Sir Ronald Wilson, a former World War II fighter pilot who became a respected Australian judge and headed a national inquiry into the "stolen generations" of Aboriginal children, has died at the age of 82.
Australian political and religious leaders yesterday paid tribute to Sir Ronald, who died at his home in the western city of Perth after an illness.
He was born in the West Australian fishing port of Geraldton on Aug. 23, 1922. After serving as a Spitfire pilot in Britain's Royal Air Force during World War II, he returned to Australia and began a distinguished legal career.
Between 1969 and 1979 he served as Western Australia's solicitor-general and in 1979 was appointed as a High Court judge, a position he held for the next 10 years. He was president of the Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia from 1988 to 1991.
Sir Ronald was appointed president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 1990 and led an inquiry into the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions during the first half of the last century. He co-authored the inquiry's report, called Bringing Them Home.
The president of the Uniting Church, the Reverend Dean Drayton, paid tribute to Sir Ronald.
"His commitment to reconciliation and indigenous rights following the release of the report led to sharp criticism from the government but this did not weaken his resolve," Drayton told the Australian Associated Press.
Opposition Labor Party leader Kim Beazley described Sir Ronald as "a very good man [who] used his forensic skills, not for the creation of his own wealth, but for the good of our society and his contribution to public life in Australia is unsurpassed."
"He would not retire from dealing with what he thought was one of the central fault lines in Australian society and he did so sensitively and effectively," Beazley said.
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