George Maxwell

Who was George Maxwell?

George Arnot Maxwell was a barrister and Australian politician.

Maxwell was born in Montrose, Forfarshire, Scotland and educated in Fife. He migrated to Australia with his family in 1875. He worked briefly as a jackeroo and then completed his matriculation in Melbourne. He subsequently taught at Melbourne schools, including Caulfield Grammar School, while studying arts and law at the University of Melbourne. He was admitted to the Bar in 1891 and became a successful at criminal law and was appointed King's Counsel in 1926. He married Jean Russell Ross in 1896—they had four daughters and one son.

Maxwell ran unsuccessfully for various Victorian Legislative Assembly seats: Collingwood in 1891; Prahran in 1897; Warrnambool in 1900; Carlton in 1902 and Evelyn in 1914. However, he won the Labor-held Australian House of Representatives seat of Fawkner for the Nationalists at the 1917 election. In parliament, he disliked what he saw as the sectionalism of the Country and Labor parties and, following his conscience, he voted against the Bruce-Page government on a number of issues in 1929. He was one of six Nationalists, including Billy Hughes who brought the government down by voting against the maritime industries bill and as a result was unopposed by Labor at the 1929 election. He joined Hughes's Australian Party, but resigned in May 1930 and sat as an Independent until he joined the United Australia Party in 1931.