Hugh Menzies (4 September 1857 – 13 February 1925) was an Australian politician representing the electoral district of Stawell in the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presidin ...

between 1902 and 1904 as a Ministerialist member. He served as Mayor of the

Shire of Stawell The Shire of Stawell was a local government area about west-northwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The shire covered an area of , and existed from 1861 until 1995. Stawell itself was managed by a separate entity; ...

from 1895 to 1896. He was the older brother of James Menzies and uncle of Sir Robert Menzies, the 12th and longest serving

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government of Australia and is also accountable to federal parliament under the princip ...

Biography

Menzies was born in

Ballarat, Victoria Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

to emigrant parents Robert and Elizabeth of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. Before entering state politics, Menzies was a

publican In antiquity, publicans ( Greek τελώνης ''telōnēs'' (singular); Latin ''publicanus'' (singular); ''publicani'' (plural)) were public contractors, in whose official capacity they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed th ...

and a bank manager, and a long-serving Councillor for the

. He won the state seat of Stawell as a Ministerialist candidate which was subsequently abolished and replaced with the combined electoral district of Stawell and Ararat. He contested the redistributed seat in both 1904 and 1908, and both times lost to Richard Toutcher, the incumbent member for Ararat. Menzies married Eleanor Lodge in 1885. He died on 13 February 1925, and was interred at Brighton Cemetery.

References

Victoria (Australia) state politicians Australian people of Scottish descent People from Ballarat 1857 births 1925 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Mayors of places in Victoria (Australia) Australian bankers {{Australia-mayor-stub