John William Croft (20 January 1871 – ) was an Australian politician. Born in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, he was educated in state schools before becoming an apprentice bootmaker. Moving to

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 ...

in the 1890s, he was Secretary of the Coastal Trades and Labour Council. In 1903, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

Senator for Western Australia. He retired in 1910. The circumstances surrounding Croft's death are unclear, and no death certificate registered for him has been located in Australia. Members of his family have variously recorded that he disappeared after heading off on a mysterious "mission" to Uruguay in 1913, but that he attended his mother's funeral in 1925 and was not listed as deceased on his father's 1929 death certificate. Another theory was that Croft committed suicide and this was covered up.

References

1871 births Year of death unknown Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Western Australia Members of the Australian Senate 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-senator-stub