Background
Anderson was born in East Brighton in Melbourne to butcher John Charles Anderson and Elizabeth, née Jervis, and was raised a Methodist.
Anderson was born in East Brighton in Melbourne to butcher John Charles Anderson and Elizabeth, née Jervis, and was raised a Methodist.
The family moved to Western Australia, and the younger Anderson left school at 14. He opened a butchery in Perth in 1911. Anderson moved to Sydney in 1918 and became a sausage manufacturer, registering his own companies A. West. Anderson Pty Limited and Anderson"s Sausages Pty Limited.
By 1923, with branches across Sydney and Newcastle, he also had an interest in the Homebush Bay abattoirs, and in 1924 set up works in Lismore, Tuncester and Byron Bay.
He was able to prosper during the Great Depression and acquired Queensland meatworks at Wallangarra and Karumba. Anderson"s companies, on the other hand, continued to prosper, as through the 1940s he expanded further into Queensland.
He founded Andersons Island Industries Limited in the Northern Territory and Andersons Meat Industries Limited in 1953, as well as being instrumental in the foundation of the Byron Whaling Company Pty Limited in 1954. Anderson, who suffered from diabetes, died in 1956 of heart disease at Strathfield and was buried at Waverley.
Anderson launched his own political party, One Parliament for Australia, in 1943 at Sydney Town Hall, advocating a government free of party politics. He contested Richmond at the 1943 federal election and received 20% of the vote, but the party soon dissolved.