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Arthur Hill Griffith (16 October 1861 – 1 November 1946) was a politician, teacher and patent attorney in New South Wales, Australia. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1894 until 1917 and held a number of ministerial positions in the Government of New South Wales. He was a member of the Labor Party.

Early life

Griffith was born in Westmeath, Ireland, to Arthur Hill Griffith (1810-1881), a magistrate, and his second wife, Hannah Rose Cottingham (1826-1921), daughter of James Courtney Morton Cottingham, Esquire (1788 - 1876), and Hannah Robinson.

His paternal grandfather was Richard Griffith, MP, whose son, Sir Richard Griffith, 1st Baronet, was his uncle. His great-grandmother was the noted actress and writer Elizabeth Griffith. The Griffith family descends from the Dukes of Penrhyn.

His siblings included Christopher Arthur Griffith (1858 - 1949), a physician, and Edward Arthur Griffith (1857-1949), a mining attorney, whose descendants include Jules-Arthur Paré (1917-2013), Professor Emeritus of McGill University Faculty of Medicine, and his granddaughter, celebrated actress Jessica Paré.

In 1871, Griffith emigrated with his family from Ireland to Melbourne, Australia.

Political career

Despite residing in Sydney, Griffith was the candidate for the Labor Party (ALP) for the seat of Waratah at the state election held on 12 July 1894. He was successful with 820 votes (44%) and was re-elected at elections in 1895, 1898 and 1901.

In 1903 he resigned his seat to contest a Senate seat for New South Wales at the 1903 federal election. He was unsuccessful and as the by-election for Waratah was held prior to the Senate election, Griffith was denied the chance to recontest. In the following year, he was successful as the endorsed Labor candidate for the seat of Sturt (based on the mining town of Broken Hill) at the general election of 6 August. Griffith was re-elected unopposed at the 1907 election but resigned from parliament the following year in protest at being suspended by the speaker when he protested the Speaker's alleged procedural unfairness. He won the subsequent by-election unopposed and continued to represent Sturt until the general election of 15 November 1913. A redistribution of state electorates resulted in Griffith stepping aside for John Cann the member for the abolished seat of Broken Hill. He successfully contested the Sydney electorate of Annandale, defeating the sitting member Albert Bruntnell.

Ministerial career

In the New South Wales Labor Governments of James McGowen and William Holman he was the Minister for Public Works. From March 1915 until November 1916, he was the Minister of Public Instruction. As Minister for Public Works, Griffith encouraged the growth of state enterprises and increased spending on railway construction. Griffith had consistently advocated for the greater industrialization of Newcastle, then, Under Holman, he personally negotiated the establishment of a Newcastle Steelworks with Guillaume Delprat of BHP, and was the architect of the Walsh Island establishment; though censured by the 1913 party conference cabinet for it, the scheme proved successful.

Expulsion from Labor Party

During the Labor split over conscription in World War I he supported conscription but resigned from the government on 31 October 1916 when Holman confirmed that he was considering entering into a coalition with the Liberal Reform Party, stating that he could not join in the coalition, having battled all his life for the labor movement. He was expelled from the Labor Party because of his support for conscription, and contested the 24 March 1917 election as an independent labor candidate. He was defeated by William O'Brien the official Labor candidate by 154 votes (2.0%). He stood as an independent at the 1920 election for Balmain, but polled only 165 votes (0.5%). He attempted to be readmitted to the Labor party in the 1920s, succeeding in 1930, only to have his readmission rescinded. The New South Wales branch of the Labor party was expelled by the Federal Executive during the Federal Conference in March 1931, and Griffith was on the executive of the Federal Labor Party and was unsuccessful in the 1932 election for Waratah.

Griffith was one of the best known middle-class, professional supporters of the Labor party in its first 25 years. He maintained a socialist and republican stance throughout his public career.

Personal life

Giffith married Mildred Carrington Smith on 4 May 1899 and they had a son Sturt. Mildred died on 21 October 1926. On 22 October 1932 he married a second time to Elsie Marion née Edwards and they had a son and a daughter.

He died at Jannali on 1 November 1946(1946-11-01) (aged 85).

Honours

As Secretary for Public Works he was responsible for the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area project which established a number of towns, including Griffith which was named after him.

See also

• • Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
  • 1894–1895
  • 1895–1898
  • 1898–1901
  • 1901–1904
  • 1904–1907
  • 1907–1910
  • 1910–1913
  • 1913–1917
• • Results of New South Wales elections
  • 1894 (Waratah)
  • 1895 (Waratah)
  • 1898 (Waratah)
  • 1901 (Waratah)
  • 1904 (Sturt)
  • 1907 (Sturt)
  • 1908 by-election (Sturt)
  • 1910 (Sturt)
  • 1913 (Annandale)
  • 1917 (Annandale)
  • 1920 (Balmain)
  • 1932 (Waratah)
• History of the steel industry (1850–1970)

References

1. ^ Nairn, Bede (1983). "Griffith, Arthur Hill (1861–1946)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
2. Walford, Edward (1860). The county families of the United Kingdom. London, England: Robert Hardwicke. p. 273. ISBN 978-5-87194-361-8.
3. Leslie, Sir Stephen, ed. (1890). "Griffith, Sir Richard John (1784–1878)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 23. Great Britain: Macmillan. p. 238. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
4. Paré, Lucy Griffith (1984). The Seeds: The Life Story of a Matriarch (PDF). Ste-Lucie-des-Laurentides, Québec, Canada: Les Entreprises de Carpent Perdu Inc. p. 305.
5. Plarr, Victor. "Griffith, Christopher Arthur (1858-1949)". Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online. Royal College of Surgeons of England. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
6. "Généalogie Jessica Paré". Généalogie du Québec et d'Amérique française. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
7. Green, Antony. "Elections for the District of Waratah". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
8. ^ "Mr Arthur Hill Griffith (1861-1946)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
9. ""Goading Griffith" Sydney "Truth" on the gaging the member for Sturt". Barrier Daily Truth. 25 November 1908. p. 4. Retrieved 5 November 2019 – via Trove.
10. Green, Antony. "Elections for the District of Sturt". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
11. ^ Green, Antony. "Elections for the District of Annandale". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
12. Green, Antony. "Index to candidates". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
13. "Member of State Government Ministries, 1911 – New South Wales—Ministries". Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia. Vol. 4. Australia Bureau of Statistics. 1911. p. 956.
14. Cameron, David (28–30 September 1997). "On an island in the River: The establishment of the Walsh Island Dockyard & Engineering Works, Newcastle, 1910-1919". Archived from the original on 23 November 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
15. "Crisis in state cabinet: two ministers resign". The Bathurst Times. 1 November 1916. p. 2. Retrieved 28 September 2021 – via Trove.
16. "PLL expulsions". Sydney Morning Herald. 7 November 1916. p. 7. Retrieved 7 May 2020 – via Trove.
17. Green, Antony. "1920 Balmain". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
18. "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 October 1926. p. 10. Retrieved 23 September 2021 – via Trove.
19. "History of Griffith". Griffith City Council. Archived from the original on 19 July 2008.

• Graham, Morris (2017). Toppled Labor Giant: Arthur Griffith: NSW's Revolutionary Minister for Public Works & Education. self published. ISBN 9781370123346..

• 1861 births
• 1946 deaths
• Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
• History of Newcastle, New South Wales
• Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales
• 20th-century Australian politicians
• Politicians from Sydney
• British emigrants to colonial Australia
• Colony of New South Wales people