John Peden (politician)

Sir John Beverley Peden KCMG KC (25 April 1871 – 31 May 1946) was an Australian politician.

He was born in Randwick to farmer Magnus Jackson Peden, a mayor of Randwick, and Elizabeth Neathway Brown. He attended public school at Bega before studying at Sydney Grammar School and the University of Sydney, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1892 and a Bachelor of Law in 1898. He was an assistant lecturer in Latin at the university from 1896 to 1898, when he was called to the bar. He lectured in law from 1903 and became a professor in 1910. On 21 December 1904 he married Margaret Ethel Maynard, with whom he had two daughters. He was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council as a Nationalist in 1917; he was appointed King's Counsel in 1923 and Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1930. From 1929 to 1946 he was President of the Council; he was both the last President appointed directly by the governor, and the first elected by his fellow councillors. Peden died in Paddington in 1946.^[1]

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