William Lennon

William Lennon (8 December 1849 – 5 May 1938) was a politician in Queensland, Australia. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly and a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Queensland.[1]


William Lennon
William Lennon – Lieutenant-Governor of Queensland 1927
8th President of the Queensland Legislative Council
In office
18 August 1920  23 March 1922
Preceded byWilliam Hamilton
Succeeded byAbolished
15th Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
In office
9 September 1919  9 January 1920
Preceded byWilliam McCormack
Succeeded byWilliam Bertram
ConstituencyHerbert
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Herbert
In office
18 May 1907  16 January 1920
Preceded byAlfred Cowley
Succeeded byPercy Pease
Queensland Legislative Council
In office
18 August 1920  23 March 1922
Personal details
Born
William Lennon

(1849-12-08)8 December 1849
Dublin, Ireland
Died5 May 1938(1938-05-05) (aged 88)
Brisbane, Queensland
Resting placeToowong Cemetery
NationalityIrish Australian
Political partyLabor Party
Spouse(s)Mary Cecilia Ryan (m.1877 d.1937)
OccupationCompany director, Business manager, Clerk

Biography

Lennon was born in Dublin, Ireland to parents William Lennon Snr and his wife Ann (née Martin).[1] Arriving with his family in Melbourne in 1855 he received his education there and by 1870 he was employed as a clerk with the Victorian Mines Department. In 1874 he joined the Bank of Australasia and was posted at Creswick and it was here that he made friends with David Temple and William Spence, two pioneers of the trade union movement in Australia.[2]

In 1881 he was transferred to Townsville to open a branch of the bank there and later supervised its expansion to other centres in North Queensland and by 1885 he was working in Sydney as a sub-inspector.[2] He left the bank a year later to take up the role of manager of Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd. He was employed there for ten years but clashes with James Burns over administrative procedures and salary levels led to his resignation and Lennon then established his own mercantile and auctioneering business in Townsville.[2] He was a director of the Bank of North Queensland and the Townsville Gas Company.[1]

On 29 November 1877 Lennon married Mary Cecilia Ryan (died 1937) at Ballarat and together had three sons and three daughters.[3][4] He died in Brisbane in May 1938 after several years of bad health.[5] As per Lennon's personal wishes, his family declined the offer of a state funeral and his funeral at the Toowong Cemetery was attended by a few close relatives.[6]

Public career

Lennon started off his career by being a councilor on the Thuringowa Divisional Board. Then at the 1899 Queensland colonial election, representing the Labour Party, he unsuccessfully stood against his former employer, Robert Philp, for the seat of Townsville.[7] In 1907, he stood for the seat of Herbert and narrowly defeated the sitting member, Alfred Cowley.[8] He would go on to represent the electorate until his resignation on 1920 to take up the role of Lieutenant-Governor of Queensland. For the last four months he was the Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly and from 1915 until 1919 the Secretary for Agriculture and Stock.[1]

When the first majority Labor government came to power in 1915, it found itself up against a hostile Queensland Legislative Council. The Labour Party saw the Council as undemocratic and a tool of patronage and wanted it abolished. After Bills for this purpose were rejected by the Council itself in 1915 and 1916, the government held a referendum to abolish it in 1917, but the people of Queensland rejected it.[9]

Hon. William Lennon – taken from The Men Of Queensland 1929

Soon after the referendum, and apparently on the urging of the Labor government, the Queensland Governor, Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams appointed thirteen new members, all of whom whose political allegiance lay with Labor, to the Council. As the council continued to reject money bills, Ryan urged the Governor to appoint more members to the Council in 1918, but this request was refused. Goold-Adams' term as Governor of Queensland expired in 1920 and before he set sail back home to England, appointed Lennon to the role of Lieutenant-Governor of Queensland with a salary of £1000 per annum.[2][10]

Once Lennon took the role of Lieutenant-Governor he immediately appointed another fifteen Labor men (known as the suicide squad) to the Council, much to the disgust of the "old Guard" members such as Arthur Hawthorn and Patrick Leahy.[11] When the President of the Council, William Hamilton died in July 1920, Lennon appointed himself, not only to be Hamilton's replacement in the Council, but to the roll of President as well.

The next year the Council, now with an overwhelming Labor majority, voted itself out of existence with the Constitution Act Amendment Bill.[12] The Council met for the last time on 27 October 1921 and the bill was given royal assent on 23 March 1922.[13] Lennon remained the salaried Lieutenant-Governor until the Labor government lost power in 1929.[1]

References

  1. "Lennon, William". Re-Member Database. Queensland Parliament. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  2. Lennon, William (1849–1938) Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  3. Family history research Queensland Government births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  4. Family history search Victorian Government births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  5. "WAS PROMINENT FIGURE IN STATE POLITICS". The Courier-mail (1460). Queensland, Australia. 7 May 1938. p. 2. Retrieved 1 May 2016 via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Death of William Lennon". The Worker. 49 (2653). Brisbane. 10 May 1938. p. 6. Retrieved 1 May 2016 via National Library of Australia.
  7. "THE ELECTIONS". The Brisbane Courier. LV (12, 844). Queensland, Australia. 13 March 1899. p. 6. Retrieved 1 May 2016 via National Library of Australia.
  8. "HERBERT". Morning Bulletin (13, 278). Queensland, Australia. 20 May 1907. p. 5. Retrieved 1 May 2016 via National Library of Australia.
  9. "LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ABOLITION". Morning Bulletin (16, 442). Queensland, Australia. 10 May 1917. p. 6. Retrieved 1 May 2016 via National Library of Australia.
  10. Goold-Adams, Sir Hamilton John (1858–1920) Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  11. New members Hansard. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  12. amendment bill Hansard. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  13. Abolition on the Legislative Council Hansard. Retrieved 1 May 2016.

Further reading

Parliament of Queensland
Preceded by
William Hamilton
President of the Queensland Legislative Council
19201922
Abolished
Preceded by
William McCormack
Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
19191920
Succeeded by
William Bertram
Preceded by
Alfred Cowley
Member for Herbert
19071920
Succeeded by
Percy Pease
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