The papers of the Hon. Sir William Flood Webb KBE Kt (1887–1972) are held within the Private Records collection at the Australian War Memorial's Charles Bean Research Centre.

Webb was born in South Brisbane, Queensland, in January 1887. He rose to prominence through the Queensland public service to Crown Solicitor (1917), Solicitor-General (1922), Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland (1925) and, finally, Chief Justice of Queensland (1940). After conducting three inquiries for the Australia Government into alleged Japanese atrocities during the Second World War, Webb was nominated by Australia in January 1946 to serve as the Australian judge on the forthcoming International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). He was then selected in March 1946 by General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, to be the President of the IMTFE. These papers principally document Webb's involvement with the IMTFE and its operations from 1946 to 1948.

The IMTFE was composed of 11 judges from the Allied nations who had fought against Japan. The 28 defendants named in the indictment, including General Tojo Hideki, faced 55 charges on an indictment including crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and conventional war crimes. Webb’s Supreme Court colleague Justice Alan James Mansfield served as Australia’s prosecutor. Mansfield helped present the prosecution case to the IMTFE relating to Allied prisoners-of-war, supported by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Mornane, a member of the Australian Army Legal Corps, as assistant prosecutor. Notable Australian witnesses to give evidence at the IMTFE include Sister Vivian Bullwinkel (1915–2000), the sole survivor of the Banka Island massacre of Australian nurses. Anticipated only to take a few months, the trial proceedings stretched out for two and a half years before verdicts were handed down in November 1948.

Eight of the 11 judges handed down a Majority Judgment that Webb read aloud to the court. While some of the charges in the indictment were dismissed, the majority convicted 25 of the defendants. They were sentenced to terms from 7 years’ imprisonment up to life imprisonment, or to death by hanging. The remaining judges, including Webb, submitted separate or dissenting opinions. From late 1946 onwards, Webb drafted several versions of his planned judgment that, by the end, comprised more than 600 typewritten pages. Ultimately, Webb reduced his lengthy judgment to a Separate Opinion of only about ten pages in length that generally concurred with the Majority Judgment.

Amongst the topics that Webb specifically chose to address in his Separate Opinion were Emperor Hirohito and the death penalty. Privately, Webb seems to have been fairly consistent in his view that while a case could be made against the Emperor (he had earlier concurred with the Australian Government’s decision to place the Emperor on Australia’s official list of major Japanese war criminals), the question of prosecuting the Emperor was one for the highest Allied authorities. Webb was well aware that Australian Government wanted to see the Emperor on trial, but he may not have been kept informed that Mansfield, as Australia’s associate prosecutor, had been instructed to pursue the inclusion of the Emperor on the indictment right up until it was finalised. Once the authorities had made their decision not to prosecute the Emperor, however, Webb was firm that he would not go against that decision. The decision probably came as somewhat of a relief: Webb also recorded in correspondence that having expressed what he saw as legal advice about the Emperor’s culpability for the war, he would then not sit on the bench over a trial of the Emperor. By the time Webb submitted his Separate Opinion in late 1948, he did not think it was fair that the Emperor’s subordinates were being held criminally responsible for the war and its conduct when the Emperor was not. On this basis, he opposed the death penalty being imposed by the Majority Judgment on seven of the convicted war criminals. It was probably not the only reason he was opposed to the death penalty: Webb was raised Catholic and likely opposed it on religious grounds. Moreover, while he had been a state judge on criminal matters since 1925, Queensland had done away with the death penalty as a punishment in 1922, before he became a judge. The death penalty was not, therefore, a punishment remotely in contemplation in Queensland by the 1940s.

After the IMTFE concluded, Webb returned to Australia in late 1948 and took his place on the bench of the High Court of Australia to which he had been also appointed in 1946 and sworn in on 18 November 1947. Prime Minster Ben Chifley informed Webb on 15 November 1948 that the Australian Government was ‘most gratified at the able manner in which you have carried on the onerous and important duties of President of the Tribunal’ and that he had done ‘much to enhance not only your own reputation but also the international prestige of Australia’.

