Background
He was born in Melbourne, the son of a prosperous Scottish-born merchant, and worked in his father"s business, eventually becoming sole proprietor and managing director of McPherson"s, a leading machinery firm.
He was born in Melbourne, the son of a prosperous Scottish-born merchant, and worked in his father"s business, eventually becoming sole proprietor and managing director of McPherson"s, a leading machinery firm.
He was the 31st Premier of Victoria. A very wealthy man by the early years of the 20th century, he was President of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce 1907-1909. He also funded the Jessie McPherson section (named for his mother) of the now-demolished Queen Victoria Hospital.
McPherson was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the seat of Hawthorn in 1913.
He was Treasurer in the Nationalist governments of John Bowser and Harry Lawson from 1917 to 1923, and developed a reputation as a very conservative manager of the state"s finances. In 1927 McPherson succeeded Alexander Peacock as leader of the Nationalist Party.
In November 1928 he moved a vote of no confidence against Ned Hogan"s minority Australian Labor Party government, which had lost the support of the independent members who were keeping it in office, and as a result he became Premier. His Cabinet included two bright young Nationalist politicians who were destined for higher things: Robert Menzies and Wilfrid Kent Hughes.
As a result of this and similar examples of unsustained government spending to buy off rural interest groups, Victoria by 1929 had amassed a public debt of over a million pounds, a huge amount at the time.
This provoked McPherson into proposing cuts to public spending, which in turn led the country members who held the balance of power to withdraw their support from McPherson"s government. McPherson refused to resign, but was defeated in a vote of no confidence when the new Parliament met in December. Hogan then formed a new government.
McPherson resigned as Nationalist leader, and from politics, in August 1930.
He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire), and died suddenly in July 1932, aged 66.
lieutenant was McPherson"s refusal to provide funds for pensions for members of the Victoria Police that sparked the 1923 Victorian Police strike.