FOXTON, Justin Fox Greenlaw (1849-1916)

politician

son of J. G. Foxton, was born at Melbourne on 24 September 1849. He was educated at the Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and privately, and went to Brisbane when he was 15. He was articled to M. Thompson, solicitor, at Ipswich and was admitted to the bar when he was 22. He practised as a solicitor at Stanthorpe, and then came to Brisbane and went into partnership with his old mentor, J. M. Thompson. In 1883 he was elected to the legislative assembly as member for Carnarvon and held this seat continuously until 1904. He was secretary for public lands in the Nelson (q.v.) and Byrnes (q.v.) ministries from May 1896 to October 1898 and home secretary from October 1898 to December 1899 in the Dickson (q.v.) ministry, and from December 1899 to April 1903 in the Philp (q.v.) ministry. He was secretary for public lands in the same ministry from April to September 1903. Defeated at the 1904 elections he entered federal politics as a member for Brisbane in the house of representatives in 1906, and was minister without portfolio in the third Deakin (q.v.) ministry from June 1909 to April 1910, when he was defeated at the general election. He died at Brisbane on 23 June 1916. He married in 1874 Emily Mary, daughter of the Hon. John Panton, who survived him with two sons and two daughters. He was created C.M.G. in 1903.

Foxton had many interests. He joined the old volunteer forces when a very young man and rose to be brigadier in command of the Queensland field force (Commonwealth military forces). He represented Australia at the Imperial conference on naval and military defence of empire in 1909, and was for some time A.D.C. to the governor-general of Australia. He was keenly interested in cricket, was president of the Queensland Cricket Association, chairman of trustees of the Brisbane cricket ground, and a member of the Australian board of control. He received the certificate of the Royal Humane Society of Australia for saving life in 1884 and its bronze medal in 1891. He showed much ability as a politician and administrator. He brought in a factories and shops act in 1896 which showed a distinct advance in humanitarian legislation, and its provisions were further extended in his factories and shops act of 1900. These acts made him justly known as the father of shop and factory legislation in Queensland.

The Brisbane Courier, 24 June 1916; C A Bernays, Queensland Politics During Sixty Years; Who's Who, 1916; Liber Melburniensis, 1937.