Thomas Robert Roberts (26 June 1869 – 1 June 1934) was a tinsmith and member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

Biography

Roberts was born at Hucclecote, Gloucestershire, to parents Thomas Roberts and his wife Ann Matilda (née Eycott). He was educated at the Church of England School in Hucclecote. His mother died when was around two years old and he was bought up by his uncle, Thomas Price and learnt the tinsmith trade. He arrived in Queensland in 1890 and opened his own business in Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, ''The City Dustpan'', which he sold in 1926. On 7 December 1895 he married Louise Augusta Muller (died 1947)Family history research
— Queensland Government births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. Retrieved 23 February 2016. and together had one son and three daughters. On 1 June 1934, he travelled to Southport, where he told friends there that he was on a visit for the day and to them he seemed in normal health. Later on into the night though, fishermen caught his body in their nets, about 200 yards from the shore. The police said there were no indications of foul play. His body was taken back to Toowoomba and his funeral proceeded from St Luke's Church of England Church to the

Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery at the corner of South Street and Anzac Avenue, Harristown, Queensland, Australia. It was surveyed in May 1850, and is one of the earliest surviving cemeteries in Queensland. The cem ...

.Deceased search
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Toowoomba Regional Council The Toowoomba Region is a local government area located in the Darling Downs part of Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by several previous local government areas with histories extending back to the early 1900s and beyo ...

Retrieved 25 March 2016.

Public career

Roberts was an alderman on the Toowoomba City Council for 10 years, including part of the time he spent in the Queensland Parliament. He was a Labour Movement member up until 1907 when William Kidston formed a

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

government whereupon he left the Labour Movement to follow Kidston and from then on supported the parties opposed to Labour. In 1907, Roberts won the two-member seat of Drayton & Toowoomba for the Ministerialists and held the seat until it was abolished in

1912 Events January * January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established. * January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens. * January 6 ...

and replaced by

East Toowoomba East Toowoomba is a residential locality in Toowoomba in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , East Toowoomba had a population of 5,244 people. Geography East Toowoomba is by road from the Toowoomba central business district. ...

. He won the new seat and held it until his death in 1934. He was the Liberal whip in 1918, and, when his party won government in

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

, the Chairman of Committees until the government's defeat in

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

. He was Secretary, Trustee and State President of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows and its Grand Master in 1901. He was also the Grand President in Queensland of the Royal Society of St George and a President of the Toowoomba Society for the Prevention of Cruelty. He was involved in many sporting organisations on the Darling Downs including women's hockey, both forms of rugby, and the rifle club.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Thomas Robert Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly 1869 births 1934 deaths Burials in Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery Deaths by drowning in Australia National Party (Queensland, 1917) members of the Parliament of Queensland British emigrants to colonial Australia Colony of Queensland people