
The 90-year-old Irishman is well-recognised both socially and professionally owing to a career that has spanned not only decades but nations (All photos: Bill Davidson)
In The Art of Biography, Virginia Woolf mounts a critical investigation into how life writing as a genre intersects with literary definitions of art — she interrogates the reconciliation of a human subject’s lived truth with the biographer’s creative agency. The autobiographical genre offers an added dimension of complexity: How do we construct ourselves in our own memoirs? What drives one to publicise one’s personal history? Who qualifies for such memorialisation? After all, the English novelist notes, “Of the multitude of lives that are written, how few survive!”
These are meaningful queries, but to bear them without scrutiny risks blinding one to a simpler impetus. As legal eagle Bill Davidson’s recently published autobiography In My Life seems to suggest, it is perhaps as straightforward as the desire to remember and be remembered by those who have touched your life.
William Stanley Walker Davidson, better known among his friends and colleagues as Bill or simply Mr D, is a prominent member of the legal community in Malaysia. He migrated here in 1964 and was a senior partner of the firm Lewis & Co prior to its merger with Azman & Co in 1981. Today, he is a consultant with the merged entity Azman Davidson & Co. The 90-year-old Irishman is well-recognised both socially and professionally owing to a career that has spanned not only decades but nations; he has practised in London, Hong Kong and Brunei.
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While it may be his intrepid courtroom legacy that spurs most to pick up this read, it is far from the meat of Davidson’s life narrative (his arrival in Malaysia is only broached 140 pages in). The opening chapters are largely attributed to his family lineage, from his Ulster Protestant paternity and Church of Ireland maternity to his birth and that of his brothers, as well as the tragic death of his sister Rosemary as a child. During WWII, when his father was sent to the war front in the Middle East, Davidson’s mother (largely referred to by her nickname Kanky alias Ming throughout while Dad the army doctor is intermittently called Digger) brought the boys from Gulmarg, Kashmir, to South Africa.
In generally chronological order, he does an impressive job of vividly conveying the energy of a childhood — and later young adult — self, in balance with the reflections of his present voice. The early years depict a cosmopolitan family travelling in Africa and Europe, with more recent visits to the sites of their old homes or schools peppered in. Anecdotes from each phase are charming, humorous and aptly paced, effectively breaking up longer sections of recollection or factual passages. Backgrounded by more severe accounts of being rushed to Grahamstown or learning to hide from German bombs, the lawyer regales us with memories of eating ant-covered cakes or shaving a friend’s head in an attempt to rescue her from the awful fate of being sent to a ladies’ boarding school.
There is a dynamic shift when the book ventures into Davidson’s early adulthood, encompassing his university studies and position in London as a Crown Counsel, before he journeys to Hong Kong and becomes a legal draughtsman, but the author never betrays his instinct to fill the pages with adventure and excitement. Escaping a pub surrounded by enemy soldiers while with the Irish Fusiliers, for example, or a dramatic escapade in a sailboat from which he is nearly thrown overboard, solidifies the image of a bold man who thrives on living in the moment, and one cannot help but feel connected to the joy Davidson exudes in his reminiscence.
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In My Life is particularly intriguing for its snippets of legal history, ranging across Davidson’s pupillage and junior counsel days to his recollections of key cases from his career and his time with Azman Davidson & Co. Pauses are taken to elucidate nicher trivia, like the system for appointment of a Queen’s Counsel, with generous yet uncomplicated detail, making these scenes edifying and accessible even for the uninformed reader. Explanations of English-Irish tensions or the Hong Kong drug trade equally contribute to the tonal framing of each period, offering key cultural or historical contexts.
An enduring passion for sport (“cricket crazy”, in his words) palpably pervades every stage of his story, notably his membership in cricket clubs and later the founding of his own, accompanied by a hearty fondness for drink that unfailingly follows tales of his social interactions. The lawyer’s love of literature, too, is evident from the epigraph (a line from Twelfth Night which seems to have lost its original ironic context due to popular overuse, though we can hardly fault Davidson for this) and chapter names, each taken from one of his favourite poems. The sources are thoughtfully compiled at the back of the book.
For much of the memoir, including the foreword and introduction by Rajendra Navaratnam and Tan Sri V C George respectively, we are given repeated hints at the thrilling romance between Davidson and his wife Sharifah Azaliah, who appears on the back cover — and the payoff does not disappoint. From the couple’s electrifying first encounter aboard a ship (“Lightning struck and... I fell seriously in love”) to the long periods of pining, unexpected obstacles and eventual reuniting, the hotly teased love story occupies appropriate real estate within this read and is among its most compelling points. The Davidsons have four children: Sime Darby group CEO Datuk Jeffri Salim Davidson, Gallagher Re Labuan managing director Faris Salim Davidson, Raja Permaisuri of Perak Tuanku Zara Salim and Sean Salim Davidson. The youngest, who was born with Down’s syndrome and a weak heart, is mentioned with especial pride.
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At the core of this story one finds, unmistakably, the value of relationships. Nearly every individual who appears over the course of Davidson’s life story is afforded a robust portrait teeming with appreciation, in turn informing the author’s place within the social web. To borrow another Shakespeare-ism, it is the players in his life’s stage that Davidson attributes the most attentive care to: his strong-willed Mum Kanky, the myriad of legal acquaintances and partners who have supported his career, doting mentions of his grandchildren and even minor cameos from austere judges and pithy hotel proprietors. This ethos culminates in the concluding chapter; Davidson writes to be well-connected is “to show interest, to take part in the lives of those around you, and to keep relationships heartfelt and enjoyable”. Even in the book’s inception, the acknowledgements and footnotes give ample thanks to the family’s efforts in compiling the comprehensive collection of writings, letters and photographs.
The narrative voice is personable if, at times, disjointed — several moments of digression creep like offshooting tendrils typically to discuss a specific person or topic before reconverging with the main point. At times, facts like names or dates are repeated in excess, owing to the occasionally messy ordering of events. But these are small gripes; the overarching unpretentiousness of Davidson’s autobiography is its ultimate strength. It is a humble yet powerful monument to the deep love and mutual respect embedded in one man’s human bonds.
To purchase a copy of 'In My Life' (RM65), contact [email protected].
This article first appeared on Jan 13, 2025 in The Edge Malaysia.