Norman Ewing Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Honourable
Office:Judge of the Supreme Court of Tasmania
Term Start:23 September 1915
Term End:19 July 1928
Office2:Member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly
Constituency2:Franklin
Term Start2:30 April 1909
Term End2:22 September 1915
Office3:Senator for Western Australia
Term Start3:29 March 1901
Term End3:17 April 1903
Successor3:Henry Saunders
Office4:Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
Constituency4:Swan
Term Start4:4 May 1897
Term End4:March 1901
Predecessor4:William Loton
Successor4:Mathieson Jacoby
Birth Date:1870 12, df=yes
Birth Place:Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Death Place:Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Relations:John Ewing (brother)
Thomas Ewing (brother)
John Thomson (uncle)
Edward Stone (father-in-law)
Party:Free Trade
Occupation:Solicitor

Norman Kirkwood Ewing (26 December 1870 – 19 July 1928) was an Australian lawyer, politician and judge. He was born in New South Wales and moved to Western Australia in the 1890s. He served in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1897 to 1901 and was elected to the Senate at the inaugural federal election in 1901. He resigned from the Senate in 1903 and moved to Tasmania in 1905, serving in the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1909 to 1915. His last public role was as a judge on the Supreme Court of Tasmania from 1915 until his death in 1928.

Early life

Norman Ewing was born in Wollongong, New South Wales on 26 December 1870. The son of Anglican clergyman Thomas Campbell Ewing and Elizabeth née Thomson, one of his uncles was John Thomson, who himself became a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. His brothers were John Ewing and Sir Thomas Ewing, who were also members of parliament (though in different jurisdictions).

Ewing was educated at Illawarra College in Wollongong, then Oakwoods at Mittagong, and finally night school in Sydney. Articled to Fitzhardinge, he became a solicitor in 1894, practising initially at Murwillumbah.[1]

Politics

In 1895, he contested the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Tweed as an, but was unsuccessful.[2] Later that year, Ewing moved to Perth, Western Australia. He was admitted to the bar the following year, and in 1897 established the firm of Ewing and Downing. That year he published The Practice of the Local Courts of Western Australia.

On 4 May 1897, Ewing was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Swan as an independent.[3] A few months later he married Maude Louisa Stone, daughter of Sir Edward Stone. They had one son and two daughters. Ewing held the seat of Swan until March 1901, when he resigned it to take up a short-term seat in the first Australian Senate, which he had won on a Free Trade ticket.[4] His term was due to continue until 31 December 1903. In 1902, while still a Senator, Ewing stood unsuccessfully for the position of Mayor of Perth.[5] He resigned as Senator eight months early on 17 April 1903,[6] becoming the first member of either house of the Australian Parliament to resign his seat. In June 1904 he was an independent candidate for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Canning, but was unsuccessful.[7]

In 1905, Ewing moved to Hobart, Tasmania, where he established the firm of Ewing and Seager. In the federal election of 12 December 1906, he contested a Tasmanian seat in the Senate as an Anti-Socialist, but was defeated by a small margin.[8] He then turned to Tasmanian state politics, winning the Tasmanian House of Assembly seat of Franklin in April 1909.[9] He held the seat for over six years, for the last year of which he was Leader of the Opposition.[10]

Supreme Court of Tasmania

Ewing was made a King's Counsel in 1914, and in September the following year resigned his seat in parliament to accept an appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Tasmania. As Judge of the Supreme Court, he was involved in the 1915 Tasmanian Royal Commission into the public debt sinking fund; charges brought against Victor Ratten in 1918. He was appointed a Deputy Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory and chair of the 1919–20 Royal Commission into the administration of the Northern Territory, known as the Darwin Rebellion.[11] He also conducted the 1920 Royal Commission in New South Wales into the imprisonment of twelve Industrial Workers of the World members.[12]

From November 1923 to June 1924, Ewing was appointed Administrator of Tasmania, while awaiting the arrival of the new governor Captain Sir James O'Grady. In 1924 he had a stroke, and thereafter worked only intermittently. He died at Launceston on 19 July 1928, and was buried at Carr Villa cemetery.

References

 

Notes and References

  1. Bennett . Scott . Ewing, Norman Kirkwood (1870–1928) . ewing-norman-kirkwood-6128 . 2019-11-02.
  2. 1895. Tweed. 25 July 2022.
  3. News: 7 May 1897 . The Swan electorate . 15 . . Trove . 25 July 2022.
  4. Web site: Carr . Adam . 1901 Senate Western Australia . Psephos.
  5. News: 22 November 1902 . Annual municipal elections: Perth . 18 . . Trove . 25 July 2022.
  6. Ewing, Norman Kirkwood (1870–1928) . norman-kirkwood-ewing . Geoffrey . Bolton . 2019-11-02.
  7. News: 2 July 1904 . Canning (2,983). Mr Gordon re-elected . 15 . . Trove . 25 July 2022.
  8. Web site: Carr . Adam . 1906 Senate Tasmania . Psephos.
  9. Web site: Results in Franklin for the election held on 30 April 1909 . 2022-07-24 . www.parliament.tas.gov.au.
  10. Norman Kirkwood Ewing. ewingn312. 25 July 2022.
  11. Web site: The Honourable Norman Kirkwood Ewing . Supreme Court (NT) . 3 March 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043416/http://www.supremecourt.nt.gov.au/about/judges/former/ewing.htm . 6 March 2019 . dead .
  12. Web site: 1920 . Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Matter of the Trial and Conviction and Sentences Imposed on Charles Reeve and Others . 2019-11-02 . NSW State archives & records.