Vale - Jeremy St John QC

In 1974, he graduated from Melbourne University (Bachelor of Laws) and in 1975 was articled to Mary Cameron at Stedman Cameron Meares & Hall, in its day, one of the leading family law firms in Melbourne. He was admitted to practise on 3 April 1975 and later that year, at the age of 23 years, he was admitted into the partnership. At the firm, his work colleagues included Jan Pannam (later Judge Pannam), David Brown QC and John FitzGibbon (later Senior Registrar FitzGibbon).

Jeremy signed the Bar Roll on 24 November 1983 and was the first reader of John Cantwell. Like his uncle, Edward St John QC, before him, Jeremy took silk on 17 December 2002.

At the Bar, he practised exclusively in family law. He was a past Vice Chairman of the Family Law Bar Association and a long-serving member of the Ethics Committee of Victorian Bar from 2008 until 2018.

Outside of the law, Jeremy had a great love for the music of Gilbert and Sullivan and regularly performed with the Savoy Opera Company, most notably in the leading role of Pooh-Bah in The Mikado.

Jeremy underwent emergency brain surgery totalling over 33 hours in December 2016. Against the odds, after three months in ICU and four months in rehabilitation, Jeremy returned home but with significant physical disabilities. He nevertheless summoned the strength to return to practise thereafter, albeit on a more limited basis.

Although doubly vaccinated, on 8 December 2021, Jeremy tested positive with Covid. He was hospitalised on 13 December and died there on 20 December 2021.

He is survived by his wife and partner of 34 years, Jill Rivers of Counsel, his four children, Emily, Polly, Phoebe and Tom, and his two grandchildren.