Lucien Lawrence "Lou" Cunningham (4 June 1889 – 23 March 1948) was an Australian farmer and politician.

Early life

Cunningham was born at

Inverell, New South Wales Inverell is a large town in northern New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Macintyre River, close to the Queensland border. It is also the centre of Inverell Shire. Inverell is located on the Gwydir Highway on the western slopes of the No ...

, to a farmer, Eugene Cunningham, and his wife Mary, née Edgeworth, both born in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He was educated at Goonoowigall Public School and eventually ran the family farm. He became involved in the

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exerci ...

Politics

Cunningham was president of the local branches of the

No Conscription League The No Conscription League was an anarchist organisation designed to promote anti-draft manifestos and aid those who refused military service. The league lasted for 6 weeks and was used to charge its founders Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman ...

and the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

, and, having failed to enter the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

in 1917 via the seat of

Gough Gough ( ) is a surname. The surname probably derives from the Welsh (English: "red"), given as a nickname to someone with red hair or a red complexion or as a reduced form of the Irish McGough which itself is an Anglicized form of Gaelic , a patro ...

, he defeated Labor defector William Webster in 1919 to take the seat of Gwydir in the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

. A

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, Cunningham was a staunch opponent of

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

. He was promoted to the executive of the party, but lost Gwydir to

Aubrey Abbott Charles Lydiard Aubrey Abbott (4 May 1886 – 30 April 1975) was an Australian politician and administrator of the Northern Territory. He was born at St Leonards, Sydney, to Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, a magistrate, and Marion, née Lydiard. He ca ...

of the Country Party in 1925. Cunningham again became a farmer and married Catherine Crosby at Coogee on 3 September 1927. He attempted to regain Gwydir in 1928 but failed, but the following year regained it, largely as a result of

James Scullin James Henry Scullin (18 September 1876 – 28 January 1953) was an Australian Labor Party politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Scullin led Labor to government at the 1929 Australian federal election. He was the first Catho ...

's influence as

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 ...

. Cunningham was nominated as Deputy

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

in 1931, but

Charles McGrath David Charles McGrath (10 November 1872 – 31 July 1934) was an Australian politician. Originally a member of the Australian Labor Party, he joined Joseph Lyons in the 1931 Labor split that led to the formation of the United Australia Party. ...

refused to resign and the move failed. Unlike many colleagues, Cunningham remained loyal to the Labor Party through its many splits, and (being tall and around 108 kg) was nicknamed "the Goonoowigall Giant" and "Australia's biggest cabinet minister". He lost his seat at the Scullin government's landslide loss in 1931 and, although he attempted to return as a candidate for East Sydney in 1932, he was defeated by a

Lang Labor Lang Labor was a faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) consisting of the supporters of Jack Lang, who served two terms as Premier of New South Wales and was the party's state leader from 1923 to 1939. Following the expulsion of the N ...

candidate. Cunningham was a staunch opponent of Jack Lang and his party, and stood for the Legislative Assembly seat of Coogee after Lang's removal as leader. He unexpectedly won in 1941, partly due to his own political skills and partly due to the invigorated Labor under

William McKell Sir William John McKell (26 September 1891 – 11 January 1985) was an Australian politician who served as the 12th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1947 to 1953. He had previously been Premier of New South Wales from 1941 to 1947 ...

. Cunningham retained the seat until his death on 23 March 1948 of a

coronary occlusion A coronary occlusion is the partial or complete obstruction of blood flow in a coronary artery. This condition may cause a heart attack. In some patients coronary occlusion causes only mild pain, tightness or vague discomfort which may be ignored ...

; he was survived by his wife and two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Lou 1889 births 1948 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Gwydir Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 20th-century Australian politicians Australian people of Irish descent 20th-century Australian farmers