Richard Edward O'Connor was born in the Sydney suburb of Glebe on 4 August 1851. His mother was Mary Anne, née Harnett, while his father was Richard, an Irish-born Catholic who at that time served as librarian to the

O'Connor was a liberal justice who saw judges as "not only the interpreters, but also the guardians of the Constitution", advocating the Court's primacy over the Privy Council on

In the dispute between protection and free trade that formed the backbone of Australian colonial politics in the late nineteenth century, O'Connor was a committed protectionist.

O'Connor stood for the Senate at the 1901 federal election in March and was elected in the fourth position, with 40% of the vote (electors cast six votes, with the six candidates with the highest totals winning election). The only Protectionist Senator from New South Wales, he

O'Connor, still a sitting justice, died from pernicious anaemia at St Vincent's Hospital in the suburb of Darlinghurst on 18 November 1912, aged 61;