James Zimri Sellar (4 November 1830 – 20 December 1906) was an Australian politician who represented the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was creat ...

multi-member seat of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

from 1905 to 1906 for the

United Labor Party The South Australian Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch) and commonly referred to simply as South Australian Labor, is the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, originally formed ...

. Sellar was born in

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

in London, England, and migrated to

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

at the age of nineteen. In 1849, he attended the historic meeting at Neale's Exchange to discuss the proposed Constitution of South Australia. He became a turner in 1850, and also worked as a shorthand reporter for the ''

South Australian Register ''The Register'', originally the ''South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register'', and later ''South Australian Register,'' was South Australia's first newspaper. It was first published in London in June 1836, moved to Adelaide in 1837, and f ...

''. He was involved in a campaign among mechanics at Kooringa, near Burra, for an eight-hour day, becoming their spokesperson. He went to

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...

during the Victorian gold rush, but returned to South Australia in 1853, and having had some success, established the Vauxhall Tea Company, which he operated for 44 years. He was then a land and estate valuer and general arbitrator for another eighteen years. Sellar was a well-known Congregationalist, attending

Thomas Quinton Stow Thomas Quinton Stow (7 July 1801 – 19 July 1862), generally referred to as the Rev. T. Q. Stow, but also as Quinton Stow, was an Australian pioneer Congregational minister. Brian L. Jones,Stow, Thomas Quinton (1801 - 1862), ''Australian Dictio ...

's church from his arrival, and occupied a number of senior positions in the voluntary militia force. Sellar was one of the founders of the National Reform Association, and when that wound up, was the first president of the Adelaide Democratic Club. He was also a member of the Labor League of South Australia at its inception in 1876. He made many unsuccessful attempts for municipal and state office from 1878, but was known for his good humour about his various defeats. He was eventually successful in being elected as a Town of Adelaide councillor for Young Ward, serving from 1891 to 1903 and from 1904 to 1906, being defeated for the final time in the same month he died. He was a staunch advocate of universal suffrage and an opponent of state aid to religion. Sellar was elected to the House of Assembly at the 1905 election, and was re-elected with an increased majority at the 1906 election. He was also a member of the party executive by this time. He died at his home, "St Heliers", on South Terrace, while in office in 1906, after being ill for several weeks, at the age of 76. The ''Herald'' labelled him the "grand old man of the Labor Party", while various colleagues praised him as a lifelong democrat who had been advocating his ideals long before the formation of the Labor Party. He was cremated at the West Terrace Crematorium. He was survived by two daughters; two wives and two sons predeceased him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellar, James Zimri 1830 births 1906 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia Members of the South Australian House of Assembly 19th-century Australian politicians