Stuart Alexander Henderson (September 19, 1863 – February 17, 1945) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-born lawyer and political figure in British Columbia. He represented Yale from 1903 to 1909 in the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is the deliberative assembly of the Parliament of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Legislative Assembly meets in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria. Members ar ...

as a Liberal. Henderson was celebrated as the greatest Canadian criminal lawyer of his time.

Life and career

He was born in Lonmay,

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, the son of William Henderson and Mary Jane Smith. He came to Ontario with his father in 1872 and was educated in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, at Toronto University and at Osgoode Hall. While in Ontario, he served as a lieutenant in the militia. Henderson was also an Ottawa alderman. He came to British Columbia in 1897 and entered the practice of law there the following year. Henderson was married twice: first to Alice London in 1890 and then to Mary Jane Losh in 1904. He was a director for the Mutual Life Company of Canada. He was defeated when he ran for reelection to the assembly in 1909 and again in Lillooet in 1912. He was known as Canada's Clarence Darrow and a biographer said of him "He is a past master of technicalities and he spends almost as much time studying the committal papers as he does in coaching the witnesses. It is not greatly to the credit of prosecuting attorneys that he usually finds something wrong." In 50 murder trials only 5 were lost to the gallows and in that same time he had never refused a case. He was a firm believer in Capitol punishment. Many of his clients were Indians, most famously Simon Gunanoot who, In 1919, Henderson successfully defended against a charge of murder. He was welcomed on any reserve as a chief with the honorary title "Great White Friend." He died in Victoria at the age of 81.

References

1863 births 1945 deaths British Columbia Liberal Party MLAs Scottish emigrants to Canada University of Toronto alumni Osgoode Hall Law School alumni People from Lonmay Ottawa city councillors {{Henderson family