John Kirwan (politician)

Sir John Waters Kirwan, KCMG (2 December 1869 – 9 September 1949) was the President of the Western Australian Legislative Council and first Federal member for Kalgoorlie in the Australian House of Representatives.

He was born in Liverpool, England(of Irish parents), and did literary work in London and Dublin before coming to Australia in 1889.cite web
first=Pat
last=Simpson
title =Kirwan, Sir John Waters (1869 - 1949)
publisher =Australian National University
work=Australian Dictionary of Biography
url =http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090616b.htm
accessdate = 2007-08-12 ] At first, he continued writing in Brisbane, Melbourne and South Australian newspapers but moved to Kalgoorlie in 1895, attracted by the great gold discoveries.

In Kalgoorlie, he edited both the "Western Argus" and "Kalgoorlie Miner" newspapers, with the latter growing in size and importance under his editorship. In 1898, he stood for the Legislative Council seat of North-East Province and lost by 90 votes. In 1901, he agreed to stand for the federal seat of Kalgoorlie under the Free Trade Party banner, and won the seat comfortably. During his time in federal politics he was a member of the Royal Commission on Iron Bonuses. He was defeated by the Labor nominee C. E. Frazer in the second federal election. [cite book|title=Golden Days: being Memoirs & Reminiscences of the Goldfields of Western Australia|year=1996|author=Raeside J|publisher=Hesperian Press|id=ISBN 0-85905-204-4]

In 1908 he was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Council for the South Province, where he sat until 1946, and served as President of the Council from 1926 to 1946. Throughout his tenure, he remained an Independent, although he was an enthusiastic supporter of the Scaddan Labor government from 1911 until 1916, voting in 165 divisions with the government and none against. Following its defeat in 1916, he worked with governments of both major political persuasions and strongly advocated for his Goldfields constituency.

In 1912 he married Teresa Gertrude and they had three living sons (a twin male died at birth), two grandchildren (a boy and a girl) and three great grandchildren (a girl and two boys). He also served as an inaugural member on the Senate of the University of Western Australia from 1912 until 1924, and was a member of the Western Australian Historical Society, contributing numerous articles to "Early Days" and various international periodicals such as The Times and Review of Reviews. He also wrote an autobiography in 1936.

He died in the Perth suburb of Subiaco in 1949.

Honours

He was knighted in 1930 and appointed K.C.M.G. in 1947.

Notes

Further reading

* [http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/fed0022.pdf My Life's Adventure] (autobiography, hosted by University of Sydney)

Persondata
NAME = Kirwan, John Waters
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Australian journalist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH = 2 December 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH = Liverpool, England
DATE OF DEATH = 9 September 1949
PLACE OF DEATH = Subiaco, Western Australia