Garnet Barrington Wood (1 July 1888 – 3 January 1952) was an Australian politician who served as a Country Party member of the Legislative Council of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

from 1936 until his death. He was a minister in the government of

Ross McLarty Sir Duncan Ross McLarty, (17 March 1891 – 22 December 1962) was an Australian politician and the 17th Premier of Western Australia. Early life McLarty was born in Pinjarra, Western Australia, the youngest of seven children of Edward McLarty ...

Early life

Wood was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, to Mary Louisa (née Whitfield) and Barrington Clarke Wood. His father, who died when he was 15, was also a member of parliament and government minister. Wood attended

Hale School Hale School is an independent, Anglican day and boarding school for boys, located in Wembley Downs, a western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Named after the school founded by Bishop Mathew Blagden Hale in 1858, Hale School claims to be ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, and after graduating worked for a period as an accountant for

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

. He moved to

Carrolup Marribank, earlier known as Carrolup, is a locality in the Shire of Kojonup, Western Australia, approximately north-west of Katanning. It was the site of one of two large native settlements for Indigenous Australians established by the office ...

(in the Great Southern) in 1912, and later farmed at Narrogin and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

. Wood was elected to the York Road Board in 1932, and would serve until 1951.Garnet Barrington Wood
– Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 15 June 2016.

Politics and later life

Prominent in agricultural circles, Wood was elected to the Legislative Council at the 1936 election, defeating Herbert Yelland in East Province. He was re-elected in 1944, and in January 1948 was made an honorary minister in

the ministry In constitutional usage in Commonwealth realms, a ministry (usually preceded by the definite article, i.e., the ministry) is a collective body of government minister (government), ministers led by a head of government, such as a prime minister. I ...

of Ross McLarty, with responsibility for agriculture and the

North-West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east ...

. Wood's constituency was abolished at the 1950 election, and he successfully transferred to Central Province. Later in the year, in October 1950, he was given a substantive position in the ministry, becoming Minister for Agriculture. Wood died in office in January 1952, while attending a cabinet meeting in Perth, and was granted a state funeral."STATE FUNERAL FOR MR. WOOD TODAY"
''

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, '' The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuous ...

'', 5 January 1952. He had married twice, to Gillian Richardson in 1917 and to Eveline Parker in 1925, having two daughters by each marriage. His first wife was the daughter of Alexander Richardson, who was also an MP.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Garnet 1888 births 1952 deaths Australian farmers Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council People from Fremantle National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Western Australia Western Australian local councillors 20th-century Australian politicians

Early life

Politics and later life

See also

References