Stanley Louis Mowbray Eskell, ED (4 January 1918 – 6 June 2000) was an Australian politician. He was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia, to clerk Stanley Herbert Eskell and Muriel Kerr. He attended the Royal Military College, Duntroon and in 1939 was a lieutenant in the Staff Corps. From 1942 to 1945 he served in the Second Australian Imperial Force, being promoted to

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

and

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

in 1942. In 1944 he went to the United States Army staff school at

Fort Leavenworth Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., an ...

, and for the remainder of the war was part of the Australian Military Mission in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

After the war he was managing director of a number of companies, and in 1958 he entered the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...

as a Liberal Party member. He was Government Whip from 1966 to 1967 and Chairman of Committees from 1967 to 1969. Eskell married in Denise Rachel Yaffa on 18 December 1946. The relationship broke down and his wife sought a divorce which Eskell agreed to. Eskell admitted to adultery with Margaret Rose Cleary and the divorce was granted in 1962. The divorce became controversial in 1968 as a result of proceedings involving Alexander Armstrong, in which Justice Street found that Armstrong had helped Eskell procure false evidence of adultery. The council had voted to expel Armstrong in February 1969 for unrelated conduct. John Slattery QC advised there was no evidence to charge Eskell with perjury. None the less the council voted to remove him from the position of Chairman of Committees. He was not expelled from the council and was elected to a second 12 year term in 1970. His term ended early in 1978 as part of the transition to a directly elected council and he did not seek re-election. Eskell died in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

on .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eskell, Stanley 1918 births 2000 deaths Military personnel from Western Australia Royal Military College, Duntroon graduates 20th-century Australian businesspeople Australian brigadiers Australian Army personnel of World War II Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 20th-century Australian politicians Chairman of Committees of the New South Wales Legislative Council Australian expatriates in the United States Australian expatriates in England