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which he leased from W H Gray, an Adelaide absentee owner. At various other times Luxton held long leases over
Lots 423 and 519, which were then sublet.
Luxton does not seem to have had any sporting interests though in 1885 the firm of Jolly and Luxton gave
a trophy for shooting. He was not one of the towering figures of Palmerston’s history but he does seem to have
been concerned to see that the north developed, and the townsmen gained nothing for which they had not asked.
He was a signatory to the letter seeking electoral representation for the Territory which was given to J L Parsons
when, as a minister, he visited in 1882. In 1886, he was a member of a committee discussing the transcontinental
railway. In October 1897, Luxton was part of a deputation to the Government Resident requesting that ships with
certain explosives, such as ‘fuse, Chinese crackers, and cartridges’ might be allowed to call at Port Darwin. For
years, ships with any types of explosives were forbidden the port as no agreement could be reached on the best
place to site the magazine. He was also a long time member of the North Australia League and Vice President in
- At various times he was elected to the ‘Show’ committee and in 1905 served on the committee established to
welcome the Governor of South Australia. Thereafter he took no further active part in the life of the town, probably
due to his health.
In 1912 he went to Sydney for treatment of diabetes but felt so improved that he returned to Darwin, only to
die shortly thereafter on 5 March 1913 at the age of 56. He was known as a man whose ‘word was his bond’ and
his ‘bluff straightforward honesty’ made him a ‘man’s man’. He was generous to a fault, always ready with a
subscription to help the common good.
He had married Annie Sloper on a visit south in 1892 but there were no children. His devoted wife to whom he
left an estate of 5 000 Pounds, subject to a small bequest to his sister, survived him. Two thousand Pounds of his
estate came from a life policy, which he had prudently taken out.
Advertiser, January & February 1904; North Australian, 28 August 1886, 8 October 1887; Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 25 March 1882,
30 December 1882, 26 June 1885, 1 August 1892, 10 February 1893, 22 October 1897, 3 April 1903, 10 April 1903, 12 June 1903, 29 May 1903,
14 March 1904, 15 April 1904, 6 May 1904, 21 April 1905, 6 March 1913; Northern Territory Archives Service, E106 40 & E96/20 Land
Titles Office Records.
HELEN J WILSON, Vol 2.
LYONS, JOHN WILLIAM (TIGER) (1908–1970), lawyer, soldier and politician, was born at Lucknow,
New South Wales, on 9 November 1908, son of Hon. James Denis Lyons, a produce merchant and grazier who later
became a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, and his wife Sarah Anne, nee Maloney. Both the
Lyons and Maloney families had migrated from Ireland, the Maloneys in the 1830s. The Lyons were Catholics
and John Lyons was educated at Saint Stanislaus College in Bathurst, New South Wales. An excellent student, he
was awarded a gold medal for English. Completing his secondary education below the minimum age for entry to
university, he spent two years learning wool classing before starting his law degree at the University of Sydney.
On completion of his degree, he worked for a Sydney legal firm. On 7 July 1933, Lyons married Dorothea Margaret
Wright at Saint Xavier’s Church in Darlinghurst, Sydney. The honeymoon was spent in Darwin.
What started as a six-week honeymoon in Darwin extended to a stay of nearly 40 years. Lyons entered a legal
partnership with John Harris, and practised as a solicitor and barrister for many years. John ‘Tiger’ Lyons retained
many of the physical and mental characteristics of his Irish ancestors. He had a keen sense of justice, and often
represented the underdogs of society in cases where there was little chance of payment. He was also a noted
criminal lawyer, and not one of the many clients he defended on murder charges was ever hanged. In the 1930s,
Lyons earned world fame when he won thousands of Pounds in damages for the owners of Japanese fishing luggers
impounded by the government. Whether in arguing a case or speaking on a public issue, he showed ‘considerable
oratorical ability which he used to devastating effect on those who did not share his point of view.’ The red
headed lawyer in his private life had a deep love of literature and sport and was a gregarious and entertaining
companion.
The Lyons settled in a house in Larrakeyah. There were three daughters of the marriage, Margaret, Denise and
Thea, and three sons, John, James and Timothy. When the Japanese evacuated Darwin citizens in 1941 due to fears
of invasion, Dorothea Lyons and the children went to Sydney. Lyons remained in Darwin. Shortly after the family
had settled in their wartime home at Hunters Hill, the shadowy figure of a man in military uniform was seen on
the verandah late one night. It was Lyons. He had joined the Army and with the rank of Major spent the remaining
war years as a legal advisor to United States Army units based in Australia. The Lyons family returned to Darwin
as soon as the town was reopened to civilians in 1946. In 1948, Lyons bought the old British Australia Telegraph
Company Residence on the corner of the Esplanade and Knuckey Street in Darwin. The family lived there for the
next 26 years.
In 1957, elections were held for positions on the newly formed Darwin Municipal Council. Darwin had not
had a town council since 1937, when the then council resigned and handed over the responsibility for municipal
administration to the Northern Territory Administration. Lyons was elected as a representative for the Port Darwin
ward. He became Deputy Mayor and, on the resignation of Bill Richardson as Mayor in 1958, took over the
position of Mayor of Darwin. Lyons’s administration is remembered as a colourful era in the Council’s history.
While he was reportedly mellower and more ready to seek consensus than Richardson, in his dealing with
councillors ‘his biting wit and sarcasm were often felt in Council debate’. Lyons was also not adverse to mixing
it physically with opponents should the need arise. A case in point was his brawl in 1958 with the feisty Editor of
the Northern Territory News, Jim Bowditch, over the issue of the day labour garbage strike in Darwin. As Mayor,
Lyons had upset unionists, and Bowditch, by leading councillors in a clean up of garbage in the town. Lyons