 1864 – 20 January 1941) was a composer of romantic and incidental musical theatre pieces. He was a Roman Catholic who also conducted liturgical music. Life Pechotsch was born in Vienna to parents of Czechoslavakian ...

and Dove-Myer Robinson's landmark lawsuit to prevent the Auckland Drainage Board discharging sewage in

Auckland Harbour Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. Henry was raised to the bench of the

Supreme Court of New Zealand The Supreme Court of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kōti Mana Nui, lit=Court of Great Mana) is the highest court and the court of last resort of New Zealand. It formally came into being on 1 January 2004 and sat for the first time on 1 July 2004. It re ...

in 1955, the same year that his son, John Henry was raised to the bar. He was appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are t ...

in the

1970 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1970 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the ''Lon ...

for his services to the New Zealand justice system. In 1984, Sir Trevor and John made New Zealand legal history as the first father and son to sit together on a High Court bench in New Zealand. Sir Trevor was also a Justice of the Fijian Court of Appeal and served a term as the Chief Justice of

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

. Henry continued his family's long history of community involvement, sitting on the 1936 New Zealand Olympic Games selection committee, serving three terms on the

New Zealand Parole Board The New Zealand Parole Board is an independent statutory body established in 2002 that considers offenders for parole. Its task "is to undertake an assessment of the risk that long-term sentenced offenders might pose to the safety of the communit ...

and chairing the New Zealand War Pensions Appeal Board. Henry's career was described as "meteoric." His inauguration ceremony at the Supreme Court in 1955 saw one of the largest-ever turnouts of Auckland society and Sir George Finlay remarked that Henry possessed a "wiseness, a sense of duty and an experience of men and affairs which should light his path to the end that justice should truly be done." Sir

Duncan McMullin Sir Duncan Wallace McMullin (1 May 1927 – 26 June 2017) was a New Zealand jurist. He was a judge of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, Court of Appeal of Fiji and Cook Islands Court of Appeal. Early life and family Born in the Auckland su ...

described Henry as a humble man, devoid of pretence, with a meticulous approach to surveying evidence and a sharp mind to analyse issues at the heart of any case. He remained active in New Zealand law well into his 90s, offering opinions and publishing articles on a range of legally related subjects. Following Henry's death in 2007 at the age of 105, the ''New Zealand Herald'' published allegations that he had secretly fathered two children with a young Māori woman from

Te Arawa Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu (tribes and sub-tribes) of New Zealand who trace their ancestry to the Arawa migration canoe (''waka'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Trevor 1902 births 2007 deaths New Zealand Knights Bachelor New Zealand centenarians Men centenarians New Zealand jurists New Zealand referees and umpires New Zealand judges on the courts of Fiji New Zealand judges on the courts of Tonga University of Auckland alumni High Court of New Zealand judges Chief justices of Tonga People from Thames, New Zealand

Trevor Trevor ( Trefor in the Welsh language) is a common given name or surname of Welsh origin. It is an habitational name, deriving from the Welsh ''tre(f)'', meaning "homestead", or "settlement" and ''fawr'', meaning "large, big". The Cornish lan ...