Misplaced Pages

John Royston Siddons AO (5 October 1927 – 22 September 2016) was an Australian politician. He was a businessman and the executive chairman of Siddons Industries Ltd. before entering politics.

Early life

Siddons was born in Melbourne on 5 October 1927. He was the second of three children born to Agnes Emily (née Smith) and Royston Siddons. His father was an industrialist who founded the Sidchrome line of tools.

Siddons spent his early years in the suburb of Ivanhoe, attending Ivanhoe State School and Preston Technical School. He completed his secondary education at Wesley College from 1943 to 1945, but did not matriculate as he had always intended on joining his father's business.

Business career

In 1945, Siddons began working for one of his father's firms, Siddons Drop Forging Pty Ltd, drop forging hammers at its factory in Clifton Hill. He was groomed to take over the business and worked across all departments of his father's conglomerate, starting at factory level to gain an understanding of manual labour.

Siddons was sent to the United States on a research tour in 1949, where he was introduced to the newly created Ramset gun – "a powder-actuated tool gun that greatly sped up the process of fastening slabs of concrete or steel". He acquired the Australian franchise rights and in 1952 incorporated Ramset Fasteners (Australia) Pty Ltd as a division of Siddons Drop Forging, with himself as general manager. Due to import restrictions the firm had to manufacture Ramset guns in Australia, quickly ramping up production and later establishing subsidiaries in New Zealand and South Africa. By 1955 profits from the Ramset line had surpassed the rest of the Siddons' tool-making divisions.

Politics

Siddons' first involvement in politics was through the Australia Party. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the party at three federal elections, standing for the House of Representatives in the seat of Diamond Valley at the 1972 election and for the Senate at the 1974 and 1975 elections. He was elected to succeed Gordon Barton as national convenor of the Australia Party in December 1974, defeating Ian Gilfillan.

In 1980, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Democrats senator for Victoria. He was defeated at the 1983 election, when he was required to take second place on the Democrats ticket in deference to party leader Don Chipp. He was, however, re-elected in the 1984 election, when seven places were up for election due to the expansion of the Parliament. In 1986, he left the Democrats, claiming that the party had moved too far to the left. In 1987, he registered the Unite Australia Party, amalgamating two other minor parties, the Advance Australia Party and the remnants of the Australia Party. He was joined in the Senate by South Australian Democrat David Vigor. The new party contested the 1987 election but received under 1% in all states contested. Siddons and Vigor were both defeated.

He died in 2016, aged 88.

References

1. Myer, Rod. "John Siddons: Never a grander man in Australian politics". The Age, 30 September 2016. Accessed 22 December 2016
2. ^ Hearder, Rosalind (2017). "Siddons, John Royston (1927–2016)". The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate. Vol. 4. Department of the Senate.
3. ^ Lack, John (2006). "Siddons, Royston (1899–1976)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 16. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
4. "Labor Government 'needs to improve'". The Canberra Times. 6 December 1974.
5. Carr, Adam. "Australian Election Archive: Senate Victoria 1987". Psephos, Adam Carr's Election Archive. Retrieved 11 November 2008.
6. Carr, Adam. "Australian Election Archive: Senate South Australia 1987". Psephos, Adam Carr's Election Archive. Retrieved 11 November 2008.
7. Myer, Rod. "What made John Siddons one of Australia’s most unusual and enigmatic politicians". The New Daily, 29 September 2016. Accessed 22 December 2016

Sources

• Siddons, John Royston; Gleeson, Russ. "A Spanner in the Works" (autobiography). Macmillan, Melbourne (1990)

• v
• t
• e

• Australian manufacturing businesspeople
• Australian Democrats members of the Parliament of Australia
• Independent members of the Parliament of Australia
• Members of the Australian Senate for Victoria
• Members of the Australian Senate
• 1927 births
• 2016 deaths
• People educated at Wesley College (Victoria)
• Unite Australia Party members of the Parliament of Australia
• 20th-century Australian politicians
• Officers of the Order of Australia
• Australian independent politician stubs