The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Burt, Hon. Septimus
Burt, Hon. Septimus, M.L.A., Q.C., Attorney-General, Western Australia, seventh son of Sir A. P. Burt, was born at St. Kitts on Oct. 25th, 1847, and educated at Shaw House, Melksham, Wilts, and at Bishop's School, Perth, Western Australia. He was called to the Colonial bar in May 1870, and became senior partner in the firm of Stone & Burt. He was nominated a member of the Legislative Council in 1874, but resigned, and was afterwards an elected member, retaining his seat until the dissolution of that body in 1890. At the special request of the Governor Mr. Burt acted as Attorney-General, with a seat in the Executive Council, for six months in 1886, after the retirement of Mr. Hensman, his private practice rendering it impossible for him to hold the position longer. In the same year he was a member of the Western Australian Commission for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886, and was appointed one of the representatives of Western Australia at the Colonial Conference held in London in 1887. In the same year he was made Q.C. Mr. Burt is Consular Agent for Portugal and Vice-Consul for Denmark. He revisited England in 1890. Mr. Burt married, in July 1872, Juila, daughter of Gustavus Edward Cockburn Hare, formerly of Kircullen, co. Galway, and afterwards Government Resident of Albany, Western Australia, by Anne Wright his wife. Mr. Hare was a half-brother of the well-known Archdeacon (Julius Charles) Hare, of Hurstmonceux. In Dec. 1890 Mr. Burt accepted a seat in the Forrest Ministry, and was appointed first Attorney-General of Western Australia under responsible government, being returned for Ashburton to the Legislative Assembly. In 1891 he visited London in the capacity of first acting Agent-General of Western Australia, but returned to the colony later in the year.