Sir John Mark Davies (8 February 184012 September 1919) was a British-born Australian politician. Born in

Halstead Halstead is a town and civil parish in the Braintree District of Essex, England. Its population of 11,906 in 2011 Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1840, Davies was the fifth eldest of the six boys and six girls of Ebenezer Davies and Ruth Bartlett. Two of the younger boys were educated at

Geelong Grammar School , motto_translation = 1 Corinthians 1:30: "For us, Christ was made wisdom"( 1 Corinthians 1:30: Christ, who has been made for us in wisdom) , city = Corio, Victoria , country = Australia , coordinates = , ...

. John was articled in 1852 and in 1863 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 Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...

in 1885–86; he was made the group's first honorary life member in 1919.

Political career

Davies served in the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative C ...

from 1889 to 1919, representing first the

South Yarra Province South Yarra Province was an electorate of the Victorian Legislative Council from November 1882 until May 1904. South Yarra Province was created in the redistribution of provinces in 1882 when the Central and Eastern Provinces were abolished. ...

(1889–1895) then Melbourne Province (1899–1919). and was Minister for 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 In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

(1903–1904). Under

Thomas Bent Sir Thomas Bent (7 December 1838 – 17 September 1909) was an Australian politician and the 22nd Premier of Victoria. Early life Bent was born in Penrith, New South Wales the eldest of four sons and two daughters of James Bent, a hotel-keeper ...

, he was both Attorney-General (1903–1909) and Solicitor-General (1904–1909), although John Mackey was briefly Solicitor-General in 1908. Davies was the President of the Victorian Legislative Council from 1910 to 1919. He resigned from the Parliament on 6 July 1919, after suffering a stroke and dies a few months later aged .

Honours

Davies was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in January 1918. He was given a state funeral.

Residence

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 The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...

in 1975. The Davies family lived in Valentines until 1919 when they moved to Little Valentines in Wattletree Road, Glen Iris.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, John Mark 1840 births 1919 deaths Australian Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Australian politicians awarded knighthoods Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Presidents of the Victorian Legislative Council Attorneys-General of Victoria Solicitors-General of Victoria People educated at Geelong Grammar School English emigrants to colonial Australia Australian people of Welsh descent Lawyers from Melbourne Politicians from Melbourne