Rae Else-Mitchell

Rae Else-Mitchell (20 September 1914 – 29 June 2006) was an Australian jurist, royal commissioner, historian and legal scholar. He was an active member and office bearer in a number of community organisations concerned with history, the arts, libraries, medicine, education, financial and public administration, and town planning. His obituary in The Times (London) described him as being "among Australia's cleverest postwar judges and administrators, accomplishing two distinguished careers of almost equal length."

Early life and education Rae Else-Mitchell was born in Sydney, New South Wales on 20 September 1914, the son of Francis Montague Else-Mitchell and his wife, Pearl Marie née Gregory. His maternal grandfather was noted cricketer, Dave Gregory,

Legal career Else-Mitchell was called to the New South Wales Bar on 16 February 1939 and to the Victorian Bar in 1954. In 1941/42 he was the Assistant Honorary Secretary to the Council of the New South Wales Bar Association. He relinquished his practice during World War II to become Secretary of the Commonwealth Rationing Commission from 1943 to 1945. He returned to practice in 1945, specialising in constitutional law, commercial law and equity. He was counsel for the Commonwealth and New South Wales governments in a number of Privy Council appeals from 1950 to 1956. He was editor of the Australian Law Journal from 1946 to 1958 and a lecturer in Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney from 1951 to 1958. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1955.

Else-Mitchell died at Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, on 29 June 2006, survived by his second wife, Margaret, and their daughter, Rosamund.