Rowland "Rowley" James (14 June 1885 – 4 July 1962) was an Australian politician and coalminer. He was 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 1928 to 1958, representing the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

seat of Hunter. He was a member of 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 t ...

(ALP), although during the 1930s he was associated with the breakaway

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 ...

faction.

Early life

James was born on 14 June 1885 in

Lambton, New South Wales Lambton is a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, from Newcastle's central business district. Early days The Awabakal and Worimi peoples are acknowledged by City of Newcastle as the descendants of the traditional custodians of ...

. He was the youngest of eleven children born to Welsh immigrant parents Mary Ann () and Moses James. His father was a coal miner. James attended a local public school before beginning work as a coal miner in the

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

district. In 1912 he moved to

Collie, Western Australia Collie is a town in the South West region of Western Australia, south of the state capital, Perth, and inland from the regional city and port of Bunbury. It is near the junction of the Collie and Harris Rivers, in the middle of dense jarrah ...

, where he was lodge secretary of the Collie River District Miners' Union of Workers. He returned to New South Wales in 1916 and was an officeholder in the Australasian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation, representing the northern district on the union's central council. In 1928 he sought to succeed Daniel Rees as general president of the federation, but withdrew to stand for parliament.

Politics

James was elected to 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 o ...

for the

in 1928, succeeding former Labor leader

Matthew Charlton Matthew Charlton (15 March 1866 – 8 December 1948) was an Australian politician who served as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Leader of the Opposition from 1922 to 1928. He led the party to defeat at the 1922 and 1925 federal e ...

in the seat of Hunter. He was a critic of both the conservative government of

Stanley Bruce Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, (15 April 1883 – 25 August 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Australia from 1923 to 1929, as leader of the Nationalist Party. Born ...

and the Labor government 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 Cathol ...

for not prosecuting mine-owners during the protracted miner lock-out in northern New South Wales (1929–30), which led to accusations of inciting

mob violence A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property target ...

; ''

Smith's Weekly ''Smith's Weekly'' was an Australian tabloid newspaper published from 1919 to 1950. It was an independent weekly published in Sydney, but read all over Australia. History The publication took its name from its founder and chief financer Sir J ...

'' published his record of convictions, including

drunkenness Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ...

and assaulting police. A supporter of Jack Lang's proposal that New South Wales should not repay interest to British bond-holders in the height of the Great Depression, James joined

Jack Beasley John Albert Beasley (9 November 1895 – 2 September 1949) was an Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 1928 to 1946. He served in the Australian War Cabinet from 1941 to 1946, and was a government ministe ...

Party, along with six other New South Wales MPs, who voted in opposition to defeat the Scullin government. At the ensuing elections, both Labor parties lost heavily but James easily retained his seat. Re-admitted to the ALP in 1936, James was chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...

from 1943, and led the Australian delegation to the first

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

coal-mining committee in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1945. He continued to be prominent in coal-mining affairs, and his support for

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 i ...

Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley (; 22 September 1885 – 13 June 1951) was an Australian politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1945, follow ...

's stand on the 1949 coal strike prompted some to express a desire to expel him from the Miners' Federation. A man who disliked convention, James was succeeded in the seat of Hunter in 1958 by ALP leader

H. V. Evatt Herbert Vere Evatt, (30 April 1894 – 2 November 1965) was an Australian politician and judge. He served as a judge of the High Court of Australia from 1930 to 1940, Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs from 1941 to 1949, and l ...

, who was in turn succeeded by James' son

Bert Bert or BERT may refer to: Persons, characters, or animals known as Bert *Bert (name), commonly an abbreviated forename and sometimes a surname *Bert, a character in the poem "Bert the Wombat" by The Wiggles; from their 1992 album Here Comes a Son ...

. James died on 4 July 1962 in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield, and was survived by his wife, daughter and three of his five sons.

Personal life

James married Gladys Mary Davies in 1912, with whom he had a daughter and five sons. He died on 4 July 1962 in

Ashfield, New South Wales Ashfield is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Ashfield is about 8 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district. Ashfield's population is highly multicultural. Its urban densi ...

, aged 77. Two of his sons predeceased him. James's son, William Thomas James, was a fitter on the NSW Railways, and was shot and killed by Roy Hindle at the South Maitland railway workshop on 20 November 1941. Hindle was acquitted of the charge of murder.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Rowland Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Lang Labor members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Hunter 1885 births 1962 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians Australian people of Welsh descent People from Newcastle, New South Wales Australian coal miners Australian trade unionists