Sir Frederick Darley GCMG (1830-1910), chief justice and lieutenant governor, came to New South Wales as an adult and was admitted to the Bar in 1862; in 1868 he was nominated to the Legislative Council. After eleven years' hard work he took silk in 1878. Following the resignation of fifth chief justice Emanuel Salomons after just two weeks in the job, Darley became sixth chief justice of New South Wales - with some reluctance, as it entailed the dimunition of his income - in 1886. He was knighted in 1887; he became lieutenant governor in 1891; further honours followed in 1897 and 1901. Following life-threatening surgery in 1901 he returned to England, where he recovered sufficiently to serve on the royal commission into the South African war. He came back to Sydney in 1903 and resumed his seat on the bench; having retired to England in 1909, he was interred the following year in the family plot in Ireland.
