The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Responsible Government, and the Quest for Legitimacy, 1850-1920

Wallace Graham was one of the ablest judges ever to sit on the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Born of humble Baptist parentage in Antigonish in 1848, the yearNova Scotia's firstReform government took office, he was truly one of the sons of responsible government: that group of non-61ite, non-Halifax, non-Anglican men who left their stamp on the province's political order after mid-century. Appointed to the bench in 1889, he sat for twenty-six years as puisne judge and judge in equity before being named chief justice in 1915. Sadly, he occupied the post for only two years, dying suddenly in office in October 1917. Members of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society attended his funeral "in a body", and wore mourning for a month afterward as a mark of respect. Graham was probably the last chief justice to receive this tribute.