- Robert Joshua
Robert Joshua (
6 June 1906 –2 June 1970 ) was anAustralia n politician, and a key figure in the 1955 split in theAustralian Labor Party which led to the formation of theAustralian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) and, subsequently, the Democratic Labor Party.Early life
Joshua was born at
Prahran, Victoria , to Edward Cecil Joshua, a Mauritian distiller, and Mary Inglis, nee Drummond, who was born in Victoria. He attended Caulfield State School andWesley College , was briefly amotor mechanic , and became a teller at theBank of Australasia . He married schoolteacher Alma Agnes Watson at Glen Iris on27 November 1929 .Military service
Joshua served in the
Civilian Military Forces from 1924-30 and from 1936-40, rising to the rank of captain. Subsequently, he joined theAustralian Imperial Force in 1940 and was posted to the Middle East. He led a successful raid during the defence ofTobruk inLibya , and was awarded theMilitary Cross . Promoted from major to lieutenant colonel in 1942, he commanded the 2nd/43rd Battalion, which fought aroundLae andFinschafen inNew Guinea . He was twice wounded in action.Federal politics
Upon returning to civilian life, Joshua began to reshape his previously
conservative political views. He was influenced byG.D.H. Cole andRaymond Postgate 's "The Common People", andLyndhurst Giblin 's "The Growth of a Central Bank". He became drawn to theAustralian Labor Party , and was president of the Ballarat branch; he had joined the party largely because he supported the nationalisation of the banks.In 1951, Joshua was elected to the
Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Ballaarat. He was known as a fierce anti-communist , and attracted controversy for claiming that theJapan ese were "quite unbalanced in their mental outlook" in relation to the 1952 peace bill, although his views were later modified.In 1955, Joshua, together with six other federal parliamentarians, was expelled from the Labor Party. Together, they formed the
Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) . Joshua cited his "distrust" and "sympathy with Communist ideas" of Labor leaderH.V. Evatt as reasons for his defection. The only non-Catholic in the new party (he described his religious affiliation as "theist"), Joshua denied any connections withB.A. Santamaria . Eventually, he became anAnglican .Together with all of the other Anti-Communist members, Joshua was defeated at the 1955 election, having declined an offer from
Robert Menzies not to run a Liberal candidate in his seat. Following his defeat, he became an accountant and stockbroker at Ballarat; he continued to contest Ballarat until 1969. Joshua was also the first federal president of the Democratic Labor Party.Joshua died of cancer on
2 June 1970 at Ballarat, survived by his wife, son and five daughters. He had continued working until a few days before his death, when he notified his doctors: "I'm dying – what are you going to do about it?"References
*Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Browne |first=Geoff |authorlink=|year=1996|id=A140671b.htm|title= Joshua, Robert (1906 - 1970) |accessdate=2008-03-15
Persondata
NAME=Joshua, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Joshua, Bob
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Australia n politician
DATE OF BIRTH=6 June 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH=Prahran, Victoria
DATE OF DEATH=2 June 1970
PLACE OF DEATH=Ballarat, Victoria
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