Ambrose Campbell Carmichael, MC (19 September 1871 – 15 January 1953) was an Australian politician, soldier and accountant, a member of 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 ...

for 12 years and a minister in the McGowen and Holman Labor governments.

Early life

Carmichael was born in

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

, Tasmania, to shipping agent William Carmichael and Emma Willson, both Scottish-born. He was educated at Hobart and then held a variety of occupations, including coaching in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

and farming on the Lachlan River, where he became involved in the

Farmers and Settlers Association The Farmers' and Settlers' Association of New South Wales was an umbrella organisation of farmers' and selectors' associations in New South Wales, founded in 1893. History The Association was formed in 1893 as the outcome of a conference held in Co ...

. Around 1893 he married Mabel Pillinger at

Lake Cargelligo Lake Cargelligo () is a town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, on Lake Cargelligo. It is in Lachlan Shire. At the , Lake Cargelligo had a population of 1,479 people. Its name is said to be a corruption of the Aboriginal ...

. In around 1900 he established a business in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Political career

In 1904 Carmichael joined Labor and worked on

George Beeby Sir George Stephenson Beeby KBE (23 May 1869 – 18 July 1942) was an Australian politician, judge and author. He was one of the founders of the Labor Party in New South Wales, and represented the party in state parliament from 1907 to 1912. ...

's unsuccessful campaign for Leichhardt at the 1904 election. He was the Labor candidate for Leichhardt in 1907 and he was successful, defeating the sitting

Liberal Reform Liberal Reform is a group of members of the British Liberal Democrats. Membership of the group is open to any Liberal Democrat party member, and is free of charge. It was launched on 13 February 2012, and describes itself as a broadly centrist g ...

member Robert Booth, with a margin of 485 votes (6.1%). He was appointed an honorary minister in 1910 in the McGowen ministry, assuming the

Public Instruction In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

and Labour and Industry portfolios in 1911. He was dropped from the ministry in November 1911, but was returned as Minister of Public Instruction from March 1912, briefly also serving as

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

from April to May 1912 and adding Labour and Industry from December 1912 until June 1913. He retained the portfolio of Public Instruction in the first Holman ministry, until March 1915, when he resigned over a dispute concerning seniority in the cabinet. In November 1915 he started a successful recruiting campaign for 1,000 recruits to join him in the Australian Imperial Force for the

First World War 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 ...

, referred to as "Carmichael's thousand". He enlisted as a private in January 1916, serving in the 36th Battalion. He was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

for action at

Houplines Houplines (; nl, Opline) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille. Adjoining the communal (village) cemetery is the Houplines Communal Cemetery Extension, a Commonwealth War Grav ...

in 1917, returning to the frontline, attaining the rank of

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. He returned to Sydney in February 1918 and spoke to the Labor executive, explaining that while he was in favour of

conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

it had been defeated in two referendums and was a dead issue. He ran another recruitment campaign to raise a second "Carmichael's thousand", which left Sydney in June 1918, arriving in France in late September when the war was ending. He drifted from Labor and "machine politics" and in March 1919 formed the People's Party of Soldiers and Citizens. The party fielded 30 candidates in 10 districts at the 1920 election, with Carmichael standing as a candidate for the five-member seat of Balmain. None of the party's candidates were elected with Carmichael coming closest, missing out by a margin of 426 votes (1.4%).

Later life

Carmichael retired from public life and became a public accountant. He wrote to his former colleague

William Ashford William Ashford (1746–1824) was an English painter who worked exclusively in Ireland, where he lived from the age of 18, having initially gone there to take up a post with the Ordnance Office. His earliest paintings were flower pieces and st ...

in 1921 stating that the prosecution of Ashford in a Royal Commission was in his opinion, a "damned dirty piece of political malice" that sickened him of present-day politics. After the failure of his party he joined the Nationalist Party in 1922 but did not stand for election again. His wife Mabel died in 1931, and his second marriage, which took place in 1934 in Sydney, was to Olive Thorngate Weston. He died at Darlinghurst on . He had no children from either marriage and his second wife, Olive, died 5 days after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carmichael, Campbell 1871 births 1953 deaths Australian Army officers Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Australian military personnel of World War I Australian recipients of the Military Cross Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Treasurers of New South Wales