Leverrier, Francis Hewitt (Frank) (1863 - 1940)

Summary

From an obituary notice in "The Age' Thursday 13 June 1940: "Frank Hewitt Leverrier, K.C., 77, a leading Sydney equity barrister, died at Vaucluse, N.S.W., on Tuesday night. He was outstanding for scholastic attainments as a scientist and
lawyer. Admitted to the bar of New South Wales in 1888, he took silk in 1911. He was chairman of Austral Malay Tin Mining Co., and a director of the Mutual Life and Citizens
Insurance Co."

Details

From his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry (Volume 10 1986) by Martha Rutledge:

At the University of Sydney: "He won the Levey, Deas Thomson, R. C. Want and Renwick scholarships and in 1884 graduated B.A. with first-class honours, the gold medal in natural science and the Belmore gold medal for agricultural chemistry. Next year he graduated B.Sc. with first-class honours and the gold medal."

"Elected to the university senate in 1907 as a scientist and reformer, Leverrier served continuously until November 1939. Under the old constitution he was vice-chancellor in 1914-17 and 1921-23, and chairman of the finance committee. "

"Possessing 'great mechanical inventiveness and manual dexterity', Leverrier built a dynamo to generate electricity for his Waverley home and to power his well-equipped workshop, transmitter and chemical laboratory. He was a skilled cabinetmaker and for a case involving the Welsbach patent he made a wooden model that could be taken to pieces to illustrate the working of a gas mantle. His interest in science was lifelong. A friend of Professors (Sir) Edgeworth David, (Sir) Richard Threlfall and James Pollock, he experimented in wireless telegraphy and X-rays. He was a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales from 1909 and next year was first president of the Wireless Institute of New South Wales. He was chairman of the State committee of the Commonwealth Advisory Council of Science and Industry in 1916-18 and of the provisional State advisory board of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry in 1920-23, and a member of the State committee of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in 1926-40."

Related entries

Published resources

Book Sections

• Rutledge, Martha, 'Leverrier, Francis Hewitt (Frank) (1863 - 1940), barrister,' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), pp. 80-81. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/leverrier-francis-hewitt-frank-7177. Details

Newspaper Articles

• 'Obituary Mr F.H. Leverrier, K.C.', The Age (1940), https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/206762265. Details