Sir John Richards Harris (24 January 1868 – 16 September 1946) was an Australian politician. A medical officer in early life, he is also noted as the first producer of

sherry Sherry ( es, jerez ) is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sherry is produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versi ...

in Australia.

Life

He was born in Chiltern to miner Thomas Henry Harris and Mary Richards Hollow. He attended Grenville College in Ballarat and then the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

( MB 1890,

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

1891, MD 1902). From 1891 to 1892 he was the resident medical officer at Melbourne Hospital, and from 1892 was based in

Rutherglen Rutherglen (, sco, Ruglen, gd, An Ruadh-Ghleann) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having existed as a Lanarkshire burgh in its own ...

. Harris served with the

Australian Flying Corps The Australian Flying Corps (AFC) was the branch of the Australian Army responsible for operating aircraft during World War I, and the forerunner of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The AFC was established in 1912, though it was not until ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. At Rutherglen he had become a viticulturist, producing the first sherry in Australia in 1912. In 1920 Harris won a by-election for the

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

's North Eastern Province; he was endorsed by the

Victorian Farmers' Union The Victorian Farmers' Union (VFU) was an association of farmers and primary producers formed in 1914 in the Australian state of Victoria. Although initially formed as an "absolutely non-political" entity, the VFU became a political party in 1916 ...

, which soon became the Country Party. From 1925 to 1927 he was a minister without portfolio. He was expelled from the parliamentary Country Party in 1934 after refusing to sign the nomination form, but was soon readmitted; he retained his leadership of the Country Party in the Council, which he had had since 1928 and retained until 1942. Harris was Minister of Public Instruction and Public Health from 1935 to 1942. Appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1937, he also served as chairman of the Council of Agricultural Education (1944–45) and the State Emergency Council (1939–42). Harris was defeated in 1946 and died later that year in Rutherglen.

Family

On 16 December 1896 Harris married Jessie Lily Prentice, with whom he had three sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, John 1868 births 1946 deaths National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Ministers for Health (Victoria) Australian Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Colony of Victoria people