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Billy Davies (politician)

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Australian politician (1884–1956)

Billy Davies
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Cunningham
In office
10 December 1949 – 17 February 1956
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byVictor Kearney
Personal details
Born1884
Abertillery, Wales, UK
Died17 February 1956 (aged 71–72)
Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
NationalityWelsh Australian
Political partyLabor Party
SpouseEdith Hartshorn
Children2
OccupationMiner

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 New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Wollongong in 1917, representing the Labor Party, having defeated the sitting John Nicholson who had been elected as a Labor member but joined the Nationalist Party following the 1916 conscription split. His 1920 election campaign concentrated on the 1917 strike, John Brown's contract compensation, business profiteering and the wheat pool scandal. 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 of Public Instruction in 1927, and Minister for Education from 1930 until 1932.

In 1949 Davies resigned from the Legislative Assembly in order to contest the new 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".

References

  1. ^ "Davies, William (1882?–1956)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. 1981. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  2. Green, Antony. "1917 Wollongong". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  3. "Mr. W. Davies". The Kiama Independent and Shoalhaven Advertiser. 25 February 1920. p. 4. Retrieved 26 September 2022 – via Trove.
  4. "Royal Commission of Inquiry into the State Wheat Pool". State Archives and Records. Government of New South Wales. 9 December 1921. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  5. "Mr William Davies (2) (1883-1956)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 30 November 2019.

 

Parliament of New South Wales
Political offices
Preceded byThomas Mutchas Minister for Education Minister of Public Instruction
1927 		Succeeded byDavid Drummondas Minister for Education
Preceded byDavid Drummond Minister for Education
1930–1932 		Succeeded byDavid Drummond
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Preceded byJohn Nicholson Member for Wollongong
1917–1920 		District abolished
Preceded byGeorge Fuller Member for Wollondilly
1920–1927
Served alongside: Fuller, Cleary/Morton/Lysaght 		Succeeded byGeorge Fuller
New district Member for Wollongong
1927–1930 		District abolished
Preceded byAndrew Lysaght Member for Illawarra
1930–1941 		Succeeded byHoward Fowles
New district Member for Wollongong-Kembla
1941–1949 		Succeeded byBaden Powell
Australian House of Representatives
New division Member for Cunningham
1949–1956 		Succeeded byVictor Kearney
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