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The Right Honourable
Sir Louis Henry Davies
PC, KCMG, QC
	The Right Honourable; Sir Louis Henry Davies ; PC, KCMG, QC
	; The Right Hon. Sir Louis Henry Davies
3rd Premier of Prince Edward Island
	In office; 1876 – 1879
Preceded by	Lemuel Owen
Succeeded by	William Wilfred Sullivan
	Member of the General Assembly of Prince Edward Island
	In office; 1872 – 1879
	Member of the Canadian Parliament; for Queen's County
	In office; 1882 – 1883; Serving with John Theophilus Jenkins
Preceded by	James Colledge Pope; Frederick de Sainte-Croix Brecken
	In office; 1883 – 1884; Serving with Frederick de Sainte-Croix Brecken
	In office; 1884 – 1887; Serving with John Theophilus Jenkins
	In office; 1887 – 1896; Serving with William Welsh
Succeeded by	The electoral district was abolished in 1892.
	Member of the Canadian Parliament; for West Queen's
	In office; 1896 – 1901
Preceded by	The electoral district was created in 1892.
Succeeded by	Donald Farquharson
	Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
	In office; September 25, 1901 – November 23, 1918
Appointed by	Wilfrid Laurier
Preceded by	George Edwin King
Succeeded by	Pierre-Basile Mignault
6th Chief Justice of Canada
	In office; November 23, 1918 – May 1, 1924
Appointed by	Robert Borden
Preceded by	Charles Fitzpatrick
Succeeded by	Francis Alexander Anglin
Born	May 4, 1845; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Died	May 1, 1924 (aged 78); Ottawa, Ontario
Political party	Liberal
Other political; affiliations	Prince Edward Island Liberal Party
Relations	Benjamin Davies
Cabinet	Attorney General (1876-1879); Solicitor General (1869); Minister of Marine and Fisheries (1896-1901)

Sir Louis Henry Davies, PC, KCMG, QC (May 4, 1845 – May 1, 1924) was a Prince Edward Island (PEI) lawyer, businessman and politician. He served as lead counsel for the Prince Edward Island Land Commission, which was established in 1875 to settle the problem of absentee land ownership and to provide tenants of the Island with clear title to their lands.

He was born in Charlottetown, the son of Benjamin Davies and Kezia Attwood Watts. He read law at the Inner Temple in London and later called to bar in England in 1866.

Davies was first elected to the House of Assembly as a Liberal in 1872 just prior to PEI entering Canadian confederation. With the issue of confederation resolved and the land question settled as a result of Canada's promise to fund land reform, the major issue remaining on the island was that of school funding and whether the school system should be entirely secular and public or whether separate schools for Catholics should be permitted. The issue divided both parties, and had led to the collapse of one government.

Following the defeat of the Conservative government of Lemuel Cambridge Owen in 1876, Davies established a coalition government of Protestant Liberals and Conservatives with himself as Premier and Attorney-General. The Davies government was formed to enact a Public Schools Act which made school attendance compulsory, and created a non-sectarian public school system. The act was passed in 1877 and, with the issue around which the coalition had been formed having been resolved, the coalition itself began to unravel. Davies' government reformed the civil service and brought in financial reforms before being defeated by the Conservatives in a Motion of No Confidence in 1879.

Davies won a seat in the Canadian House of Commons in the 1882 federal election as a Liberal. When the Liberals formed government after the 1896 election under Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Davies became minister of marine and fisheries. In 1901, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. In 1918, he became Chief Justice, and held that position until his death in Ottawa in 1924.

Davies was named a Queen's Counsel in 1880 and knighted by Queen Victoria in 1897.

As of 2006, he is the only Prince Edward Islander to serve on the Supreme Court. The PEI Supreme Court building in Charlottetown is named in his honour. Also named for him is Davies Point, at the meeting of Hastings and Alice Arms on Observatory Inlet in British Columbia; the naming was done at the time of his appointment to the Supreme Court,^[1] as was also Davies Bay, at the head of Work Channel just east of Prince Rupert.^[2]

[edit] References

^ Davies Point in the BC Geographical Names Information System
^ Davies Bay in the BC Geographical Names Information System

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Louis Henry Davies

[0] Davies Point in the BC Geographical Names Information System

[1] Davies Bay in the BC Geographical Names Information System

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