The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Lee Steere, Hon. Sir James George

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753596The Dictionary of Australasian Biography — Lee Steere, Hon. Sir James GeorgePhilip Mennell

Lee Steere, Hon. Sir James George, J.P., Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Western Australia, is the third son of the late Lee Steere, J.P. and D.L., and formerly M.P. for Surrey, of Jayes Park, Ockley, Surrey, by Ann, second daughter of James Keirs Watson, of Hessle, co. York, and was born in 1830. He was educated at Clapham Grammar School, and emigrated to Western Australia, where he engaged in pastoral pursuits in 1860, becoming a J.P. for the colony in 1861. He was a nominated unofficial member of the old Legislative Council from 1868 to 1890; and on the death of Sir Luke S. Leake he was elected Speaker of that body on June 21st, 1886. He was re-elected on March 13th, 1889, and continued to hold that position till the dissolution of the Legislative Council in 1890, when he was elected for Nelson, and appointed Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. In 1884 Sir James was appointed an unofficial member of the Executive Council, and represented the colony at the first session of the Federal Council of Australasia, held at Hobart in Jan. and Feb. 1886. He discharged the same function at the second and third sessions in 1888 and 1889. In 1890 he acted as delegate of Western Australia to the Federation Conference in Melbourne, and to the Federation Convention in Sydney in 1891. He was knighted in 1888. Sir James married, in 1859, Catherine Anne, only daughter of the late Luke Leake, of Perth, W.A.