Ernest Shoebridge Carr (28 September 1875 – 17 September 1956) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

from 1906 until 1917 for the electorate of

Macquarie Macquarie may refer to: People * Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of the British colony of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. * Elizabeth Macquarie Campbell, Lachlan Macquarie's second wife Locations * Division of Macquarie, an electoral district in th ...

, representing the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

until the 1916 Labor split and thereafter joining the new Nationalist Party. He was later a Nationalist 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 ...

from 1920 to 1922, representing the electorate of

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

Early life and career

Carr was born in

Dubbo Dubbo () is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Gol ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, the son of a soap manufacturer. He was educated at state schools until the age of 14, when he left school to work in his father's factory. He took over a Dubbo real estate agency at the age of 19 but sold out two years later and entered into partnership as a building contractor at Bourke, with the Bourke Lands Office and Wentworth Post Office among Carr's projects. At 23, he then bought the

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

-based newspaper '' The Leader'' and converted it from a bi-weekly into a daily. He edited ''The Leader'' for seven years, but sold the newspaper after his election to parliament.

Federal and state politics

Carr won Macquarie at the 1906 federal election. He comfortably held his seat over subsequent elections until his expulsion from the ALP over his support for conscription in September 1916 during the 1916 Labor split. In February 1917, along with the other former Labor MPs expelled during the split, Carr joined the newly formed pro-conscription

Nationalist Party of Australia The Nationalist Party, also known as the National Party, was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the latter formed by Prime Mini ...

. In one of the closest polling results in Australian electoral history, Carr lost the 1917 election by nine votes. After the loss of his federal seat, Carr returned to journalism and bought a

Hawkesbury Hawkesbury or Hawksbury may refer to: People *Baron Hawkesbury, or Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1727-1808), English statesman Places ;Geography *Hawkesbury Island, an island in British Columbia, Canada * Hawkesbury Island, Queensland ...

based newspaper. He then returned to politics when he successfully stood as the Nationalist candidate for the

electorate of

in 1920. Carr lost his seat at the 1922 election.

Post-parliament

Carr listed his occupation as "company manager" in the 1920s, when he was recorded as living at

Mosman Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

. He was a serial Nationalist preselection candidate for New South Wales-based seats through the 1920s, contesting Cumberland as an independent in 1925 and standing as an endorsed Nationalist at the

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

and 1929 federal elections. He unsuccessfully sought Nationalist preselection for a final time at the 1930 state election. He was a veteran supporter of the

New England New State Movement The New England New State Movement was an Australian political movement in the twentieth century. Founded as the Northern Separation Movement, the aim of the movement was to seek the secession of the New England region and surrounding areas fro ...

during the 1920s. In later years Carr relocated to

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

and was again described as a journalist, reportedly associated with Cumberland Newspapers Limited. He was a member of the Granville Chamber of Commerce and in the 1940s was also engaged in tin and copper mining. He was an outspoken proponent of

social credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

theory in later years, standing as a Social Credit Party candidate at the 1937 federal election, serving as the state secretary of the Social Credit Movement for Australia during the mid-1940s, and writing many letters to the editor on the subject over many years. He was also the state secretary and a key figure in the short-lived One Party for Australia in 1943. Carr died at Parramatta in 1956 and was cremated at the

Northern Suburbs Crematorium The Northern Suburbs Crematorium, officially Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, is a crematorium in North Ryde, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It was officially opened on 28 October 1933, and the first cremation t ...

. He was survived by his wife, two daughters and two sons.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Ernest 1875 births 1956 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Macquarie Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly National Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia 20th-century Australian politicians Australian social crediters