John William Leckie (14 October 187225 September 1947) was an Australian politician. He served as a

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

for

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

from 1935 to 1947, having previously been a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 1917 to 1919 and 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 presiding ...

from 1913 to 1917.

Early life

Leckie was born at

Alexandra, Victoria Alexandra is a town in north-east Victoria, Australia, 130 kilometres north-east of the State Capital, Melbourne. It is located at the junction of the Goulburn Valley Highway (B340) and Maroondah Highway (B360), in the Shire of Murrindindi loc ...

and educated at

Scotch College, Melbourne (For God, for Country, and for Learning) , established = , type = Independent, day and boarding , gender = Boys , denomination = Presbyterian , slogan = , ...

. He played

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

for

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the Vi ...

(then in the

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

) in 1895. He studied medicine at 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 nor ...

for two years, but after falling out with his father he prospected for gold in

Kalgoorlie, Western Australia Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area include ...

and played football in

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

. In 1897, he returned to Alexandra to run the family store, his father having died. In April 1898, he married May Beatrix Johnston. His wife died in 1910 and he moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in 1912 and co-founded a firm of

lithographic Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

printers and canister manufacturers. He married Hattie Martha Knight in April 1917. In 1920, the eldest of his daughters from his first marriage, Pattie Maie married future

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Robert Menzies The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...

Political career

Victorian politics

Leckie was a member of the Alexandra Shire Council from 1900 to 1911 and was shire president in 1904–05. During his council service, he ran unsuccessfully for the Anti-Socialist Protectionists for the

seat of

Mernda Mernda is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 28 km north-east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the City of Whittlesea local government area. Mernda recorded a population of 23,369 at the 2021 census. Hi ...

at the 1906 election. After leaving local government in 1911, he was elected as member for Benambra in the

in 1913 as a

Commonwealth Liberal Party The Liberal Party was a parliamentary party in Australian federal politics between 1909 and 1917. The party was founded under Alfred Deakin's leadership as a merger of the Protectionist Party and Anti-Socialist Party, an event known as the Fu ...

candidate.

Federal politics

Leckie won the federal seat of

Indi Indi may refer to: *Mag-indi language *Division of Indi, an electoral division in the Australian House of Representatives *Indi, Karnataka, a town in the state of Karnataka, India *Instrument Neutral Distributed Interface, a distributed control sys ...

in the 1917 election for the Nationalist Party. He lost his seat at the 1919 election to a

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 ...

candidate. He ran unsuccessfully for the state seat of Upper Goulburn in 1921 and then concentrated on his business and business groups. At the 1934 election, Leckie was elected

for

as 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 ...

. In October 1940, he became Minister without portfolio assisting the Minister for Trade and Customs and Minister without portfolio assisting the Minister for Labour and National Service in his son-in-law's ministry. In June 1941, he became Minister for Aircraft Production and held that position until the defeat of the Fadden government in October 1941. During the UAP's term in opposition, he was deputy leader of the party in the Senate. He lost his bid to be re-elected at the 1946 election and served out his term ending in June 1947. Three months later, Leckie died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

at his home in the Melbourne suburb of

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

, survived by his wife and their son and by three daughters from his first marriage. His son Roland Leckie was the member for the state seat of Evelyn from 1950 to 1952 and later a crown prosecutor and a judge of the

County Court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leckie, John William Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Cabinet of Australia Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia United Australia Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Indi Members of the Australian House of Representatives 1872 births 1947 deaths Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Australian Senate for Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Fitzroy Football Club (VFA) players People educated at Scotch College, Melbourne People from Alexandra, Victoria Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) 20th-century Australian politicians