Obituary – Adrian Heyworth-Smith

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Tags: Arts, history, law, Obituaries, summer-2010

Adrian Heyworth-Smith (1934-2010)

Adrian Heyworth-Smith

Barrister and devotee of classics and antiquities, Adrian Heyworth-Smith, was a Bachelor of Arts (honours) and Bachelor of Laws graduate, who enjoyed a long and happy association with his alma mater.

He was a member of Senate; a Warden of Convocation; Adjunct Professor of Classics; President of The Alumni Friends of The University of Queensland; President and later Patron of the Friends of Antiquity; a member of the Disciplinary Tribunal; and a member of the committee of the Sports and Recreation Association.

He was particularly passionate about the Friends of Antiquity group – a joint initiative of Classics and Ancient History (now known as the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics) and the Alumni Friends of The University of Queensland Inc. – a group committed to the idea that learning should not be confined to the classroom.

He was also an intrepid traveller of the world with his wife, Jennifer, and a member of the Rose Society.

According to his daughter Cate’s eulogy, Mr Heyworth-Smith never regarded the law as a “passion or vocation”.

“The law presented itself at a difficult time when he realised he wanted more for his family than a career in the classics or in teaching would provide,” she said.

“I asked him a couple of months after he retired in 2004 whether he missed the law. He answered that he missed the people. He said he missed his colleagues; he missed the solicitors; he missed hearing the war stories, he missed the determination and sparkle of the younger barristers; he even missed the judges. Some of them.”

Mr Heyworth-Smith grew up in Chelmer, attending Graceville State School and then Church of England Grammar School, now known as the Anglican Church Grammar School. He later returned to the school as a boarding master and to teach Latin, the classics and senior maths and physics.

Mr Heyworth-Smith enjoyed sport – from his time at Churchie and during his University years, he was a very good tennis player, a terrific leg-spin bowler and a state champion and representative in shotput.

But it was sailing which was to prove a joyous and lifelong preoccupation.

Mr Heyworth-Smith’s otherwise idyllic life took a turn for the worse when he was diagnosed with atypical relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis in 1970 – a medical time bomb which later led to him becoming paralysed down his left side.

“His reaction to this was to work harder – to take every brief he could, no matter who it came from, what it involved or which court it sent him to. He wondered, later in his career, if he had done himself a disservice by conducting his practice in this way – if he had somehow missed out,” Cate said.

“Given the risks and challenges he faced, he was quite adamant that he would never have had it another way: to his mind, he needed to pay off his house and set up his family as well as he could as soon as he could.”

He is survived by his wife, three children and three grandchildren.

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