Education
Oriel College.
Oriel College.
In later life, Bath was involved in the establishment of the University of Western Australia, and also initiated several agricultural cooperatives. He emigrated to the Western Australian Goldfields in 1896, and found work as a miner. The following year, after a brief sojourn in New South Wales, Bath was involved in founding the Amalgamated Workers" Association.
In 1898, he was asked to head the local chapter of the Knights of Labor, a United-States-based labour organisation, which he represented at the 1899 trade union conference, held in Coolgardie.
In July of the following year, Bath gave way to Wallace Nelson. After being appointed secretary of the Kalgoorlie and Boulder Trades and Labor Council, Bath was involved in various faction-fighting between trade unions.
He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1949, for "long service to the wheatgrowing industry of the state". He died at his home in Mount Lawley on 6 November 1956 from a heart attack resulting from coronary occlusion.
Bath Lane, one of the minor roads in the Ballarat Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, was named after him.
In September 1900, Bath, despite having no formal training in writing, became the first editor of the Westralian Worker, a socialist publication.
A member of the Australian Labor Party, he served as a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly between 1902 and 1914 for the constituencies of Hannans, Brown Hill and Avon, and was also Minister for Education for a period of 79 days in 1905, and Leader of the Opposition between 1906 and 1910. Bath was a leading member of the Freemasons in Western Australia, and was involved in the foundation of Lodge Bonnie Doon, 839, South Carolina (U.S.), in 1897, under the Scottish Rite.