When donated to the Australian War Memorial in 1958, Webb’s papers contained his records relating to the IMTFE, including official IMTFE documents such as the Record of Proceedings (more than 48,000 pages) and also personal records, such as private correspondence. The majority of the official IMTFE documents in Webb’s papers (such as the Record of Proceedings, prosecution case, index of exhibits etc.) were subsequently transferred by the Australian War Memorial to fill out its existing series of records on the IMTFE. This transferral is the reason the Webb papers today appear not to contain key IMTFE records that, as President, Webb would have had in his possession during the trial for ongoing reference.

While initially closed to public access, the Webb papers were opened in July 1975, alongside the opening to access of files in the Australian Archives, as it then was, relating to the Australian Military Court war crimes trials held pursuant to the War Crimes Act 1945 (Cth) in 1945–51 and to the IMTFE. In announcing the decision to open Australia’s records of the national and international war crimes trials, the then Attorney-General Keppel Enderby QC observed that the ‘past should be everyone’s property’.

Today, Webb’s papers occupy 1.5 shelf metres and comprise a range of record types. The papers still contain some key official IMTFE documents that are widely publicly available (e.g. the IMTFE’s rules of procedures, the indictment and applications to the IMTFE), as well as administrative correspondence on certain issues, such as the organisation for the release of the IMTFE’s judgment (the majority judgment). The bulk of the Webb papers are distinctive, as they offer researchers insight into Webb and the IMTFE generally not offered in other libraries or archives worldwide. These include:

• the only original and generally complete copies of Webb’s draft judgments over time before he reduced it to submit his brief Separate Opinion;  
• the only complete copies of Webb’s individual case notes of the evidence against each defendant, many with his annotations showing development;
• Webb’s copies of correspondence, including internal correspondence between the judges;  
• Webb’s correspondence with:
  • notable individuals outside the IMTFE (including General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers and the Rt Hon Sir John Latham, Chief Justice of Australia);
  • associates and friends; and
  • private citizens.

Substantial additional correspondence by Webb as the IMTFE President and Australian judge was kept by his judicial associates in Tokyo. These records are held by the National Archives of Australia (see particularly series M1418, items 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 11).

These papers of Sir William Webb were principally created in Japan in 1946–48 and returned to Australia with Webb, where he kept them in his chambers at the High Court of Australia, then located in Sydney. When Webb retired from the High Court in 1958, physical custody of these papers passed to the Commonwealth’s Attorney-General’s Department which then offered them to the Australian War Memorial. After a review of their importance, the papers were transferred to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in October 1958.

As noted above, the Australian War Memorial subsequently used some of the papers to complete its existing two series of holdings on the IMTFE, one series for use and the other for preservation. Records relating to the transfer, disposal and subsequent management of Webb papers, including their opening to public access, are held in the Webb papers, Series 4, Wallet 1/20, and in AWM315, files 417/001/007 02 and 449/009/142.

William Flood Webb was born in South Brisbane, Queensland on 21 January 1887 to parents of English Anglican and Irish Catholic heritage. His unusual middle name comes from the floods devastating Brisbane on his date of birth. Webb initially went to school at St Killian’s College in South Brisbane. After he and his elder sister were orphaned, they moved to his maternal family’s hometown of Warwick, Queensland, where he attended Sisters of Mercy-run St Mary's School.

Webb excelled academically. He briefly left school for work at age 14 but was encouraged to return to school and to take the Queensland Public Service examination. This pathway was likely suggested because the break from school and his age meant that he was no longer eligible for a state scholarship to support further school studies. Mother Kevin of St Mary’s School had known Webb for five years by January 1903 when she certified on his application to take the examination that he was of ‘good moral character’ and ‘industrious habits’. She added that he was ‘truthful & hardworking & very satisfactory’. Webb rewarded both his hard work and their support when he ranked second in the state for that round of the examination in 1903. He moved back to Brisbane and began work on probation in the Home Secretary's Department in February 1904.

