Billy Davies (politician)
Billy Davies | |
---|---|
Member of the Australian Parliament for Cunningham | |
In office 10 December 1949 – 17 February 1956 | |
Preceded by | New seat |
Succeeded by | Victor Kearney |
Personal details | |
Born | 1884 Abertillery, Wales, UK |
Died | 17 February 1956 (aged 71–72) Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia |
Nationality | Welsh Australian |
Political party | Labor Party |
Spouse | Edith Hartshorn |
Children | 2 |
Occupation | Miner |
William Davies (1884 – 17 February 1956) was an Australian politician, born in Abertillery in Wales to the coalminer William Davies and his wife Mary, née Williams. As a child he worked in the coalmines, but won a miners' scholarship to a summer school at the University of Oxford, where he became a Methodist lay preacher. He married Edith Hartshorn on 4 August 1903 and the couple moved to New South Wales in 1912, when Davies became a miner in the Wollongong area, soon rising to become an official of the Australian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation.
Davies won the seat of Wollongong in 1917, representing the Labor Party, having defeated the sitting Nationalist, John Nicholson. He went on to dominate Labor politics in the area for the next forty years, and became a loyal supporter of New South Wales Premier Jack Lang, who made Davies minister for public instruction in 1927, and minister for education 1930–32.
In 1949 Davies resigned from the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in order to contest the federal seat of Cunningham, which he held until his death on 17 February 1956. He was remembered by H. V. Evatt as "a great orator who had helped to inspire coalminers during industrial troubles". He was the first ever member for Cunningham.
References
- "Davies, William (1882?–1956)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 25 August 2007.
- 1884 births
- 1956 deaths
- Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia
- Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
- Members of the Australian House of Representatives
- Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Cunningham
- Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales
- 20th-century Australian politicians