Albert Hinchcliffe (14 February 1860 – 4 January 1935) was a trade union organizer and member of the

Queensland Legislative Council The Queensland Legislative Council was the upper house of the parliament in the Australian state of Queensland. It was a fully nominated body which first took office on 1 May 1860. It was abolished by the Constitution Amendment Act 1921, which to ...

Early life

Hinchcliffe was born at

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

, Lancashire to Ezra Hinchcliffe, a cotton warehouse worker, and his wife, Alice (née Gatside). His family migrated to Australia in 1864 and after his father died Hinchcliffe and his mother settled in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

. He went to Toowoomba State School, but left early and before he was eight years old he was working at Clifton station.Hinchcliffe, Albert (1860–1935)
– '' Australian Dictionary of Biography''. Retrieved 20 March 2015. In 1872 Hinchcliffe was apprenticed to a compositor at the

Darling Downs Gazette The ''Darling Downs Gazette'' was a newspaper published from 1848 to 1922 in Drayton and Toowoomba in Queensland, Australia. History ''The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser'' was founded in 1858 by Arthur Sidney Lyon. The first issu ...

before moving to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

to work as a printer for the Brisbane Courier and after 1885, the

Telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

. Hinchcliffe was a member of the Queensland Typographical Association and when it affiliated with the Brisbane Trades and Labour Council he was the association's delegate. In 1887, Hinchcliffe became secretary of the T.L.C. and used his position to campaign for direct parliamentary representation of the labour movement.

Political career

In the 1888 colonial election, Hinchcliffe stood for the seat of

Toombul Nundah (previously called German Station) is an inner suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It contains the neighbourhood of Toombul. In the , Nundah had a population of 12,141 people. Prior to European settlement, Nundah was i ...

as a representative of the labour interests but was soundly defeated by Michael Gannon. For this act he was dismissed from his job by the Telegraph. In

1893 Events January–March * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * Mark Twain started writing Puddn'head Wilson. * January 6 – Th ...

, he contested the seat of

Fortitude Valley Fortitude Valley (often called "The Valley" by local residents) is an inner suburb of the City of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. In the , Fortitude Valley had a population of 9,708 people. The suburb features two pedestr ...

, this time losing to John McMaster. His final attempt at winning a seat in the Assembly came in 1900 when he was up against

Thomas Glassey Thomas Glassey (26 February 1844 – 28 September 1936) was an Irish-born Australian politician. Born in Markethill, County Armagh, he received no formal education, working as a mill-worker and miner in Scotland and England. He migrated ...

in a by-election for the seat of Bundaberg, which he once again lost. He finally entered parliament in 1904, being appointed to the Legislative Council and remained there until 1922 when the council was abolished.

Personal life

Hinchcliffe married Mary Ann Beer in July 1883 at

and together had one son. In 1913, two years after the death of Mary, he married Frances May Hickman in Sydney and they also had one son. He died in Sydney in 1935 and was cremated at the Rookwood Crematorium.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinchcliffe, Albert Members of the Queensland Legislative Council 1860 births 1935 deaths People from Ashton-under-Lyne Colony of Queensland people British emigrants to colonial Australia