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in that city. There were four children of the marriage: Oscar (born 1886), Charles Lloyd (born 1889), Pauline (born
1893) and Evan (born 1904). He practised in Sydney from 1889 before returning to Palmerston in 1896. In 1899
he was Worshipful Master of the Freemason’s Lodge in the Territory.
At a by-election on 20 October 1900 Herbert was elected as a Conservative to the South Australian House
of Assembly for the Northern Territory; he was re-elected in 1902. In February 1905 he was appointed Northern
Territory Government Resident, succeeding C J Dashwood, of whom he had been highly critical. From September
1906 until the following March Herbert served on the Commonwealth royal commission into the affairs of the
Territory of Papua.
In the light of his experience in Papua his 1906 annual report on the Northern Territory emphasized the need
for increased European settlement and liberal land laws. On his recommendation the South Australian government
‘set up a scheme to foster mixed farming in the Territory’. He was also very concerned at the poor ‘protection’
offered to the Aborigines by the legislation then in place and in particular in the unauthorised removal of Aborigines
from the Territory. Traditionally, the Chief Protector was the Government Medical Officer ‘for the time being’, but
at a time of ‘temporary strain’ in 1908 Herbert arranged for very experienced W G Stretton to be appointed Chief
Protector, a position he held until his death 11 years later.
In 1910 Herbert was appointed Deputy Chief Judicial Officer for the Territory of Papua. Among the presentations
when he left Darwin was one from the Chinese community who remarked on his ‘unswerving patience and
justness... no matter what might be the nationality of the accused or the suitor’. Herbert responded that it had
‘always been his endeavour to hold the scales of justice evenly balanced as respects the cosmopolitan Asiatic
community which formed so large a part of the Territory’s population’.
As the second judge of the Port Moresby Central Court, under the Lieutenant Governor and Chief Judicial
Officer (Sir) Hubert Murray he heard cases referred from the resident magistrates’ courts. An ex officio member
of the Legislative and Executive councils he was also responsible for drafting ordinances. At least twice Herbert
held concurrent judicial appointments in separate Australian territories: late in 1918 he heard criminal matters in
Darwin arising from the attempt to depose the administrator J A Gilruth and in May to October 1921 he was an
acting judge of the Northern Territory. In April 1924 he received another commission as acting judge.
A reclassification of the Papuan public service in 1926 removed Herbert from its ranks with the title of judge.
He was by then in poor health due to the effects of his long tropical service. The family returned to the Northern
Territory and lived on their property at Koolpinyah, south of Darwin. He was appointed a Northern Territory Justice
of the Peace on 28 February 1927. In 1928 he accepted the post of Administrator of Norfolk Island in preference to
the more highly paid position of Judge of North and Central Australia. He died of pneumonia on 21 January 1929
on Norfolk Island, where he was buried. He was survived by his wife, two sons, Evan and Oscar, then owners of
Koolpinyah Station, and daughter, Pauline. His son, Charles Lloyd, had been killed in action in Belgium in 1917.
He was an active Anglican and in 1932 a sanctuary lamp was dedicated to him in St John’s Church, Port Moresby,
which he supported when it was being built.
Administrator’s Annual Report, 1908; P F Donovan, A Land Full of Possibilities: A History of South Australia’s Northern Territory, 1981;
P Elder, ‘Charles Edward Herbert’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol 9, 1983; Northern Territory Archives Service, NTAS E113, vol 1;
Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 6 January 1928.
PETER ELDER and V T O’BRIEN, Vol 3.HERRING, (Sir) EDMUND FRANCIS (1892–1982), lawyer, soldier, judge and administrator, was born at
Maryborough, Victoria, on 2 September 1892, the son of Edmund G Herring. He was educated at Melbourne
Grammar School, where he developed fine skills in sport, particularly cricket and tennis, and he was dux of the
school. He attended Trinity College at the University of Melbourne before being awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in
1912 and attending Oxford University in England.
In 1914 Herring enlisted in King Edward’s Horse, as a trooper, until December of that year. He then obtained a
commission and joined the 99th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. With this unit he went in the British Expeditionary
Force to France and Macedonia, rising to the rank of Major. His service won him the Military Cross (MC) in 1917
and Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1919. In February 1919 he was demobilised to England, eventually
returning to Australia in 1920.
From 1921 Herring practised at the Melbourne Bar, becoming a King’s Counsel in 1936. In April 1922
he married Mary Ranken, the daughter of Sir Thomas Ranken Lyle. In October of that year Herring joined the
Australian Army Legal Department (Militia). He remained with that department until August 1923, when he joined
the Australian Field Artillery as a brigade commander and, eventually, commander of 2nd Division Artillery.
In October 1939 General Blamey chose him to command the 6th Division Australian Imperial Force (AIF) Artillery
in the Middle East, with Brigadier’s rank. He served with distinction in North Africa, Greece and Syria, rising to
command of 6th Division in August 1941, with promotion to Major-General and being made a Companion of the
Order of the British Empire (CBE) for inspiring leadership at Bardia, Tobruk and Derna.
Herring was amongst the senior officers recalled to Australia early in 1942 in the face of the Japanese threat.
Alarmed at defence weaknesses and poor morale that emerged at Darwin in the wake of the Japanese raids
of 19 February, War Cabinet decided to replace the 7th Military District military commander, Major-General
D V J Blake with Herring. Herring received the appointment on 24 March 1942 and left for Darwin on the 27th,
little more than a week after his return to Australia. The joint United States-Australian planning staff thought the
situation serious enough to recommend that Herring be given ‘unqualified strategic command of all Australian
and United States forces, ground, air and naval, allocated to the defence of the general Darwin area’. War Cabinet