The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Darvall, Hon. Sir John Bayley

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1365525The Dictionary of Australasian Biography — Darvall, Hon. Sir John BayleyPhilip Mennell

Darvall, Hon. Sir John Bayley, K.C.M.G., Q.C., M.A., was the second son of Captain E. Darvall of the 9th Dragoons, and was born at Nunnington Hall, Yorkshire, and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1833, and was admitted to the degree of M.A. in 1837. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1838, and a year later went to New South Wales, where he practised at the bar till 1867, being made Q.C. in 1853. He was appointed a nominee member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales in 1844, and in 1848 was elected for Bathurst. He joined in the opposition to the measure conferring responsible government on New South Wales, owing to disapproval of Wentworth's scheme for a non-elective Upper House. In 1861 he was appointed a life member of the Legislative Council, but resigned his seat, and subsequently represented the electoral districts of West Maitland and Sydney in the Legislative Assembly. In April 1856 he was appointed a member of the Executive Council as one of the first responsible ministry, but did not assume office as Solicitor-General till the following June, and resigned with his colleagues in August. He was Solicitor-General in the Parker Ministry from Oct. 1856 to May 1857, and Attorney-General from May to Sept. 1857. He held the same post under Mr. (afterwards Sir) Charles Cowper from August to Oct. 1863, and from Feb. to June 1865. In 1850 Sir John Darvall was appointed a member of the first Senate of the University of Sydney, and in the next year refused a judgeship in Victoria. He was a strenuous opponent of the separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859-60. In 1867 he returned to England, and was created C.M.G. in 1869 and K.C.M.G. in 1877. He died in London on Dec. 28th, 1883.