{{Short description|Canadian politician (1926–1935)}} {{redirect|Lymburn|the community in northern Alberta|Lymburn, Alberta|the neighbourhood in Edmonton|Lymburn, Edmonton}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2024}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|size=100%|QC}} | image = John Lymburn.jpg | image_size = | office = Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta | term_start = June 28, 1926 | term_end = August 22, 1935 | predecessor = {{cslist|John Bowen|Jeremiah Heffernan|William Henry|Nellie McClung|Andrew McLennan}} | successor = {{cslist|Samuel Barnes|David Duggan|William R. Howson|David Mullen|Charles Gerald O'Connor|George Van Allen}} | alongside = {{cslist|David Duggan (1926–1935)|Charles Gibbs (1926–1935)|William Atkinson (1930–1935)|William R. Howson (1930–1935)|Frederick C. Jamieson (1931–1935)|Charles Weaver (1926–1930)|Warren Prevey (1926–1930)}} | constituency = Edmonton | office1 = Attorney-General of Alberta | term_start1 = June 5, 1926 | term_end1 = September 3, 1935 | predecessor1 = John Edward Brownlee | successor2 = John Hugill | birth_date = {{Birth date|1880|09|25}} | birth_place = Ayr, Scotland | death_date = {{nowrap|{{Death date and age|1969|11|25|1880|09|25}}}} | death_place = Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | party = United Farmers of Alberta (1926–mid-1930s) | spouse = {{marriage|Isabella Marguerite Clark|July 19, 1912|1958|end=d}} | children = 3 | alma_mater = University of Glasgow | occupation = Lawyer, Attorney-General of Alberta, and King's Counsel. }}
'''John Farquhar Lymburn''' {{post-nominals|QC}} (September 25, 1880<ref name="AC" /> – November 25, 1969) was a Canadian politician who served as Attorney-General of Alberta from 1926 until 1935. Born and educated in Scotland, he came to Canada in 1911 and practised law in Edmonton (the capital of Alberta). In 1925, John Edward Brownlee became Premier of Alberta, and sought a lawyer without partisan affiliation to succeed him as attorney-general. Lymburn accepted the position, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1926 election. As attorney-general, Lymburn took part in negotiations between the Alberta and federal governments over natural resource rights, prepared Alberta's submission in the Persons case, and played a minor role in the sex scandal that forced Brownlee from office. In the 1935 provincial election, Lymburn and all other United Farmers of Alberta candidates were defeated, as William Aberhart led the Social Credit League to victory. Lymburn made an unsuccessful attempt to return to the legislature in 1942, and briefly returned to prominence during the Bankers' Toadies incident, before dying in 1969.
==Early life==
Lymburn was born in Ayr, Scotland, to William and Margaret (Farquhar) Lymburn. He attended Ayr Grammar School and Ayr Academy before studying law at Glasgow University. After graduating, he apprenticed with Dougall, Gouldie, and Douglas; he qualified as a solicitor in 1903. In 1911, he emigrated to Canada, settling in Edmonton, where he joined Short, Cross, and Biggar. Two years later, he co-founded Lymburn, Mackenzie, and Cooke (later renamed Lymburn, Reid, and Cobbledick).<ref name="AC">{{cite web |url=http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/search/ItemDisplay.asp?sessionKey=999999999_142&l=1&lvl=1&v=0&coll=1&itm=251894&rt=1&bill=1 |title=John F. Lymburn fonds |publisher=Archives Canada |access-date=September 23, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308100239/http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/search/ItemDisplay.asp?sessionKey=999999999_142&l=1&lvl=1&v=0&coll=1&itm=251894&rt=1&bill=1 |archive-date=March 8, 2012 }}</ref><ref name="Munro 277">Munro 277</ref> In the interim, he had married fellow Scot Isabella Marguerite Clark on July 19, 1912. The couple had three daughters: Marguerite Dormer, Mary Doreen Farquhar, and Constance Clark.<ref name="AC"/> John Lymburn was made a King's Counsel in 1926 (then automatically became Queen's Counsel in 1952 with the accession of Queen Elizabeth II).<ref>Munro 277–278</ref>
==Attorney-general==
In 1925, attorney-general John Edward Brownlee succeeded Herbert Greenfield as the leader of the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA)'s provincial caucus and Premier of Alberta. Brownlee was the only lawyer in the UFA caucus, which was dominated by farmers. In appointing an attorney-general to replace himself, he looked outside his caucus and appointed Lymburn, in part because of his lack of affiliation with any provincial political party. By convention, all cabinet ministers, including attorneys-general, were expected to sit in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Accordingly, Lymburn ran in the 1926 provincial election in Edmonton as a UFA candidate. He finished first of eighteen candidates in Edmonton, and became one of Edmonton's five members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs).<ref>Foster 127</ref> He was re-elected in 1930.
