Maurice Scott

About

Sir Henry Maurice Scott (23 July 1910 – 5 June 1976) was a Fijian lawyer and politician. He was a member of the Legislative Council between 1947 and 1966, serving as Speaker between 1958 and 1966.

Born in 1910, Scott was the son of Nellie and Henry Milne Scott, one of Fiji’s most prominent lawyers and politicians. After being educated at Whanganui Collegiate School in New Zealand and attending Magdalen College at the University of Oxford, he was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn in 1936. The following year he set up his own law firm in Suva, before joining the family firm Wm. Scott & Co in 1939. During World War II he served in the Fijian Military Forces and No. 208 Squadron of the Royal Air Force. He flew Spitfire fighters with the Desert Air Force, serving in Iraq, Italy, Palestine and the Western Desert and won the Distinguished Flying Cross.
When he returned to Fiji after the war, he rejoined his family’s legal firm in 1947. He also served on the board and as chairman of several companies, including Burns Philp and the Fiji Times, as well as becoming president of the Fiji Rugby Union, a role he held for 21 years. He contested the 1947 elections to the Legislative…