David Bews was born in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, in 1850. He came to South Australia as a baby with his parents and a large family group in 1851. The families settled on farms at Hindmarsh Valley, near Victor Harbour. In 1871 David Bews began working for the Kadina and Wallaroo Railway Company at Wallaroo. Here he met and married Cecelia Taylor, sister of the twin Taylor brothers of the Wallaroo times newspaper. When the railway lines were taken over by the government in 1878, Bews joined his brothers-in-law in the ownership of their newspapers, the Wallaroo times and the Areas express. He became editor of the Wallaroo times soon after this, a position he held until his death.

In 1878 David Bews became a member of the Wallaroo Council. He was Mayor of Wallaroo from 1881 to 1884. In 1885 he was elected to South Australian Parliament as the member for Wallaroo. In both 1887 and 1890 he was re-elected - heading the poll at both elections. In 1890 Bews became the Minister of Education. He was also the Chief of the Caledonian Society of South Australia. Bews' style in Parliamentary debate was described in a comic journal at the time as,

... highly declamative, generally beginning in soft, low tones, none would then think the gentle blue-eyed youth could become a regular Boomerges who, as he argumentatively smashes his opponent, thrashes the papers on the table before him. Yet, it is said, if by any mischance he should lose his fore-finger, he would become dumb. (Lantern, 12 October 1889, p. 5)

In January 1891, Bews was in Melbourne on his way to a postal conference in Sydney, when he died. He was extremely popular on the Yorke Peninsula. It was estimated there were between three and four thousand in his funeral procession, and five thousand at the graveside for the burial. (Kadina and Wallaroo times, 28 February 1891, p. 2) A memorial fountain was erected at Kadina in 1892, and the Hundred of Bews named after him in 1894.

Bews, Cecelia Darling

Bews, David, 1850-1891

Areas express and farmers' journal (Booyoolie, S. Aust.)

Wallaroo times (Wallaroo, S. Aust.)

'Biographical sketch no. 4, Honourable Member for Copperville, our D---d,' Lantern, 12 October 1889, p. 5

Coxon, Howard, Biographical register of the South Australian Parliament 1857-1957, Netley, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1985

'Death of Hon. David Bews,' Kadina and Wallaroo times, 25 February 1891, p. 2

Manning, Geoffrey H. Mannings' place names of South Australia, from Aaron Creek to Zion Hill, Modbury, S. Aust.: Gould Books, 2006