Hon. John Farquhar Lymburn
Elder and Attorney General of Alberta · 1880–1969
Biography
John Farquhar Lymburn (1880–1969)
John Farquhar Lymburn was born in Ayr, Scotland, on September 25, 1880, and became a lawyer in Edmonton. In 1926 Premier John Brownlee appointed him Attorney General of Alberta, choosing a non-partisan lawyer for the post, and he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as a member for Edmonton that year. He served as Attorney General until 1935.
As Attorney General he was responsible for Alberta’s submission in the Persons Case, which supported the recognition of women as persons under the law. He later argued that William Aberhart’s Social Credit proposals went beyond the province’s constitutional powers, and he lost his seat in the Social Credit landslide of 1935. When a 1937 Social Credit pamphlet attacked him as a “Bankers’ Toady,” the party whip responsible was convicted of criminal libel. He sought a return to the legislature in 1942 without success.
Lymburn was an elder of First Presbyterian Church for more than three decades. The church’s 1934 Session portrait shows him among the elders while he was still Attorney General, and he was still seated in the front row of the Kirk Session photographed in November 1968, the year before his death. He died in Edmonton on November 25, 1969. The Lymburn neighbourhood in Edmonton is named in his honour.
Roles and service
-
Elder (on Session in 1934 and 1968)
- June 5, 1926 – September 2, 1935
Attorney General
- 1926 – 1935
Member of the Legislative Assembly for Edmonton
Further reading
Sources
His terms in the legislature and as Attorney General are from the Legislative Assembly's own record. His exact birth and death dates come from an archival description cited by Wikipedia; his part in the Persons Case and the 1937 libel case come from books cited by Wikipedia that we have not yet checked ourselves.
- Church record "1934 Session," photograph page listing Dr. A. R. Osborn, Moderator, and the elders, including Hon. J. F. Lymburn, page 53 of a bound volume held by First Presbyterian Church, Edmonton
- Church record Kirk Session, First Presbyterian Church, Edmonton, November 24, 1968: framed photograph with typed caption, front row, "Mr. J. F. Lymburn, Q.C."
- Legislative Assembly of Alberta, member record: John F. Lymburn, KC (elected for Edmonton 1926 and 1930; defeated 1935; defeated in the 1942 by-election; Attorney General June 5, 1926 to September 2, 1935) Link to this source (opens in a new tab)
- City of Edmonton, Neighbourhood Profile: Lymburn (named for "John F. Lymburn, a Scottish born lawyer" who "served as Attorney General ... from 1926 to 1935") Link to this source (opens in a new tab)
- Edmonton Public Schools Archives, "Lymburn School" authority record (John F. Lymburn, 1880–1969, arrived in Edmonton in 1911) Link to this source (opens in a new tab)
- Archives Canada, "John F. Lymburn fonds," biographical sketch (born Ayr, Scotland, September 25, 1880; died November 25, 1969) (cited in Wikipedia; archived copy) Archived copy (opens in a new tab)
- Franklin L. Foster, John E. Brownlee: A Biography (Lloydminster: Foster Learning, 1981) (appointment as Attorney General) (cited in Wikipedia; not yet consulted)
- Robert J. Sharpe and Patricia I. McMahon, The Persons Case: The Origins and Legacy of the Fight for Legal Personhood (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), 175 (cited in Wikipedia; not yet consulted)
- John J. Barr, The Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of Social Credit in Alberta (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974), 109–110 (the 1937 libel case) (cited in Wikipedia; not yet consulted)
- Kenneth J. Munro, First Presbyterian Church, Edmonton: A History (Victoria: Trafford, 2004), 277–278 (cited in Wikipedia; not yet consulted)