Robert Semple (21 October 1873 – 31 January 1955) was a union leader and later Minister of Public Works for the first Labour Government of New Zealand. He is also known for creating the Bob Semple tank.

Early life

He was born in

Sofala, New South Wales Sofala is a village in New South Wales, Australia, north-west of Sydney, within Bathurst Regional Council. It is located beside the Turon River. Sofala is just off the Bathurst-Ilford Road, with only local traffic through the town itself. At th ...

, Australia. He started working at an early age as gold miner in Australia. In 1903 he was involved in a miner's strike in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia. The strike was defeated and Semple ended up being blacklisted. To avoid the blacklist Semple moved to the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. By 1907 he was president of the Runanga Miner's Union and earned himself nickname 'Fighting Bob Semple'. He was jailed in 1913 for supporting

the general strike ''The General Strike'' is Anti-Flag's ninth studio album. The album was released on March 20, 2012.http://www.anti-flag.com/?p=172 The album marks the band's second release for SideOneDummy Records. The first single from the album, "The Neolibera ...

and again in 1916 after fighting conscription for overseas service during World War I. Semple served as the President of the Labour Party from 1926 to 1928. Semple was a member of the

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...

for a decade between 1925 and 1935. In 1935 he unsuccessfully stood for

Mayor of Wellington The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of the City of Wellington. The mayor presides over the Wellington City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional representat ...

, coming runner-up to Thomas Hislop. His wife Margaret was also a Wellington City Councillor from 1938 to 1941.

Parliamentary career

Semple was elected to the seat of Wellington South Parliament for Labour in a 1918 by-election, but lost the seat in the 1919 general election. In 1928 he won the Wellington East seat, and held it until 1946, when it was renamed Miramar. He then held Miramar until 1954, when he retired. In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal. Semple was a prolific user of "unparliamentary language" during his time as an MP, and was fond of insulting colleagues by calling or comparing them to Australian animals such as

kookaburra Kookaburras are terrestrial tree kingfishers of the genus ''Dacelo'' native to Australia and New Guinea, which grow to between in length and weigh around . The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri ''guuguubarra'', onomatopoeic of its call. The ...

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

s and dingoes. During his term in Parliament, Semple held many important infrastructure portfolios, such as

Minister of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

(1935–1941, 1942–1943) and

Minister of Railways A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states as well as others. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructur ...

(1941–1949). Semple was seen by many as the public face of the first Labour government's infrastructure investment. He reshaped the Public Works Department by resuming its original function as the development arm of the government by phasing out its focus on relief work from the Great Depression. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he had built the ' Bob Semple tank', made from

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a ...

and a tractor base. The tank had numerous design flaws and other practical problems and was never put into production. In later life, he became an ardent anti-communist. He did not seek re-election in the 1954 election, and died in New Plymouth in January 1955.

Notes

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References

* * , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Semple, Bob 1873 births 1955 deaths New Zealand Labour Party MPs People from the Central West (New South Wales) Australian emigrants to New Zealand Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand New Zealand trade unionists New Zealand conscientious objectors Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand MPs for Wellington electorates Unsuccessful candidates in the 1919 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1925 New Zealand general election New Zealand politicians convicted of crimes Social Democratic Party (New Zealand) politicians Wellington City Councillors New Zealand Socialist Party politicians Wellington Harbour Board members New Zealand anti–World War I activists Industrial Workers of the World members