Hugh de Largie

Hugh de Largie (24 March 1859 – 9 May 1947) was an inaugural member of the Australian Senate.

Early life

Born in Airdrie, Scotland, de Largie was the son of coalminer Archibald and his wife Mary, nee McLaren, both of whom died while he was very young. Australian Dictionary of Biography
last= Smith
first= Howard J.
authorlink=
year=1981
id=A080293b
title= De Largie, Hugh (1859-1947)
accessdate=2008-05-30 ] De Largie, a devout Roman Catholic, left school at 10 to work in the Lanarkshire mines, where he became involved in the labour movement.De Garis (2000) "De Largie, Hugh (1859-1947)" "The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate Vol 1 1901-1929" Melbourne University Press: Melbourne ISBN 0522 84921 0.]

Union activism

De Largie married Mary McGregor in Glasgow in 1884 and they migrated first to Queensland in 1887 then to Newcastle in New South Wales where, in addition to mining, de Largie acted as a union delegate and secretary of the local branches of the Australian Socialist League and the Labor Electoral League.

De Largie’s union activities eventually led to his ban from working as a miner in Newcastle, forcing him to move to the Western Australian goldfields in 1896. In Kalgoorlie, de Largie continued his involvement in the labour movement, taking a leading role in the January 1897 amalgamation of a number of mining unions into the Amalgamated Workers’ Union (AWA), serving as its foundation president. Under de Largie's presidency, the AWA became the most important union in the colony.

De Largie's role with the AWA led to his prominence in labour politics and de Largie was elected president of the goldfields division of the joint Labor parliamentary committee in April 1899 and inaugural chair of the Western Australian Trades Union and Labor Congress.

Political career

De Largie campaigned heavily in favour of Federation and became the official goldfields Senate candidate of the Western Australian labour movement at the inaugural federal election in 1901.

Described as "an equable, humourless person" who spoke in a 'plain and fearless fashion' with a pronounced Scots accent, Senator de Largie advocated the White Australia Policy, old age pensions for white people, protectionism and a state bank. In 1907 he warned that Western Australia was in anti-Federation mood due to the lack of a transnational railway and in 1909 announced his support for compulsory military service, arguing that the Boers lost their independence because they were unable to defend themselves.

De Largie was appointed Labor whip in the Senate in 1907 (until 1914) and ministerial whip from 1910 to 1913 and 1917 to 1922. During World War I, de Largie argued strongly in favour of conscription and saw Western Australia voted strongly in favour of conscription during the referenda on the matter. As a result, de Largie followed Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes out of the Australian Labor Party in the conscription split of 1916. [McMullin, R. (1991) "The Light on the Hill: the Australian Labor Party 1891-1991", Oxford University Press. ISBN 019554966X] de Largie became first a member of the National Labor Party before joining the Nationalist Party of Australia. De Largie lost his seat at the 1922 election.

Later years

In retirement de Largie remained in Melbourne and set up the Association of Members of the First Federal Parliament. In 1940 he moved to Sydney and, following the death of his first wife, on 8 January 1946, he married Elizabeth Jeannie Marie Renoua Renouard. She and the four children (three girls and a boy) of his earlier marriage survived him when he died in Randwick, New South Wales. [Cusack, D. (2002) "With an Olive Branch and a Shillelagh: the Political Career of Senator Paddy Lynch (1867-1944)", Presented for the Degree of Philosophy of Murdoch University]

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