Roma Mitchell

Dame Roma Mitchell, who lived from October 2, 1913, to March 5, 2000, was an Australian jurist and public official born in North Adelaide, South Australia, and a granddaughter of the judge and government resident Samuel James Mitchell. She graduated in law from the University of Adelaide in 1934 and was admitted to the South Australian bar, becoming in 1962 the first woman in Australia appointed Queen's Counsel. In 1965 she became the first female judge in Australia when she was appointed to the Supreme Court of South Australia. She later became the first female chancellor of an Australian university, leading the University of Adelaide from 1983 to 1990, and in 1991 she became the first woman to serve as governor of an Australian state, holding the vice-regal post in South Australia until 1996. Throughout her career she was an advocate for women's rights, criminal law reform and human rights, and she was given a state funeral after her death from bone cancer.