Vale Notice for Stewart Yesner AM

Vale Stewart Yesner AM 24/03/1955 – 27/08/2022

Stewart Yesner lived his life with heart and soul, to be fearless, to make a difference. He achieved more in his lifetime than could be accomplished by most able bodied persons. Stewart was a legal practitioner in Perth from the late 1980s specialising in personal injury law. He also played an inspirational and founding role for spinal research first in the UK and later in Australia and challenged how many think of disabled people.

He was born in Ndola, Zambia (at the time, Northern Rhodesia). His father was from England, and his mother, Lithuania. Stewart had an idyllic childhood with his two siblings, enjoying the outdoors, fishing and water-skiing.

It was January 1974, as carefree young man Stewart had just completed final year at boarding school in neighbouring Rhodesia (later to become Zimbabwe), and was enjoying the best of his holidays and newfound freedom, when his life was turned upside down. While driving along a remote dirt road he swerved to avoid a cyclist, lost control and was thrown from the vehicle. This was the period before seatbelts became compulsory.

At the local hospital he and his family were given the grim news he had injured his spinal cord at the C6/C7 neck level and would never walk again. Following a short stay at the local hospital, Stewart was flown to England for his recovery at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, a hospital renowned worldwide for the treatment of spinal injuries. While at that hospital, Stewart was told nothing could be done to cure spinal cord injury paralysis. Stewart refused to accept this as reflected in his comment in an inspiring video made in 2019 and published on the Spinal Cure Australia website:

“I remember lying in a hospital bed in the UK where they flew me to for treatment, and I kept on having a recurrent thought in my head: that we could get man all the way to the moon in 1969, yet in 1974, the year I had my accident we could not get a man out of a wheelchair. That we had to do something about it.”

And so, that thought remained with him, and became the driving force in his life. While completing a law degree at Manchester Polytechnic and qualifying as a barrister at Gray’s Inn in London, he began working on the project to create a charity to raise funding for spinal research into possible treatments for paralysis. He secured support from scientists, influential people and dignitaries (such as Lady Diana Spencer and Dame Margot Fonteyn who became patrons), and in London in 1980, at the age of 25, he launched International Spinal Research Trust, today Spinal Research (https://spinal-research. org/about-us), which is a premier spinal research charity in the UK, and facilitates ground-breaking research.

Stewart arrived in Australia in 1985. With that same driving force, he, together with Joanna Knott and Professor Perry Bartlett, replicated the UK charity by co-founding the Australian trust called Spinal Cure Australia (https://www.spinalcure.org.au/about/) in 1994.

Over the years Spinal Cure Australia SCA has raised $100M to fund research in various modalities and areas, which more than ever gives hope to people suffering from spinal cord injury.

In the 1997 Queen’s Birthday honours list, Stewart was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to people with disabilities through the development and promotion of research into spinal cord injury. Stewart also ran a successful personal injury legal practice in Perth. He championed the rights of those injured in motor vehicle and workplaces accidents, and was unrelenting in his commitment to achieving the best outcome for his clients. He secured, some significant settlements for his clients, including an important ruling in the District Court in 1995 that his hearing-impaired client with injuries was entitled to an award for future loss of income. This was hailed as an important victory for the hearing impaired, recognising their contribution in the workforce. Stewart retired from practice in 2007 for health reasons.

As many members may recall, Stewart was a quietly spoken, compassionate man, who faced his challenges and tribulations with grace and dignity. He saw good in people and the world. He was a man of indomitable spirit and vision.

Stewart is survived by his wife Oranuch, son Benjamin, brother Malcolm and sister Simone. He was admired by so many from various walks of life. His family hold dear memories of Stewart, a unique, tenacious and kind man.

Stewart’s life is an inspiration, and he has left an enduring legacy.

Commenced work in the mid-1940s with law firm Bischoff & Co in the City of London and, after a period of national service, returned to Bischoff & Co where he qualified as a legal executive. Emigrated to Australia in 1967 with his young family and took up a position as a managing law clerk with Jackson McDonald. Eventually moved from the law into the transport industry and then to construction, but never lost his passion for the law and a good (usually reasoned) argument. An honourable man who was well-respected and loved. Died peacefully at home in Mundaring. Loving husband of Jean, devoted father of Julia, Susan, Christine and David, loving grandfather to eleven and great-grandfather to three.

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