I HAVE no desire to enter into correspondence relating to Ned Kelly.
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It is time to leave him be.
However I must thank John Suta (whom I do not know) for his clear explanation of what Ned’s family consider to be the inadequacies in Ned’s defence.
My late father, born in the 19th century, was a solicitor who practised in both Victoria and NSW for more than 30 years.
He studied law at Cambridge and Edinburgh universities, while waiting to be repatriated after World War I, and completed his studies in NSW.
For quite a number of years his firm of solicitors acted for Albury Municipal Council and Albury District Hospital.
My father always believed that Ned Kelly was not given a fair trial and that the blame lay fairly and squarely on Redmond Barry.
To this day, I wonder if he saw Barry’s death, 12 days after Ned’s hanging, as a divine judgment.
The fact that “one does not speak ill of the dead” would, I assume, have prevented discussion at the time as to whether Barry should have seen that Ned was adequately defended.
— P.L. STRACHAN,
Albury