X-Nico

21 unusual facts about Royal Commission


1973 Murphy raids

As a result of the raids, the ASIO was investigated by a series of Royal Commissions.

George Godwin

In 1884, he reported to the Royal Commission that was producing recommendations for improving working-class housing.

Gilbert Richard Redgrave

Secretary of the 1881–84 Royal Commission on Technical Instruction, Redgrave became an Inspector of Schools, rising to become chief senior inspector of technical schools under the Board of Education in 1897 and assistant secretary to the Board in 1900.

Guns for Antigua

The affair was exposed by the Louis Blom-Cooper Royal Commission, following the discovery that several murders in Colombia had been perpetrated with Israeli guns that had been shipped through Antigua and were ostensibly for the Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force, which is equipped for free by the United States.

James Cunningham, 7th Earl of Glencairn

The disputes amongst the Scots nobility regarding precedence reached such a height in the reign of James VI that a Royal Commission was appointed by that monarch in 1606 to regulate the matter, and the different peers were invited to produce their Letters Patents, or other evidence, in support of the relative antiquity of their titles.

John Anderson Hartley

In November of that year the inquiry was taken over by a Royal Commission.

Mark Judge

The Financial News allegations were of such magnitude that a Royal Commission had to be set up under Lord Herschell in 1887.

Martin Balluch

He was one of two protesters who abseiled down Great St Mary's Church in Cambridge in November 1998 in support of animal rights activist Barry Horne, who spent 68 days on hunger strike in an unsuccessful effort to have the government order a Royal Commission on animal testing.

Octavius Beale

In 1903, Beale was appointed one of twelve members of a Royal Commission into the decline of the birth rate in New South Wales.

Quenton Ashlyn

Before his entertainment career he was employed in clerical duties on a Royal Commission, but he became so successful as a society entertainer that he abandoned government service.

Railway brake

This had become apparent from the trials on railway brakes carried out at Newark in the previous year, to assist a Royal Commission then considering railway accidents .

Ray O'Connor

A Western Australian Royal Commission into business dealings by the Government was conducted during 1991 and 1992.

Ross Ray

He has appeared in many major coronial investigations and Royal Commissions, including the Grand Prix death at Albert Park.

Roy Romanow

On April 4, 2001, Romanow was appointed to head the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, on the advice of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Royal Commission on the Press, United Kingdom

On 29 October 1946 two NUJ representatives proposed to the House of Commons that the setting up of a Royal Commission would be the most suitable way to investigate.

Sophie Bryant

She was the first woman to receive a DSc in England; one of the first three women to be appointed to a Royal Commission, the Bryce commission on Secondary Education in 1894–1895; and one of the first three women to be appointed to the Senate of the University of London.

Stoke Park Hospital

The colony was the first institution certified as a home for mentally retarded patients under the Mental Deficiency Act 1913, the Rev. Burden having been a member of the Royal Commission for inquiry into care of the feeble-minded that lead to the Act.

Ted Strehlow

The verdict was appealed, went to the High Court and the Privy Council in London, and concluded with a review by a Royal Commission.

The Carlton Crew

In February 2002, a Royal Commission investigated Gatto on suspicion of accepting $250,000 to 'mediate' labour disputes with the Australian Workers' Union.

Warington Wilkinson Smyth

He became president of the Geological Society of London in 1866–1868, and in 1879 he was chairman of a Royal Commission appointed to inquire into coal mine accidents, the work in connection with which continued until 1886.

William Nicholas Willis

On the appointment of a Royal Commission under William Owen to investigate the administration of the Lands Department in 1905, Willis fled to Western Australia and South Africa.


Anthony Richard Blake

On 24 June 1824, he was appointed to the Royal Commission for inquiring into the nature and extent of the Instruction afforded by the several Institutions in Ireland established for the purpose of Education where he served with the other Commissioners: Thomas Frankland Lewis, John Leslie Foster, William Grant and James Glassford.

