William Morris Hughes was an English-born Australian statesman.
Displaying political acumen and unbridled ambition, he rose through the rough and tumble of the labor movement and became prime minister at the age of 51.
Background
William Morris Hughes was born in Pimlico, London, on 25 September 1862 to Welsh parents.
His father William Hughes was Welsh-speaking and, according to the 1881 census, born in Holyhead, Anglesey, North Wales in about 1825.
He was a deacon of the Particular Baptist Church and by profession a joiner and a carpenter at the House of Lords.
His mother was a farmer's daughter from Llansantffraid, Montgomeryshire and had been in service in London. Jane Morris was thirty-seven when she married and William Morris Hughes was her only child.
After his mother's death when he was seven, William Hughes lived with his father's sister in Llandudno, Wales, also spending time with his mother's relatives in rural Montgomeryshire, where he also spoke Welsh.
A plaque on a guest house in Abbey Road, Llandudno bears testament to his residency.
When he was 14 he returned to London and worked as a pupil teacher.
In 1881, when he was 19, William lived with his father and an aunt at 78 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London.
Education
He attended grammar schools and was teaching school before he emigrated to Sydney in 1884.
Having studied law, he took up legal practice in addition to his parliamentary duties.
Career
Hughes was appointed minister for external affairs in the short-lived Labour ministry of John Watson (1904) and was attorney general under Andrew Fisher in 1908-1909, 1910-1913, and 1914.
His stature had been enhanced by his forceful tract The Case for Labour (1910), but he was too prickly to gain the approval of most rank-and-file members, who feared his mercurial independence.
Wartime Prime Minister
War disillusionment was already apparent.
Labour was in an uproar as Hughes left for England, at the invitation of the United Kingdom War Cabinet, in January 1916.
In a compromise move Hughes gained approval for a poll on the issue.
The campaign was even more vituperative than in 1916, but again the proposal was rejected.
Hughes was determined to claim a major voice in Pacific affairs for Australia.
After the enabling act was passed, overt opposition to the war flared among extremist groups, particularly in Sydney.
Early in 1917 his "National Labour" group and the Liberals merged as the Nationalist party; a general election returned the new party.
In London and in Washington he pressed for the postwar cession of former German island territories and enunciated an Australian "Monroe Doctrine. "
After gaining British Cabinet approval for his plan, he found that United States president Woodrow Wilson favored placing the former German colonies under League of Nations control.
At the Versailles Peace Conference, Hughes agreed to accept a League mandate for German New Guinea (including the northern Solomons), with the safeguard of control over immigration into the territory.
His parliamentary majority was trimmed in 1920, and after the 1922 election the Nationalists could govern only with Country party support.
In his absence Labour's anticonscription attitude hardened; party and trade union conferences declared uncompromising opposition, while extremist groups campaigned actively against the entire war effort.
Heavy British casualties in the Battle of the Somme convinced Hughes of the need to follow the United Kingdom's lead and introduce conscription, but his Cabinet generally did not favor this course.
In 1923 Hughes was replaced by Stanley Bruce.
Hughes remained in Parliament, a thorn in the side of both Labour and Nationalists.
Bruce and the Nationalists were defeated in the ensuing election; for his part in the debacle Hughes was expelled from the party.
When the United Australia party was formed from a merger of Labour breakaways and the Nationalists, Hughes joined it.
With the changeover to the Labour administration of John Curtin, Hughes continued his diligent support of the war effort and refused to withdraw from the Advisory War Council when his party instructed him to do so; again he was expelled.
In 1945 Hughes was invited to join the new Liberal party, successor to the United Australia party.
Hughes and his followers, which included many of Labor's early leaders, called themselves the National Labor Party and began laying the groundwork for forming a party that they felt would be both avowedly nationalist as well as socially radical.
Hughes was forced to conclude a confidence and supply agreement with the opposition Commonwealth Liberal Party to stay in office.
He was also a member of the following political parties: Pacific, Country Party, Labor (1894–1916), National Labor (1916–17), Nationalist (1917–30), Australian (1930–31), United Australia (1931–44).
Membership
Elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1894, Hughes supported federation and was a candidate for the House of Representatives in 1901, when the Commonwealth Constitution came into force.
He remained a member of Parliament until his death in October 1952, sparking a Bradfield by-election.
He had been a member of the House of Representatives for 51 years and seven months. He was the last member of the original Australian Parliament elected in 1901 still serving in Parliament when he died. Hughes was the penultimate member of the First Parliament to die; King O'Malley outlived him by fourteen months. Hughes was also the last surviving member of the Watson Cabinet, as well as the first and third Cabinets of Andrew Fisher.
At the age of 90 years, one month and three days, Hughes is the oldest person ever to have been a member of the Australian parliament.
Membership :
Member of the Australian Parliament for Bradfield
Member of the Australian Parliament for North Sydney
Member of the Australian Parliament for Bendigo
Member of the Australian Parliament for West Sydney
Member of the New South Wales Parliament for Sydney-Lang
Connections
After marrying his wife Mary in 1911, the couple went on a long drive, because he did not have time for a honeymoon.
In the New Year's Day Honours of 1922, his wife Mary was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE).
He was survived by the six children of his first (common law) marriage and by his wife Mary.