John Mark Davies

John Mark Davies KCMG (February 8, 1840-September 12, 1919) was an Australian solicitor and politician.

Born in Halstead, Essex, England, Davies was the eldest of four boys in his family. All were educated at Geelong Grammar School, and in 1863 John was admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria as a solicitor. He worked as a partner in a law firm for some years, and was President of the Law Institute of Victoria in 1885-86; he was made the group's first honorary life member in 1919. [Law Institute of Victoria (2006). [http://www.liv.asn.au/about/history/index.html History of the Law Institute of Victoria] . Retrieved June 11, 2006.] He served in the Victorian Legislative Council from 1889 to 1919, representing the South Yarra Province (1889-1895) and the Melbourne Province (1899-1919).

He was a member of the Cabinets of several Premiers of Victoria. He was James Munro's Minister of Justice (November 1890-February 1892) and the Minister of Health for two months in 1891. He was the Solicitor General under both Allan McLean (1899-1900) and William Irvine (1902-1903), and later Irvine's Minister for Public Instruction (1903) and Attorney General (1903-1904). Under Thomas Bent, he was both Solicitor and Attorney General (1904-1909), and he was the President of the Victorian Legislative Council from 1910 to 1919. He resigned from the Parliament on July 6, 1919 after suffering a stroke.

Davies was made a member of the Order of St Michael and St George in January 1918. He died in 1919 and was given a state funeral. The home he had purchased in 1892, Valentine's Mansion, became the site of Malvern Grammar School (now the Malvern Campus of Caulfield Grammar School), and was placed on the Victorian Heritage Register in 1975. [cite book | author=Michael Macgeorge | title=The Lives of Valentines | publisher=Michael Macgeorge | year=2004 | id=ISBN 0-646-43710-0]

References

External links

* [http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/president/x/davies.htm Parliament of Victoria biography]
* [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040029b.htm Australian Dictionary of Biography entry]