Edward William Davies

Edward William Davies was elected Mayor of Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1901, but was removed two months later on the grounds of insanity.

Davies was the son of Alfred Alexander Davies who had arrived in Fremantle in 1834 and who had a son called George Alfred Davies who was born in 1846. This Davies was born in Fremantle in 1855. In 1875 his father died, and in December that year Davies married Kate Murray. In July 1876, Davies appeared in court on a charge of seduction brought against him by William Thorpe, a farmer, on behalf of his daughter Rosina.

In the early 1880s Davies became a pawnbroker. At the same time, he was working to improve his social position in Fremantle: he joined local lodges, institutes and societies and was active on their committees, and in 1887 became rate collector to the Fremantle Municipal Council. He eventually resigned as rate collector in August 1888 after protesting that "from the very illiberal manner his demands had received in many quarters since starting in July, in consequence no doubt of the general depression, he felt that his talents were not equal to the occasion." Despite this, Davies took up the position again in early 1890.

With the onset of a gold rush in Western Australia 1893, Davies’ property investments paid dividends and he was elected to Fremantle Municipal Council. In July 1894 he was also elected to the colony's Legislative Council, and in 1897 his profile appeared in W. B. Kimberly's History of West Australia: A narrative of her past, together with biographies of its leading men. The piece noted that ‘there is a happy disposition suggested in his face, which on personal acquaintance is established most emphatically.’

In April 1900, Davies was also appointed a Justice of the Peace, and on 17 April 1901, he was elected unopposed by the Council as Mayor of Fremantle. He was to serve the balance of retiring Mayor Edward Solomon's term, and was installed on 26 April 1901.

Davies carried out his initial public duties without attracting comment, but on the night of 17 May 1901, he delivered a furious outburst to a Fremantle Municipal Council meeting. The majority of councillors held a special meeting the following Monday evening to ask for his resignation. Davies attended a football match on 25 May and exhibited ‘erratic behaviour’ and then at a boxing match on 28 May he lavishly distributed money around him.

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