Arthur Edward Moore

In 1932 Moore instituted a Royal Commission to investigate former Labor Premier E.G. Theodore over his alleged corruption in what was known as the Mungana affair.

Balopi Commission

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Constitution of Botswana, also known as the Balopi Commission after the chairman of the commission Patrick Balopi, is a Botswana commission of inquiry set up on 28 July 2000 in response to perceived tribal inequality between the dominant Batswana and the smaller minority tribes such as the Wayeyi.

Benson Commission

The Royal Commission on Legal Services, commonly known as the Benson Commission (after its chairman Sir Henry Benson) was a Royal Commission set up the by Labour government of Harold Wilson to "examine the structure, organisation, training and regulation of the legal profession and to recommend those changes that would be desirable to the interests of justice".

Catholic sexual abuse cases in Australia

In November 2012 Archbishop Hart, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, stated that he welcomed and promised co-operation with a Royal Commission, announced by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to broadly investigate child sexual abuse in institutions across Australia.

Centenary House

The Federal Opposition (the Liberal-National Coalition at that time) demanded an enquiry to what they saw as a "rort" and the Keating ALP Government set up a Royal Commission.

Chelmsford Royal Commission

The Chelmsford Royal Commission (1988–1990), chaired by Justice John Patrick Slattery, was established by the New South Wales state government to investigate "Mental Health Services" in NSW.

Esso Longford gas explosion

A Royal Commission was called into the explosion at Longford, headed by former High Court judge Daryl Dawson.

Father of medicare

Emmett Matthew Hall was a jurist and chair of the 1964 Royal Commission on health care in Canada which recommended the nationwide adoption of Saskatchewan's system of public insurance for both hospitalization and out-of-hospital medical services.

Friendly Societies Act 1875

The Friendly Societies Act 1875 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by Benjamin Disraeli's Conservative Government following the publication of the Royal Commission on Friendly Societies' Final Report.

Gomery Commission

The Gomery Commission, formally the Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities, was a federal Canadian Royal Commission headed by the retired Justice John Gomery for the purpose of investigating the sponsorship scandal, which involved allegations of corruption within the Canadian government.

Haycraft Commission

The Haycraft Commission of Inquiry was a Royal Commission set up to investigate the Jaffa riots of 1921, but its remit was widened and its report entitled "Palestine: Disturbances in May 1921".

Hutt Workshops

In order to examine the issue, a Royal Commission was established in 1924 consisting of English railwaymen Sir Sam Fay and Sir Vincent Raven.

Land Drainage Act 1930

Accordingly, a Royal Commission was set up, with Lord Bledisloe acting as its chairman.

Leonard W. Murray

James Lorimer Ilsley, the Acting Prime Minister of Canada, responded quickly to the situation and on 10 May appointed Justice Kellock to chair a Royal Commission into the disorders.

Martu people

A Royal Commission in 1908 exonerated Canning, after an appearance by Kimberley explorer John Forrest who claimed that all explorers had acted in such a fashion.

Monique Bégin

From 1993 to 1995, she also served as co-chair of Ontario's Royal Commission on Learning with Gerald Caplan.

Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis, 1st Baronet

On 24 June 1824, Lewis was appointed to the Royal Commission for inquiring into the nature and extent of the Instruction afforded by the several Institutions in Ireland established for the purpose of Education where he served with the other Commissioners: John Leslie Foster,William Grant, James Glassford and Anthony Richard Blake.

South Holland IDB

A Royal Commission was held in 1927, with Lord Bledisloe acting as its chairman, to consider land drainage in the United Kingdom.

Thomas Hetherington

A perceived miscarriage of justice after the murder of male prostitute Maxwell Confait, and a subsequent critical report by the retired High Court judge Sir Henry Fisher in 1977, led to a Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure chaired by Sir Cyril Philips, which reported in 1981.

Victor Dominello

In one of his first cases, Victor Dominello represented applicants in the Maralinga cases, who sought compensation following the findings made by the Royal Commission into British nuclear tests in Australia.