James Purves

Who was James Purves?

James Liddell Purves QC was an Australian barrister and politician.

Born in Melbourne to grazier James Purves and Caroline Goillod, he attended Melbourne Diocesan School from 1853 to 1855 and then King's College London, travelling in Europe before entering Trinity College, Cambridge and Lincoln's Inn in 1861; despite matriculation he did not go on to study for a degree. In 1865 he was called to the Bar; after returning to Melbourne he was called to the Victorian Bar in 1866. From 1872 to 1880 he was the member for Mornington in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He married Annie Lavinia Grice in 1875, with whom he had a son; in 1879 he remarried Eliza Elsie Brodribb, with whom he had six children. Appointed Queen's Counsel in 1886, Purves died at South Yarra in 1910.