Webb’s legal career has its origins in his appointment in 1908 to the position of a clerk in the Crown Solicitor’s Office. He began studying law to pass the Barristers Board examinations, likely due to the encouragement of his colleague Thomas William McCawley, who he had met several years earlier and who had just been admitted as a barrister in 1907. The study of law was slow while working fulltime. While Webb signed the roll of the first students to be admitted to the new University of Queensland in March 1911, he did not study or obtain a degree. After passing the three stages of required examinations, on 4 June 1913 Webb was admitted as a barrister at the Supreme Court of Queensland, with his admission being moved by then Attorney General Thomas O’Sullivan.

His friend McCawley had been appointed as the Crown Solicitor in 1910. Rather than moving to the Bar and private practice after admission, Webb continued to work as a government lawyer under McCawley. The election of the Labor government of Premier Thomas Joseph ‘TJ’ Ryan from 1915 helped both their careers to progress. Webb was appointed Official Solicitor to the Public Curator and Public Defender in 1915. Two years later, aged 30, Webb replaced McCawley in the position of Crown Solicitor and Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department. Webb’s appointment as Crown Solicitor in 1917 came about because the Ryan Government controversially appointed McCawley to the position of President of the new Court of Industrial Arbitration and, some months later, appointed him as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland. The only problem: there were no vacancies on the Supreme Court bench, and the current judges and some members of the profession were considerably affronted. As Crown Solicitor, Webb assisted as the McCawley case was argued over three years through the Supreme Court, the High Court of Australia, back to the Supreme Court, back to the High Court and then off to the Privy Council in London, where Ryan and McCawley won.

In 1922, Webb was appointed as Solicitor-General of Queensland, which position he held until 1925. That year, he was appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland and President of the Court of Industrial Arbitration. It was likely bittersweet success, as the appointment was precipitated by the sudden and early death of McCawley, aged only 43. With Webb’s judicial appointment came a series of additional appointments, including Chairman of the Central Sugar Cane Prices Board from 1926 to 1942, and Chairman of the Australian Industrial Relations Council from 1942 to 1943. He undertook a number of Royal Commissions, including into transport in 1936 and into the sugar industry in 1938. After 15 years on the bench, Webb was sworn in as senior puisne judge (most senior judge after the Chief Justice) in May 1940, alongside the new Chief Justice Hugh Denis Macrossan. Two months later, Chief Justice Macrossan suddenly died. Webb was then appointed as Chief Justice of Queensland in June 1940, which position he held until his resignation was accepted on 24 April 1946.

During the Second World War, and like many other judges at the time, Webb undertook significant war related duties, including being appointed three times in 1943, 1944, and 1945 under the National Security (Inquiries) Regulations 1941 (Cth) to report on whether there had been atrocities or breaches of warfare committed by the Japanese military forces. As war crimes commissioner, he produced three significant reports. Webb visited England in 1944 to present his findings to the United Nations War Crimes Commission. That year, he also undertook an inquiry into communication censorship. Webb also served as a member of the University of Queensland’s Senate from 1944-46.

Webb's experience in the investigation of Japanese atrocities, and his relationship with Herbert Vere ‘Doc’ Evatt, the Commonwealth Attorney General and Minister for External Affairs, saw him appointed in January 1946 as Australia’s judge to the forthcoming International Military Tribunal for the Far East in 1946 (IMTFE). He was then selected in March 1946 by General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander Allied Powers, to be the IMTFE’s President.

Concurrent with this international appointment, Webb was appointed as a Justice of the High Court of Australia on 16 May 1946, becoming the third Queenslander to be so appointed after Sir Samuel Griffith and Sir Charles Powers. On a short visit home from Tokyo in November 1947, Webb was finally sworn in into the High Court bench. On that visit, he sat on the bench for at least part of the hearings in the case of Nelungaloo (earlier hearings had been held without him in June and July 1947), in which Garfield Barwick KC was appearing. Webb then worked on his judgment in Nelungaloo back in Tokyo. The High Court was evenly split 3:3 in Nelungaloo, which led to the appeal being dismissed pursuant to the Judiciary Act 1903–47 (Cth). Without Webb’s participation in deciding the case from afar, therefore, the High Court would have been split 3:2 to allow the appeal.

