Sir Josiah Symon KCMG KC

A biography

By: Ian Hancock

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Paperback | 14 August 2023 | Edition Number 1

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398 Pages

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23.4 x 15.6 x 2.26

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Josiah Symon arrived in South Australia from Scotland in 1866 just before his 20th birthday. His baggage included two boxes of books, references praising his primary school teaching and a few English pounds. In 1934 he left an estate valued in modern terms at $22 million.

Symon acquired his wealth as the acknowledged leader of the Adelaide Bar for 30 years, by investments in shares and property in London and Australia, and through his highly regarded vineyard and winery.

Knighted for contributions to the federal cause, Symon served in the House of Assembly (1881-1887) and in the Australian Senate (1901-1913) and was, briefly, both a State and a Commonwealth Attorney-General.

He headed a large family, owned an estate and working farm and was also a philanthropist, a bibliophile, Shakespearean scholar, president of cultural societies and a sought-after public speaker.

His contemporaries knew him as a major figure, but he is now mainly remembered, if at all, as a reactionary and a master of vituperation. To restore balance requires recognition that this largely self-made Scot, composed of many allegiances and contradictions, took principled stands which placed him ahead, alongside and behind his times.

Industry Reviews

Until now forgotten, neglected or maligned, Josiah Symon finally comes into focus in this absorbing account from one of the country's finest political historians and biographers. The result is some superb historical storytelling of a Scottish emigrant, South Australian success story and Federation founder for whom commitment to the law, politics and public affairs was enmeshed with deep devotion to family and literature. We also have here a fresh interpretation of the evolution of Australian settler democracy, seen through the prism of the life of an enterprising, intelligent, eloquent, generous, principled, proud and - at times - exasperating man.

Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, Australian National University

Long-term leader of the Adelaide bar, highly influential state and Federal politician, ardent Federalist, bibliophile, philanthropist and vigneron, Josiah Symon spread his remarkable talents very widely. This Scottish-born titan of late colonial and early national Australian public life has long awaited a biographer capable of doing justice to the highs and lows of his remarkable achievements - and failures - legal, political, and domestic. Now Hancock's acute, balanced, and perceptive life history captures the person behind the public figure, besides making a significant contribution to our understanding of the various worlds in which Symon lived and moved.

Professor Wilfrid Prest, University of Adelaide

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