Thomas Leishman Brown (5 November 1862 – July 1946) was an Australian trade unionist and politician who served as a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1906 to 1908, representing the seat of Geraldton.
Thomas Brown | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia | |
| In office 21 November 1906 – 11 September 1908 | |
| Preceded by | Henry Carson |
| Succeeded by | Henry Carson |
| Constituency | Geraldton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 5 November 1862 Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | July 1946 Zarate, Argentina |
| Political party | Labor |
Brown was born in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, to Helen (née Leishman) and Thomas Brown. He trained as a carpenter and joiner, working in Melbourne until the mid-1890s, when he moved to Geraldton, Western Australia, and established his own building and contracting business.[1] Brown unsuccessfully stood for parliament at the 1904 and 1905 state elections, losing to Henry Carson on both occasions.[2] Carson's margin of victory in 1905 was just 26 votes, and in October 1906 the election was vacated by the Supreme Court on the grounds of voting irregularities.[3] Brown won the resulting by-election, but Carson defeated him again at the 1908 state election. Brown made one final run for parliament in 1911, losing to Arthur Male in the seat of Kimberley.[2] He was state secretary of the Australian Workers' Union from 1911 to 1915, when he left the state and did not return. Irregularities were subsequently discovered in the union's accounts.[4][5] Brown left Australia in 1919 & went to Chile, South America with his wife & one daughter, joined shortly after by another daughter & grandson. Worked as a builder in Chile under the new name of Arthur Rivers.6
References edit
- ^ Thomas Leishman Brown – Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
- ^ a b Black, David; Prescott, Valerie (1997). Election statistics : Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890-1996. Perth, [W.A.]: Western Australian Parliamentary History Project and Western Australian Electoral Commission. ISBN 0730984095.
- ^ "THE GERALDTON SEAT", The Daily News, 26 October 1906.
- ^ "THE A.W.U.", Truth, 2 October 1915.
- ^ "MISSING UNION SECRETARY", Truth, 30 October 1915.
6. Date and place of death. From family history ‘Scotland to Clunes’ by Peter Spark