Background
Lyell was born in the Hundred of Hart, the youngest son of Alexander Lyell McEwin (1862 – 29 December 1927) and Jessie Smilie McEwin née Ferguson who married 30 May 1888.
Lyell was born in the Hundred of Hart, the youngest son of Alexander Lyell McEwin (1862 – 29 December 1927) and Jessie Smilie McEwin née Ferguson who married 30 May 1888.
He retained the seat until June 1975, when he retired. Gordon Gilfillan succeeded to the vacant seat. He filled the Cabinet positions of Chief Secretary from 1939, coupled with Minister of Mines and Minister of Health.
lieutenant was perhaps as Minister of Health that he left the greatest mark.
He oversaw the provision of many country hospitals funded on a subsidy basis: for every pound a local auxiliary raised, the Government contributed two. The major teaching hospital constructed on his watch was that at Elizabeth, later named the Lyell McEwin Hospital in his honour.
While perfectly adequate, the building was designed with economy in mind. McEwin"s "practical farmer" mentality appealed to Premier Playford, for whom frugality was a byword.
He was elected President of the South Australian Legislative Council on 8 March 1967.
They lived at "Wyndora" homestead, 8 kilometres (50 mi) north of Blyth. On 10 June he was appointed Sir Alexander Lyell McEwin, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. His portrait, painted by Sir Ivor Hele hangs in Parliament House. His name is commemorated in the Lyell McEwin Hospital.
In the 1930s he was a member of the Agricultural Settlement Committee, president of the Blyth Agricultural Bureau and the Blyth Veterinary Lodge, Captain of the Blyth Rifle Club, Vice-president of the Blyth Bowling Club, and a member of the Board of Management Blyth District Hospital, member of the District Council of Hutt and Hill Rivers. And a committee member of the Blyth Agricultural and Horticultural Society, and deeply involved in several organizations associated with the Liberal and Country League. He was a member of the Caledonian Society of South Australia and its chief from 1959 to 1968.