Harrie Robert Croft Mitchell (27 June 1906 – 5 February 1967) 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 a single term between 1938 and 1941. He was a member of the

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...

Early life

Mitchell was born in

Warren, New South Wales Warren is a town in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located off the Mitchell Highway, 120 kilometres north west of Dubbo, and is the seat of the Warren Shire local government area. At the , Warren had a population of 1, ...

and was the son of a police constable. He was educated at Bathurst High School and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929. Mitchell was called to the bar in 1936 but reverted to the solicitors' roll in 1944. He had extensive business interests and was the director of several companies including a brewery and two building societies. Mitchell enlisted in the

Second Australian Imperial Force The Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF, or Second AIF) was the name given to the volunteer expeditionary force of the Australian Army in the Second World War. It was formed following the declaration of war on Nazi Germany, with an initia ...

at the commencement of World War Two and obtained the rank of Major. He was posted to an artillery unit in North-Western Australia. Despite having not served overseas he became an office holder in several organisations for war veterans including the

World Veterans Federation The World Veterans Federation (WVF) is the world's largest international veteran organisation. The federation consists of 172 veterans organizations from 121 countries representing some 60 million veterans worldwide. It is a humanitarian organis ...

. He also served on a number of

Quango A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi-NGO", where N ...

s including the New South Wales Central Ambulance Board and the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Immigration.

State Parliament

Mitchell entered parliament as the

member for Burwood after winning the seat at the 1938 state election. He won 51% of the vote and defeated the only other candidate, the incumbent member Gordon Jackett. Unusually, Jackett had also been endorsed by the UAP. This was indicative of the growing disunity and lack of organizational strength within the UAP. To forestall pre-selection ballots, the party's central committee, of which Mitchell was a member, had declared 11 metropolitan seats including Burwood to be "safe seats" and had endorsed multiple candidates. At the next state election in 1941, Jackett stood as an Independent "Nationalist UAP" candidate and defeated Mitchell who finished third with 28% of the vote behind Jackett and the Labor Party candidate, Albert Thompson. Thompson won a remarkable 38% of the vote due to the large statewide swing to Labor at the election. After an absence of 9 years, Mitchell again nominated for Burwood 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 ...

state election. He stood as an Independent and was easily defeated by Jackett who was the endorsed candidate of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. This was the last state election that Mitchell contested. He did not hold party, parliamentary or ministerial office.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell Harrie 1906 births 1967 deaths United Australia Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 20th-century Australian politicians Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian Army officers