Arthur Redvers Baden Powell (13 March 1900 – 25 November 1955) was an Australian politician and a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

for 3 months in 1950. He was a member of the Labor Party.

Early life

Powell was born in

Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf Mountain Ash ( cy, Aberpennar) is a town and former community in the Cynon Valley, within the County Borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, with a population of 11,230 at the 2011 Census, estimated in 2019 at 11,339. It includes the districts and ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and was the son of a coalminer. He was educated to elementary level in Wales and worked as a miner there until he emigrated to Australia with his parents in 1927. In Australia, he became active in the Labor Party and worked as an ironworker at the Wollongong Steelworks until 1932. He then became the secretary for Billy Davies, a Labor member of the Legislative Assembly for a number of seats in the Illawarra region between 1917 and 1949. Following his retirement from parliament, Powell became a boiler attendant.

Name

The surname Powell is generally regarded as a Welsh name. The name Baden had been a given name in a Powell family (from Mildenhall, Suffolk) since 1731, when Susannah Powell née Thistlethwayte (1696-1762) gave to her child (1731-1792) the maiden name of her mother, Susannah Baden (1663-1692). The name Baden, particularly when associated with the surname Powell, became famous in 1900–1901, the year Arthur William Baden Powell was born, because of the

Siege of Mafeking The siege of Mafeking was a 217-day siege battle for the town of Mafeking (now called Mafikeng) in South Africa during the Second Boer War from October 1899 to May 1900. The siege received considerable attention as Lord Edward Cecil, the son of ...

, the most famous British action in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, which turned the British Commander of the besieged,

Robert Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; (Commonly pronounced by others as ) 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the wor ...

, into a national hero. Throughout the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

, babies were named after him. No family connection has yet been established between Arthur Redvers Baden Powell and

. Redvers was also the name of another General made famous during that War,

Sir Redvers Buller General (United Kingdom), General Sir Redvers Henry Buller, (7 December 1839 – 2 June 1908) was a British Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to Bri ...

State Parliament

Powell was elected to parliament as the Labor member for Wollongong-Kembla at the January 1950

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

caused by the resignation of the incumbent Labor member, Billy Davies, who successfully contested the seat of

Cunningham Cunningham is a surname of Scottish origin, see Clan Cunningham. Notable people sharing this surname A–C * Aaron Cunningham (born 1986), American baseball player *Abe Cunningham, American drummer * Adrian Cunningham (born 1960), Australian ...

at the 1949 federal election. In a normally safe Labor seat, in which Davies had usually been elected unopposed, Powell was strongly challenged by the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

's Gerald Sargent. He eventually won the by-election by 261 votes, a margin of 0.84%. This narrow victory presaged the statewide swing against Labor at the

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

election 3 months later but it also weakened Powell's position within the local Labor Party. He lost the Labor pre-selection ballot for the 1950 election to

Rex Connor Reginald Francis Xavier "Rex" Connor (26 January 190722 August 1977) was an Australian politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1963 to his death, representing the Labor Party. He was the Minister for Minerals ...

, who would eventually become the federal member for Cunningham and a minister in the government of

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the ...

. Powell did not contest the election and retired from state politics. He did not hold party, parliamentary or ministerial office.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Baden 1900 births 1955 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians British emigrants to Australia