Matthew Henry Davies
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The Honourable Sir Matthew Davies |
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| 5th Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly | |
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In office 4 October 1887 – April 1892 |
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| Preceded by | Peter Lalor |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Bent |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Matthew Henry Davies 1 February 1850 Geelong, Victoria |
| Died | 26 November 1912 (aged 62) Mentone, Victoria |
| Profession | Financier |
Sir Matthew Henry Davies (1 February 1850 – 26 November 1912) was an Australian politician, who served as Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He was also a leading figure in the Victorian land boom, resulting in his bankruptcy in 1894 and subsequent trial on conspiracy charges.
Davies was the son of Ebeneser Davies and his wife Ruth, daughter of Mark Bartlett, of Bracknell, Berks, England, and grandson of the Rev John Davies, of Trevecca College, South Wales. He was born at Geelong in 1850, and educated at the Geelong College, and matriculated at the University of Melbourne in 1869. He was admitted a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1876, and married Elizabeth Locke Mercer, eldest daughter of the Rev. Peter Mercer, D.D., of Melbourne, Presbyterian minister. They produced a family of six children—Arnold Mercer Davies 1876, Marion Agnes Davies 1877, Henry Gascoigne Davies 1879, Beatrice Elizabeth Davies 1880, Muriel Kate Davies 1882, and Olive Blanche Davies 1884.
For five years davies was honorary secretary to the Council of the Law Institute of Victoria, and was a Justice of the Peace for the central bailiwick. He was mayor of the City of Prahran from 1881 to 1882. Davies represented St Kilda in the Legislative Assembly from 1883 to 1889; was a member of the Royal Commission on Transfer of Land and Titles to Land in 1885; was sworn of the Executive Council in February 1886, and held a portfolio in the Gillies–Deakin Government as a Minister without office from 1886 to 1887. He visited England in connection with the Colonial and Indian Exhibition while a member of the Victorian Government. He was Chairman of the Royal Commission on Banking in 1887, and was elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in October 1887. He was returned unopposed for Toorak in 1889, and unanimously re-elected Speaker in the same year. He was knighted in 1890, and he gave 10,000 pounds to the Imperial Institute and other public objects in the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria's reign.
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