William Bede Dalley

William Bede Dalley (5 July 1831 – 28 October 1888) was an Australian politician and barrister and the first Australian appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. He was a leading lay representative and champion of the Catholic community and was known for his parliamentary and legal eloquence.

Dalley was born at Sydney in 1831 to Irish parents, John Dalley and Catherine Spillane, who were both convicts. He was educated at the Sydney College and St Mary's College. He was called to the bar in 1856.

In 1857 Dalley was elected to the Legislative Assembly as a representative of Sydney (City). In 1858 he successfully contested Cumberland Boroughs to help Charles Cowper's re-election in Sydney. He pressed for several reforms including an unsuccessful attempt to abolish the death penalty for rape. He joined the second Cowper ministry as Solicitor-General in November 1858, but held this position for only three months. In 1859 he became the member for Windsor, but resigned in February 1860 in order to visit Europe. He returned to Sydney in early 1861, and later in the year he was appointed a commissioner of emigration by the New South Wales government, went to England in 1861 with his fellow commissioner Henry Parkes, and was away about a year. He held many successful meetings in southern England and in Ireland.

After his return to Australia in 1862, Dalley resumed his legal practice, and became the leading counsel in criminal cases in Sydney and represented Carcoar from 1862 to 1864. In 1868 he defended Henry James O'Farrell for attempting to assassinate Prince Alfred, on grounds of insanity, but was not able to prevent a conviction and a speedy hanging. In 1872 Dalley married an Anglican lady, Eleanor Long, which strained his relations with the Catholic Church. She died of typhoid fever in 1881, leaving him with three young children. He supported a petition for the freeing of Frank Gardiner which had been brought by Gardiner's sisters on the grounds of the harshness of his sentence. The petition was successful; Gardiner was freed and went into exile, but the resulting public reaction led to the collapse of the Parkes government. He became a QC in 1877.

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