Percy McElwaine

Sir Percy Alexander McElwaine Kt, LL.D, KC (1884-1969) was born on 21 September 1884 in Roscommon, Ireland.

Educated at Campbell College, Belfast and Trinity College Dublin. Irish bar in 1908, Alberta bar in 1913. First World War temporary lieutenant in the Royal Irish Rifles. Coroner in Kenya. Kings Council (Northern Ireland) in 1929. 1930 was working as a Deputy Public Prosecutor in Singapore. Attorney General of the Straits Settlements 1933, Chief Justice Straits Settlements 1936–1946. Knighted in 1939. His photograph is featured in a display at the former Supreme Court of Singapore, now called The Arts House.

In 1927 he was appointed Attorney General of Fiji by the governor Sir Eyre Hutson, holding the position until 1931, later became the Chief Justice of the peace in Singapore. During World War II he was imprisoned for 6 months in Changi Prison and afterwards in Formosa (where he wrote notes on his life which are now kept at the Imperial War Museum in London) and then Mukden in Manchuria.

He died on 24 October 1969 in Devon, at the age of 85.