Norman Ewing

The Honourable Norman Ewing
Judge of the Supreme Court of Tasmania
In office 23 September 1915 – 19 July 1928
Member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly
In office 30 April 1909 – 22 September 1915
Constituency	Franklin
Senator for Western Australia
In office 29 March 1901 – 17 April 1903
Succeeded by	Henry Saunders
Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
In office 4 May 1897 – March 1901
Preceded by	William Loton
Succeeded by	Mathieson Jacoby
Constituency	Swan
Personal details
Born	(1870-12-26)26 December 1870 Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Died	19 July 1928(1928-07-19) (aged 57) Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Political party	Free Trade
Spouse	Maude Stone ​ (m. 1897)​
Relations	John Ewing (brother) Thomas Ewing (brother) John Thomson (uncle) Edward Stone (father-in-law)
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 M. A. H. Fitzhardinge, he became a solicitor in 1894, practising initially at Murwillumbah.

Politics

Ewing in 1897

In 1895, he contested the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Tweed as an Independent Protectionist, but was unsuccessful. 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. 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. 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. He resigned as Senator eight months early on 17 April 1903, 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.

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. He then turned to Tasmanian state politics, winning the Tasmanian House of Assembly seat of Franklin in April 1909. He held the seat for over six years, for the last year of which he was Leader of the Opposition.

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. He also conducted the 1920 Royal Commission in New South Wales into the imprisonment of twelve Industrial Workers of the World members.

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

• Black, David; Bolton, Geoffrey (2001). Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia, Volume One, 1870–1930 (Revised ed.). Parliament House: Parliament of Western Australia. ISBN 0730738140.
• Kimberly, W.B. (compiler) (1897). History of West Australia. A Narrative of her Past. Together With Biographies of Her Leading Men. Melbourne: F.W. Niven.