S. G. Kingston

Strickland Gough Kingston (1848 – 3 October 1897), usually referred to by his initials or as "Pat", was a prominent lawyer in South Australia. He was a brother of Charles Kingston, Premier of South Australia from 1893 to 1899. .

History

Kingston was born in Adelaide the elder son of (later Sir) George Kingston, an Irish-born surveyor, landowner and parliamentarian. He was educated at Adelaide Educational Institution, where he was considered, with his brother and (later Dr.) Joseph Verco, one of its three brightest alumnae. He was a also fine athlete and sportsman, excelling in long-distance running, jumping, boxing and on the football field. On leaving school he found employment with the Bank of Australasia (Samuel Tomkinson was manager at the time), then decided to study law. Samuel Way took him on as an articled clerk, then when in 1876 Way was elevated to Chief Justice of South Australia, his articles were transferred to Josiah Symon, Way's partner.

Kingston was admitted to the bar in April 1879 and joined his brother in partnership as Kingston & Kingston, solicitors, with offices in Eagle Chambers, Pirie Street. The practice was successful, but cut short by a stupid act on (S. G.) Kingston's part: On Sunday 8 June 1884 around 4 pm Kingston, carrying a saloon rifle in a bag, boarded a cab operated by one Patrick Guerrin, who sported a tall felt hat "after the American pattern".

A saloon rifle or Flobert gun is a cheaply made single-shot smoothbore weapon used for indoor recreation in large houses, developed in Europe around 1845. The .22 BB rimfire cartridge is loaded with a round lead ball and no powder; propulsion is by primer alone, so its report is not very loud and is accurate to about 8 m. It is capable of inflicting a flesh wound but little worse.

He had been carried along Pirie Street as far as Hindmarsh Square when he took it into his head to put a bullet through the "topper" of the cabman in his seat ahead and above him, but whether through carelessness, inebriation or (as Kingston claimed) a sudden lurch of the vehicle, the slug went low and lodged in Guerrin's scalp. The cabman immediately ejected Kingston, and appears to have demanded money (perhaps ₤1000, then ₤300) to avoid a criminal charge, which Kingston refused. Kingston was duly charged, convicted and jailed for six months, confounding skeptics, who predicted he would, by virtue of his profession and connections, somehow be treated lightly.

By this time Charles Kingston, who dearly loved his older brother, had been appointed Attorney-General in the Colton Cabinet and dropped his legal practice; otherwise it is likely that despite his brother's mad action and consequent disgrace, their business partnership would have been renewed. Certainly he never distanced himself from his aberrant brother.

In January 1885 Kingston returned to legal practice in the old offices, and appears to have had no shortage of clients. In March 1886 he moved to offices in Lipson Street, Port Adelaide, then in July 1889 to Church Street, Port Augusta.

He was an extremely clever lawyer and was able to save many wealthy clients from the legal consequences of their actions.

The Chairman caused some amusement by reading a cutting reporting the trial before justices at Port Augusta of two cases in which the defendants were charged by the District Council of Woolundunga with neglecting to destroy rabbits. In both cases Mr. N. A. Webb appeared for the District Council, and Mr. S. G. Kingston for the defendants. So far as reported the cases seemed exactly similar, but the results were widely different. In the first one Hannah Tapley pleaded guilty, and was promptly fined £2 and costs. Mr. Andrew Tennant appears to have been better advised and pleaded not guilty, and the information was dismissed. The arguments of Mr. S. G. Kingston appear to have completely capsized the justices, and were most ingenious. "There was no proof that such a council as that of Woolundunga existed," "there was no proof that the Chairman Mr. W. Q. Pryor held that office," and "there was no proof that the council authorised the notice which appeared in the Government Gazette." Of course there is no suggestion that Mr. Tennant got off because he was a rich man. It was doubtless miserable Hannah Tapley's own fault in speaking the truth that caused her to be fined.

The news of the death of his brother was brought to the Premier by the Commissioner of Police while the Ministry were sitting in Cabinet on Monday afternoon. Mr. C. C. Kingston at once determined to start for the north, and hurried arrangements were made by which the Premier, Mrs. Kingston, and the Commissioner of Crown Lands were enabled to leave the city by the Broken Hill express at 4.50 p.m. On the train reaching Petersburg a special was in readiness to convey the two Ministers to Port Augusta, where they arrived between 2 and 3 o'clock this morning. They will leave Port Augusta again today and bring the body of the deceased with them to the city for burial. Owing to this sad event the Premier will not be able to be present at the reopening of Parliament this afternoon; but business will be proceeded with as usual in his absence. The Premier, who was greatly attached to his brother, was much affected by the sad news, and during the afternoon he was the recipient of many messages of condolence from politicians and other friends of the family. It may be mentioned as a melancholy coincidence that within the space of little more than twelve months Mr. Kingston has lost by sudden and unexpected death a Ministerial colleague, a business partner, and now his only brother, the shock in each instance having been exceedingly severe. Mrs. S. G. Kingston, the widow of the dead man, and Miss Kingston, his sister, were attending a meeting in Christ Church schoolroom, North Adelaide, on Monday afternoon, and Dr. Cockburn proceeded thence to convey to them the sad tidings. Mr. Hubert Giles, a brother-in-law of Mr. Kingston, had however, already performed the delicate task.

