Sir Patrick Alphonsus Buckley

A soldier, lawyer, stateman, judge, born near Castletownsend, County Cork, Ireland, in 1841; died at Lower Hutt, New Zealand, 18 May, 1896. He was educated at the Mansion House School, Cork ; St. Colman's College, Paris ; the Irish College, Paris ; and the Catholic University, Louvain. He was in Louvain when the Piedmontese invaded the States of the Church in 1860, and at the request of Count Carlo MacDonnell, Private Chamberlain to Pius IX, conducted the recruits of the Irish Papal Brigade from Ostend to Vienna, where they were placed in charge of representatives of the Holy See . He served under General Lamoriciere, received a prisoner at Ancona. After the war he returned to Ireland. Thence he emigrated to Queensland, where he completed his legal studies and was admitted to the Bar. After a short residence in Queensland he settled in New Zealand, and commenced the practice of his profession in Wellington. Soon after his arrival in New Zealand, he became a member of the Wellington Provincial Council, and was Provincial Solicitor in the Executive when the Provincial Parliaments were abolished in 1875. He was called to the Legislative Council in 1878; was Colonial Secretary and leader of the Upper House in the Stout-Vogel Ministry (1884-87), and Attorney-GeneraL, Colonial Secretary, and leader of an overwhelmingly Opposition Upper House under the Ballance Administration from 1891 till 1895, when he accepted the position of Judge of the Supreme Court. He was created Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George in 1892.

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