Lee Batchelor

Lee Batchelor

Edgerton Lee Batchelor , (born April 10, 1865 in Adelaide , South Australia , † October 8, 1911 in Warburton , Victoria ) was an Australian politician and both foreign minister and interior minister of the country.

Early life

Batchelor was born in Adelaide and raised by his mother alone with his two brothers after the death of his father, who worked as a photographer. He went to the North Adelaide Model School and was a student teacher by the age of twelve. He worked at the North Adelaide Church of Christ Secondary School , but at 17 he became a talented mechanical engineer.

As a unionist

Batchelor soon became active in the Labor movement and entered the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (Adelaide) in 1882, of which he was president four times from 1889 to 1898. He was also President of the Railway Service Mutual Association . He was elected Treasurer of the United Trades and Labor Council of South Australia in 1892 and was its secretary in 1893. In 1890 he married Rosina Mooney. he married Rosina Mooney. In 1891 he was a founding member of the United Labor Party (ULP). He was party secretary from 1892 to 1896 and was its president in 1898.

Political career

Batchelor was nominated for the election of the South Australian House of Assembly by the ULP in 1893. He became the first Labor member to receive a seat in Parliament in South Australia . Batchelor headed the ULP in the Parliament of South Australia from 1897 to 1899.

From 1899 to 1901, Batchelor was Minister of Education and Agriculture in the second term of Frederick Holder . In 1901 he resigned from the South Australian Parliament and ran for election to the Australian Parliament. Together with Holder he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as one of seven MPs from South Australia . He was the only member of the Labor Party from South Australia. Batchelor voluntarily gave up his seat in the 1903 elections to one of his MPs and ran for a seat for the Division of Boothby. The voters rewarded this selfless behavior with his election.

In the reign of Chris Watson Batchelor was interior minister . From 1908 to 1909 and from 1910 to 1911, Batchelor was Australian Secretary of State under the government of Andrew Fisher . Batchelor attended the 1911 Reich Conference with Fisher , where foreign policy matters within the Commonwealth were discussed .

When the Northern Territory was placed under the control of the Commonwealth in January 1911, Batchelor was the first minister to take over the administration of the region. During this time he worked on the creation of reservations for the local Aborigines .

Batchelor died unexpectedly of a heart attack while climbing Mount Donna Buang near Warburton , Victoria. Shortly after his death, a town located there was named Batchelor after him in his honor as Minister of the Northern Territory (1912). The city is 98 km south of Darwin .

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• Dean Jaensch: Lee Batchelor . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1966–2012 (English).
• "So Monstrous A Travesty" - Ross McMullin (p. 15)