William Charles Windeyer

Sir William Charles Windeyer (29 September 1834 – 11 September 1897) was an Australian politician and judge.

As a New South Wales politician he was responsible for the creation of Belmore Park (north of the new Central railway constructed in 1874 in Haymarket), Lang Park (in Church Hill, between York, Lang and Grosvenor Streets in the city), Observatory Park (on Flagstaff Hill in the west Rocks) and Cromwell Park at the head of Long Bay, Malabar and parks on Clark, Rodd, and Snapper Islands. He was also the author of the New South Wales Patents Act and the Married Women's Property Act of 1879.

Early life Windeyer was born in London as the only child of Richard Windeyer and Maria Camfield. In August 1881 he became a puisne judge of the supreme court, and held this position for almost 15 years. He believed strongly in the enforcement of the criminal law, particularly where the victims were women. In the Mount Rennie rape case, he sentenced nine young men to death for pack rape, and four were in fact hanged in 1887. Ian Barker described the trial as being run in an oppressive manner, with the defence counsel not commencing their address to the jury until after midnight and that Windeyer was biased against the accused. In 1895 Windeyer caused controversy by imposing the death penalty on George Dean for attempting to poison his wife. There was a strong belief that Dean was innocent and that his wife and her mother (who was a woman of ill repute) had conspired against him. Although, Dean was very likely guilty, his death sentence was commuted and he was later released on a free pardon. He was subsequently convicted of perjury and spent nine years in jail. Windeyer resigned on 31 August 1896, prior to his trip to Europe.

Death His daughter Margaret was a librarian and women's rights campaigner.