Sir John Sydney James Clancy KBE, CMG (30 May 1895 – 15 October 1970) was an Australian judge[1] and chancellor of the University of New South Wales from 1960 until his retirement in June 1970.

Joining the Australian Imperial Force on 14 January 1916, he fought on the Western Front with the 20th Battalion until wounded in action at Bullecourt during the Battle of Arras on 3 May 1917.

Admitted to the Bar on 30 July 1925, he was attached to the Government Insurance Office in 1926–27 and soon obtained briefs to represent injured workers in compensation cases.

When Jack Lang's government gazetted Clancy's appointment to the District Court bench on 13 November 1931, controversy erupted in the press and the legal profession.

One editorialist claimed that the promotion was 'the latest manifestation of the shockingly low level to which the public life of New South Wales has been abased' and that it was 'untenable' to suggest that six years of practice was a fit qualification.