Sir William Prentice (1919-2004)
Lawyer, Humanitarian, Environmentalist

William Prentice was born in Ermington Sydney, one of six children.

Like his four brothers, Bill attended St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill, completing his Leaving Certificate in 1936. With the benefit of a scholarship, he enrolled in Arts and Law at Sydney University where he joined the University Regiment, and, as a man of duty, volunteered for service at the outbreak of WWII. He was sent to the Middle East with the 2/33 Battalion. He was recalled to support the militia in the defence of Australia and was involved in the ferocious Owen Stanley Campaign and fought on the Kokoda Track. Bill returned on one of the undefended troopships that Prime Minister John Curtin brought home. He was mentioned in dispatches and was awarded an MBE.

In 1946 he married Mary Dignam, a teacher and a member of an Eastern Suburbs family well known in the legal profession. Bill was admitted to the bar in 1947. After the war, he continued his interest in Papua New Guinea and its people. He became a member of the Council of PNG Affairs that was responsible for the promotion of legal education for Papua New Guineans. He was influential in the establishment of the Faculty of Law at the University of PNG. As Independence approached he encouraged young Papuan New Guineans to study law. Many in the pursuit of their degree stayed in the Prentice home in Olympia Road, Naremburn.

In 1970, he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of PNG, serving on that court for ten years. He was knighted in 1977 becoming PNG’s first Chief Justice in 1978 after Independence. His time on the bench transacted the momentous years of change through Self Government, Independence and Post Independence. Bill was responsible for many leading judgments, particularly in the area of constitutional interpretation, that have had a profound effect upon the development of the law in PNG. When he resigned as Chief Justice in 1980 he returned to Australia where he served as a senior member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Bill called Naremburn home and was known for his love of cricket, reading, robust Friday night debates and an aversion to television, ironic considering the family home lay in the shadow of the Channel 9 tower. Bill and wife Mary had a great love for the Australian Bush and were pioneers of the native suburban garden.

Both he and his wife were people of deep faith and compassion and were actively involved in the St Leonard’s Catholic Parish of Naremburn. As a member of the St Vincent de Paul Bill visited the needy and lonely. Mary was a relief teacher at St Leonard’s, assisted in remedial reading programmes and helped set up the library at Marist Brothers North Shore. In February 1997 both Bill and Mary joined the Naremburn Progress Association.

A park between Olympia Road and the freeway in west Naremburn was named in honour of Sir William and Lady Mary Prentice on 18 August 2007, in the presence of WCC Mayor Pat Reilly, Naremburn Ward Councillors Lamb, Thompson and Coppock, the Member for Willoughby, Gladys Berejiklian MP, His Excellency Charles Lepani, PNG’s High Commissioner to Australia, and the Prentice children Damien, Toby, Felicity and Jacinta, his brother, Gordon, and members of the Naremburn Community.

Gordon Prentice, an NPA member, still lives in Glenmore Street.