Webb took up his position on the High Court bench on a full-time basis after his return from Tokyo in late 1948. Eventually, he sat on more than 50 important constitutional cases, including the succession of transport cases involving section 92 of the Constitution, and the second pharmaceutical benefits case in 1949. Following his retirement from the High Court in 1958, aged 71, Webb chaired a number of committees of inquiry and, also, the Electric Power Transmission Pty Ltd in Queensland. He died in Brisbane on 11 August 1972, aged 85.

Webb was created a Knight Bachelor in 1942 and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1954. In May 1967, the University of Queensland awarded him a Doctorate of Laws Honoris Causa for outstanding contribution to the law. William Webb Drive in the Canberra suburb of Evatt is named after him. His portrait by Archibald Colquhoun hangs in the High Court Building in Canberra. His judicial wig is held by the MacArthur Memorial Museum, Brisbane.

Webb married Beatrice Agnew in 1917 at the Sacred Heart Church, Sandgate. She was a daughter of George Agnew, the former member for Nundah in Queensland Parliament. Lady Webb, as she was styled after Webb was created Knight Bachelor, was eventually allowed to join Webb in Japan. She pre-deceased her husband in 1970. They were survived by their two sons, William Kevin and John Vincent, and four daughters, Beatrice Mary, Elizabeth Bernadette, Paula Catherine and Cecily Agnes. Both sons served in the Australian Army during the Second World War. Two of Webb’s daughters, Beatrice and Cecily, served as his judicial associates on the Supreme Court of Queensland from 1940–46. Sir William and Lady Webb are buried together at Nudgee Cemetery outside Brisbane.

Selected Bibliography:

• Fricke, Graham, ‘William Webb’, in Judges of the High Court, Melbourne: Century Hutchinson, 1986, pp. 153–58.
• Hewton, Terry, ‘“Webb’s Justice”: The Role of William Flood Webb in the Tokyo Trial, 1946–1948’, unpublished Honours thesis, University of Adelaide, 1976.
• High Court of Australia, ‘Sir William Flood Webb KBE Kt’, https://www.hcourt.gov.au/justices/former-justices/sir-william-flood-webb-kbe-kt.
• McPherson, B.H., The Supreme Court of Queensland, 1859-1960, Sydney: Butterworths, 1989.
• Morris, Narrelle, Japanese War Crimes in the Pacific: Australia’s Investigations and Prosecutions, Canberra: National Archives of Australia, 2019, https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/research-guides/japanese-war-crimes-pacific-australias-investigations-and-prosecutions.   
• Morris, Narrelle, ‘Constructing the Historical Legacy of the IMTFE: Reassessing Perceptions of President William Webb’, in Viviane E. Dittrich, Kerstin von Lingen, Philipp Osten, and Jolana Makraiová (eds), The Tokyo Tribunal – Perspectives on Law, History, and Memory, Brussels: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2020, pp. 275–99.
• Morris, Narrelle, ‘Sir William Webb and Beyond: Australia and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East’, in Kerstin von Lingen (ed), Transcultural Justice at the Tokyo Tribunal: The Allied Struggle for Justice, 1946–48, Leiden: Brill, 2018, pp. 44–64.
• Provis, Peter, ‘“I Hope to Be of Real Assistance to Your Government”: The Extra-Judicial activities of Sir William Flood Webb, 1942–48’, unpublished PhD thesis, Flinders University, 2015.
• Ratnapala, A.S., ‘Commentary on “Sir William Webb – Hobbesian Jurist”’ in M. White and A. Rahemtula (eds.), Queensland Judges on the High Court, Brisbane: Supreme Court of Queensland Library, 2003, pp. 151–70.
• Weld, H.A., ‘Sir William Flood Webb (1887–1972), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol 16, 2002, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/webb-sir-william-flood-11991/text21499.