James Edward Davidson, known in journalistic circles as "J.E.D.", was an Australian journalist who rose through the ranks to become a newspaper owner, the founder of News Limited.
History
He was born at Pine Hills, Harrow, Victoria, the elder son of Janet née Aitchison and J Johnstone Davidson, who died in Africa in 1901, where son A.A. Donaldson was chairman of West African Mines. and spent much of his youth at Thackaringa Station, New South Wales. After a period in the Civil Service, he became secretary to the Premier of Western Australia, Lord Forrest. It was in Western Australia that Davidson, a skilled shorthand writer, commenced his journalistic career, as a reporter on The West Australian. In 1897 he joined the literary staff of the Argus in Melbourne, and after nine years as a reporter he became editor of the Weekly Times. Two years later he accepted the position of general manager and editor-in-chief of the Herald and Weekly Times. After seven years in that post he turned his attention to South Australia, acquiring The Barrier Miner at Broken Hill and the Recorder at Port Pirie, and established an Adelaide afternoon newspaper, in preparation for which, the Mail was purchased. After the 'News' had been launched, another journal was published in Hobart, but failed, and a controlling interest was obtained in the Daily News in Perth.
Death
Mr. Davidson left Adelaide in March 1930 on the Naldera to attend the Empire Press Conference and died suddenly in London. The cause was determined to be pneumonia, He was buried at the Putney Vale Cemetery alongside his son Allan.
Family
His brother Allan Arthur Davidson was a well known mining engineer, and explorer, a graduate of Adelaide's School of Mines. He married Eugenie Louise Gilbert on 6 October 1896. They had two sons:
Norman Davidson was a journalist with The News.
Alan Douglas Davidson studied at Wesley College, Melbourne, and Melbourne Technical School. He enlisted with the AIF in January 1918 and was assigned to the Australian Flying Corps, Laverton as trainee pilot and was sent overseas in May 1918. This required his parents' permission as he was not yet 19 years of age. After the war he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and served as a pilot instructor at Point Cook, Victoria. He left the Air Corps in 1922 and joined Qantas as a pilot. He and his two passengers, A.W.N. Bell and W.R. Donaldson, were killed when the Qantas plane he was attempting to land at Tambo, Queenslandstalled, crashed, and was totally destroyed. This was the first crash involving casualties of a Qantas plane. A mystery surrounds the circumstances of the crash: the plane was two hours late and there were traces of mud on the boots of pilot and passengers, and evidence was later found indicating an unscheduled landing en route.
