Dame Roma Mitchell
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The Honourable Dame Roma Mitchell AC, DBE, CVO, QC |
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Statue of Dame Roma Mitchell, North Terrace, Adelaide
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| 31st Governor of South Australia | |
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In office 6 February 1991 – 21 July 1996 |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Preceded by | Sir Donald Dunstan |
| Succeeded by | Sir Eric Neal |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
2 October 1913 Adelaide, South Australia |
| Died | 5 March 2000 (aged 86) Adelaide, South Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Education | St Aloysius College, Adelaide |
| Alma mater | University of Adelaide |
| Profession | Judge |
Dame Roma Flinders Mitchell AC, DBE, CVO, QC (2 October 1913 – 5 March 2000) was an Australian lawyer, judge and state governor. Mitchell was the first Australian woman to be a judge, a Queen's Counsel, a chancellor of an Australian university and the Governor of an Australian state.
Dame Roma Mitchell was considered to be a pioneer of the Australian women's rights movement. Her grandfather, Samuel James Mitchell, was the first Chief Justice of the Northern Territory.
Roma Mitchell was born in Adelaide in 1913, the second daughter and youngest child of Harold and Maude Mitchell (née Wickham). She was an alumna of St Aloysius Convent College, Adelaide and the University of Adelaide.
Mitchell was made a Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia in 1965. She was still the only female judge in South Australia when she retired 18 years later in 1983 although Justices Elizabeth Evatt and Mary Gaudron had been appointed to federal courts by the Whitlam Government.
She was Governor of South Australia from 1991 to 1996, the first female Governor in Australia. Mitchell also served as Chancellor of the University of Adelaide from 1983 to 1990 and was a member of the Council for the Order of Australia from 1981 to 1990.
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