George Booth (19 March 1891 – 31 July 1960) was an Australian politician, elected as 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 ...
.
Booth was born in
Bolton,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. He worked part-time as a coal miner at eleven and attended classes by
Philip Snowden and became interested in the Labour Movement. In 1910, he migrated to Australia and worked on railway construction in the
Blue Mountains. From 1912, he worked as a coal miner at
Stanford Merthyr and
Pelaw Main. In 1913, he married Annie Elizabeth Bell and had one son and one daughter.
Booth was elected for the
Labor Party as a member for
Newcastle in 1925, during the period of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
, and
Kurri Kurri from 1927 to 1960. He was the Chairman of Committees (effectively deputy Speaker) from 1941 till 1959. His son,
Ken Booth succeeded him as member for Kurri Kurri.
Booth died at
Wallsend, New South Wales.
George Booth Drive, on the
Sydney-Newcastle Freeway in
Newcastle, New South Wales
Newcastle ( ; Awabakal: ) is a metropolitan area and the second most populated city in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas, and is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area, w ...
is named in Booth's honour.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, George
Australian people of English descent
1891 births
1960 deaths
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales
20th-century Australian politicians