As attorney-general, Lymburn was involved in many of the Brownlee government's most important initiatives. He was a major figure in securing the transfer of resource rights from the federal government to the Alberta government.<ref>Foster 166</ref> As the Great Depression bred labour militancy, at Brownlee's request he prepared a list of known Communist leaders so that the government could take action to deport them.<ref>Foster 177</ref>
When Alberta became the only province to support the Famous Five, appellants in the Persons case, Lymburn was responsible for the province's submission.<ref>Sharpe 175</ref>
He was also involved in scandal: the former head of the Liquor Investigation Bureau made allegations against him after Lymburn eliminated the Bureau to save money, though the charges had little effect either in the legal system or in the public eye.<ref>Foster 207</ref> During the John Brownlee sex scandal, in which Brownlee was sued for the seduction of a family friend, Lymburn became the focus of controversy after his department hired a private investigator to look into claims that a Liberal lawyer had offered a young woman money to "put Mr. Brownlee in such a position that Mrs. Brownlee could get a divorce".<ref>Foster 225</ref> Taking the stand during the trial, Lymburn stated that the investigation had been initiated not to aid in the premier's defence, but because the alleged solicitation was a criminal offence. He noted further that Brownlee had insisted on refunding to the government the cost of the investigator.<ref>Foster 252–253</ref>
After the scandal forced Brownlee's resignation as premier, Lymburn stayed on as attorney-general in the short-lived government of Premier Richard Gavin Reid. The conservative Reid government was losing popularity as a result of the Great Depression. Radical economic theories, most notably the version of social credit espoused by Calgary evangelist William Aberhart, were gaining currency among the public. The government's position was that Aberhart's proposals were beyond the legal authority of the provincial government, since they involved banking, which the Constitution of Canada makes a responsibility of the federal government. As attorney-general, Lymburn played a major role in defending this position. When the government brought social credit founder C. H. Douglas from the United Kingdom as an advisor, Lymburn provided him with a copy of one of Aberhart's speeches and asked him to critique it; Douglas concluded that Aberhart's proposals did not align with "Douglasite" social credit, and that many of them would not have the desired effect.<ref>Elliott 187</ref>
==Later life==
In the 1935 provincial election, the UFA was wiped out of the legislature by Aberhart's upstart Social Credit League. As historian Franklin Foster has noted, "it was an ironic footnote to the demise of the most politically successful farmers' group in history that the one UFA candidate who came closest to re-election was lawyer John Lymburn in the City of Edmonton."<ref>Foster 271</ref> After defeat, Lymburn remained active in community life as an elder in Edmonton's First Presbyterian Church, chairman of the Advisory Board of the Students' Christian Movement, chairman of the board of directors of the Beulah Home for unmarried mothers, and president of the Edmonton Scottish Society.<ref name="AC"/> He was also a long-standing member of the Mayfair Golf and Country Club.<ref name="Munro 278">Munro 278</ref> He was an aficionado of the work of fellow Ayrshire native Robbie Burns, whose poetry he could recite in Gaelic, and often spoke at Burns suppers.<ref name="Munro 278"/>
Lymburn briefly re-entered the public eye in 1937, when he was named in a Social Credit-produced pamphlet as one of eight "Bankers' Toadies" who should be "exterminated"; Social Credit whip Joseph Unwin was convicted of criminal libel in relation to the pamphlet.<ref>Barr 109–110</ref> In 1942, Lymburn contested a by-election in Edmonton; he came in third of five candidates in the first round of counting. Elmer Roper of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation emerged victorious.<ref name="by-election"/>
Marguerite Lymburn died in 1958. John Lymburn died eleven years later, on November 25, 1969.<ref name="AC"/>
==Electoral record==
{{Alberta provincial election, 1926/Edmonton}} {{Alberta provincial election, 1930/Edmonton}} {{Alberta provincial election, 1935/Edmonton}} {| class="wikitable" | colspan="3" align=center|'''1942 by-election results (Edmonton)'''<ref name="by-election">{{cite web |url=http://www.elections.ab.ca/Public%20Website/742.htm |title=Past By-Election results |publisher=Elections Alberta |access-date=September 23, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090607094042/http://www.elections.ab.ca/Public%20Website/742.htm |archive-date=June 7, 2009 }}</ref> | colspan="2"|<span style="font-size: 90%;">'''Turnout N/A'''</span> |- {{Canadian party colour|AB|CCF|row-name}} |Elmer Roper |align="right"|4,834 |align="right"|24.76% {{Canadian party colour|AB|Social Credit|row-name}} |G. B. Giles |align="right"|4,432 |align="right"|22.70% {{Canadian party colour|AB|Independent|row-name}} |John Lymburn |align="right"|4,032 |align="right"|20.65% {{Canadian party colour|AB|Soldier Representative|row-name}} |W. Griffin |align="right"|3,389 |align="right"|17.36% {{Canadian party colour|AB|Liberal|row-name}} |N. V. Buchanan |align="right"|2,838 |align="right"|14.53% |}
==See also==
==References==
*{{cite book|last=Barr|first=John J.|title=The Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of Social Credit in Alberta|publisher=McClelland and Stewart Limited|year=1974|location=Toronto|isbn=0-7710-1015-X}} * {{cite book |last1=Elliott|first1=David R. |last2=Miller |first2=Iris |title=Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart |year=1987 |publisher=Reidmore Books |location=Edmonton |isbn=0-919091-44-X}} * {{cite book |last=Foster |first=Franklin L. |title=John E. Brownlee: A Biography |year=1981 |publisher=Foster Learning Inc |location=Lloydminster, Alberta |isbn=978-1-55220-004-9}} * {{cite book |last=Munro |first=Kenneth |title=First Presbyterian Church, Edmonton: A History |year=2004 |publisher=Trafford Publishing |location=Victoria, British Columbia |isbn=978-1-4120-2337-5}} * {{cite book |last1=Sharpe |first1=Robert J. |last2=McMahon |first2=Patricia I. |title=The Persons Case: the origins and legacy of the fight for legal personhood |year=2007 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |isbn=978-0-8020-9750-7}}
==Notes== {{Reflist|30em}}
{{Brownlee Ministry}} {{good article}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lymburn, John}} Category:1880 births Category:1969 deaths Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:Canadian Presbyterians Category:Lawyers in Alberta Category:People from Ayr Category:Scottish emigrants to Canada Category:Scottish Presbyterians Category:Scottish solicitors Category:United Farmers of Alberta MLAs Category:Members of the Executive Council of Alberta Category:Canadian King's Counsel Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta