Robert Yorke Hedges

{{Short description|British expatriate judge}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|death_date = {{death date and age|1963|5|26|1903|8|6|df=yes}}

|birth_date = {{birth date|1903|8|6|df=yes}}

|name = Robert Yorke Hedges

|birth_name = Robert Yorke Hedges

|office = Chief Justice of Sarawak

|order = 3rd

|term_start = 1946

|term_end = 1951

|nominator = Clement Attlee

|appointer = George VI

|alma_mater = Victoria University of Manchester
Harvard University
Gray's Inn

|occupation = Lecturer
Judge

|profession = Lawyer

|residence =

|nationality =

|citizenship = British

|resting_place =

|death_place =

|birth_place = Colonial Nigeria

|footnotes =

|signature =

|website =

|spouse =

|children =

|relations =

|parents =

|honorific_suffix =

|honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable

|predecessor = H. Thackwell-Lewis

|successor = Sir Ivor Llewellyn Brace

}}

Robert Yorke Hedges (1903–1963) was a British expatriate judge who was Chief Justice of Sarawak from 1946 to 1951.{{cite news

| title = Mr. R.Y. Hedges

| work = The Times (London)

| date = 30 May 1963

}}

Hedges was born on 6 August 1903.{{cite book

| title = Who's who in Australia

| publisher = The Herald

| issue = v. 14

| year = 1950

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-0IUAAAAIAAJ

| access-date = 18 September 2018

| page = 333

}} He was educated at Central High School then Victoria University of Manchester and completed his studies with Bachelor of Laws, Between 1926 and 1927, he studied at Harvard then went to Geneva, where he obtained Diplôme de Hautes Études Internationales.{{cite web

| last1 = White

| first1 = Michael

| title = HISTORY OF THE GARRICK CHAIR AT THE TC BEIRNE SCHOOL OF LAW

| url = http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UQLawJl/2010/20.pdf

}} He also obtained LL.M and LL.D. by Manchester University.

After completing his studies, Hedges worked as a law lecturer at Manchester University, in May 1936, he moved to Brisbane to continue teaching and was engaged as the dean of the newly established University of Queensland Law School. He was admitted into the Queensland bar, but his application for silk was rejected by reason of limited practice. During World War II, he was worked for the British Army stationed in Australia, and in 1945 he was appointed legal staff officer in the military administration in British Borneo. Hedges was Chief Justice of Sarawak from 1946 to 1951. In 1956, Hedges was nominated to become a judge at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.