The Chair of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, David Trebeck, is delighted to announce the appointment of the Honourable Linda Dessau AC CVO CF as a Patron of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, succeeding the Honourable Margaret White who stepped down from the role late last year.
“In 2015, before commencing what became an eight-year term as the Governor of Victoria, Linda was a member of the Board of the Trust and Chair of the Victorian Selection Committee,” David Trebeck said.
“In 1994 she was awarded the Percy Baxter Churchill Fellowship, travelling to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to identify strategies to reduce cost and delay in the criminal justice system.”
Linda graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1973 with a Bachelor of Law with Honours degree, one of the university’s youngest law graduates.
After working in private practice, she spent three years in Hong Kong as a Crown Counsel and Senior Crown Counsel, before being appointed as a Magistrate in the Magistrate’s Court of Victoria. Between 1995 and 2013 she was a Judge of the Family Court of Australia.
Among other roles before her appointment as Governor, Linda served as a Commissioner on the AFL Commission, a Trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria and Chair of the Melbourne International Arts Festival.
In 2010 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia. In 2016 she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia and in 2023 she was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by His Majesty King Charles III.
In 2022 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by La Trobe University.
The Board of the Trust is delighted that Linda has accepted its invitation to become a Patron, where she will join Professor Tom Calma in this capacity.