Louis Henry Davies

Sir Louis Henry Davies

Davies was born in Charlottetown, the son of Benjamin Davies and Kezia Attwood Watts. He attended Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown.^[1]

In July, 1872, he married Susan Wiggins, a daughter of Dr. A. V. G. Wiggins. She was a member of the

Davies read law at the Inner Temple in London. He was called to bar in England in 1866, and to the bar of Prince Edward Island a year later. He served as lead counsel for the Prince Edward Island Land Commission, which was established in 1875 to settle the problem of absentee land ownership and to provide tenants of the Island with clear title to their lands.^{[citation needed]}

In 1877, Davies was one of the Canadian counsel who appeared on behalf of the British Government before the Halifax Fisheries Commission, appointed under the Treaty of Washington (1871) to resolve outstanding issues, including fishing rights.^[1] The Commission gave an award directing the United States to pay $5,500,000 to the British Government.^[3]

Davies was appointed

Davies won a seat in the House of Commons of Canada in the 1882 federal election as a Liberal.^{[citation needed]} When the Liberals formed government after the 1896 election under Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Davies became minister of marine and fisheries, and during 1898–1899 he was a member of the Anglo-American joint high commission at Quebec.^[5]

Supreme Court of Canada

In 1901, Davies was appointed to the

As of 2020, he is the last Chief Justice of Canada to have previously served in elected office. He is also, as of 2020, the only Prince Edward Islander to have served on the Supreme Court.^[citation needed] The Prince Edward Island Supreme Court building in Charlottetown is named in his honour.^{[citation needed]} Also named for him is Davies Point, at the meeting of Hastings and Alice Arms on Observatory Inlet in British Columbia; the naming was done at the time of his appointment to the Supreme Court,^[6] as was also Davies Bay, at the head of Work Channel just east of Prince Rupert.^[7]

Electoral record

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louis Henry Davies.

• Bumsted, J.M. (2005). "Davies, Sir Louis Henry". In Cook, Ramsay; Bélanger, Réal (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XV (1921–1930) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
• Louis Henry Davies – Parliament of Canada biography
• Supreme Court of Canada biography