The partnership continued until Mr. Strickland Kingston in a mad freak fired a pistol at a cabman, and though fortunately no harm was done incurred a sentence of six months' imprisonment. His brother was then Attorney-General in the Colton Cabinet. Mr. S. G. Kingston shortly afterwards resumed practice, eventually going to Port Adelaide, where he worked up a good business and made himself very popular. He remained at Port Adelaide for about two years and then went north. He soon established a remunerative practice there and made a name for himself in most of the big cases heard in Port Augusta. Mr. Kingston, about fifteen years ago, married a daughter of the late Rev. Mr. Stanton, M.A., formerly an Anglican clergyman at the Burra and Kapunda. He was a most affectionate father, and long ago used frequently to take his two little girls with him to the cricket ground when a big match was being played. Mrs. Kingston has for some years been living with her sister at Glenelg. As a youth Mr. Kingston played both cricket and football, and for years he was a member of the South Adelaide Football Club. Consequently he was widely known by men of his own age, and many were the remembrances of old times exchanged by the groups which gathered on the city footpaths to discuss his sudden death when the news was first published in the Express on Monday afternoon. He was last in Adelaide about three weeks ago for the purpose of appearing in an action heard before the Supreme Court. He then stopped with Mr. Hubert Giles, who married his sister, and talked quite confidently of winning the case. The verdict, however, was against him, and this, it is considered, had something to do with causing the depression which had such terrible results. Canon Hopcraft, of St. John's Church, Adelaide, was incumbent of St. Augustine's, Port Augusta, a few years ago, and he saw a great deal of Mr. Kingston, who was one of his parishioners and a regular attendant at church. In speaking of the dead man on Monday evening to a representative of The Advertiser the canon said— '"Mr. Kingston used to be very intemperate, but his lapses of late have been fewer and less serious than ever before, and there is no doubt whatever that he was honestly trying to overcome the habit that had taken such hold of him. Whenever he relapsed of late his remorse seemed to have been very intense. I remember that about two and a half years ago he threatened to commit suicide, and he came to my house asking for me and saying that he was determined to shoot himself and he wanted me to be present. I was absent at the time, and Mr. Tom Young took hold of him and saved him from suicide on that occasion. I appeared to have some influence over him, and I don't think he would have shot himself on this occasion if I had been at Port Augusta. I think he felt pretty much alone in the world. He was a remarkably shrewd fellow as a lawyer, and his fidelity was undoubted by the residents in the north. They believed in him professionally as an honorable man, and recently he had been getting on very well in his profession. His life has been comparatively temperate for a long while, and his outbreaks have been fewer and shorter. I should think from what I know of him that he had been drinking and that he shot himself while in the depth of his remorse. He was in Adelaide about three weeks ago engaged in a law case and he came to see me. He was quite steady until he lost the case, and then he was intoxicated for two days. Afterwards he pulled himself together and went home and remained allright. He was a gentleman when sober, and his aim was right, but he was not always able to put his aspirations into practice." Mr. N. A. Webb, late Mayor of Port Augusta, who practised as a solicitor in that town for a number of years, in the course of a conversation with a representative of The Advertiser said:—"Mr. Kingston came to Port Augusta nine years ago, and he has been practising there ever since. During that time he has been engaged in almost every important case that has passed through the northern courts, and it has been my privilege to have been associated with him as opposing counsel in a great number of them. I always found him a fair opponent in court matters, and in private business also he could be absolutely relied on. He was a capital criminal lawyer, and as such probably had very few superiors in the profession in South Australia. He defended a number of prisoners at the Criminal Sittings at Port Augusta, and his work was highly successful. It was a great pleasure to work against him in a case because he was a good lawyer, a hard fighter, and at the same time he was eminently fair in everything he did. Socially he was well liked. and he had a great number of friends in Port Augusta who will be very grieved to hear of his sad ending. Not long ago I had a letter from Mr. Tom Young, the present mayor, in which he informed me of his election. Referring to this he writes:—'Pat Kingston would have liked to have taken the position, but I did not know in time. He has been keeping first-rate lately, and it might have helped him to continue so.' Mr. Kingston formed a strong friendship with the Rev. Canon Hopcraft, at whose farewell meeting in the Town Hall be made an eloquent speech, and testified to the kindly influence that the canon had exerted over his life. Mr. Kingston's address on that occasion was undoubtedly one of the most eloquent he ever made, and it completely took the audience by storm." THE FUNERAL. The funeral of the late Mr. Kingston will take place tomorrow morning, the remains being removed at 10.30 o'clock from the residence of his brother, in Grote-street, where he was born, for interment in the West-terrace cemetery.

References

Category:1848 births Category:1897 deaths Category:Australian lawyers Category:Suicides in South Australia Category:People educated at Adelaide Educational Institution