Rupert Noel Beale (24 December 1889 – 28 September 1942) was an Australian politician and an Independent 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 16 months from May 1941 until his death.

Early life

Beale was born in Summer Hill, New South Wales, and was the son of a builder. He was educated to secondary level and was a qualified carpenter. Between 1910 and 1915, Beale was involved in a large number of enterprises including being an auctioneer, real estate agent and business broker. He was a dairy farmer in

Aberdeen, New South Wales Aberdeen is a small town in the upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, in Upper Hunter Shire. It is 12 kilometres north of Muswellbrook on the New England Highway. History In 1828 Thomas Potter McQueen was granted 10,000 acres, and ...

, from 1916 until he was bankrupted in 1922. He was not discharged from his bankruptcy until 1940. In the 1920s and 1930s he was a hotel manager in Newcastle, Sydney and the South Coast of New South Wales. He also had a real estate agency in 1934. He lived permanently on the South Coast after 1935. Interested in local government, Beale was elected as an alderman at various times for Aberdeen Municipal Council, now part of

Upper Hunter Shire The Upper Hunter Shire is a local government area in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire was formed in May 2004 from the Scone Shire and parts of Murrurundi and Merriwa shires. The Mayor of the Upper Hunter Sh ...

, and the

Municipality of Kiama The Municipality of Kiama is a local government area in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is situated south of Shellharbour and the City of Wollongong and is located adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, the Princes Highway a ...

State Parliament

Beale had been unsuccessful as an Independent candidate against the

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: ** I ...

, Daniel Levy, for the

Woollahra Woollahra is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woollahra is located 5 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woolla ...

seat at the 1935 state election. He eventually entered parliament as the Independent member for

South Coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area. Geographical Australia *South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney * South Coast (Q ...

after he won the seat at the

1941 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Eu ...

state election. This was a surprise result, as South Coast was considered a safe conservative seat. Beale defeated the incumbent

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 ...

(UAP) member Henry Bate, who had been the member since 1927, by 39 votes (0.15%). Bate had been a supporter of Bertram Stevens during the UAP's leadership struggles and consequently received little support from the party after Stevens was deposed and replaced by

Alexander Mair Alexander Mair (25 August 18893 August 1969) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 5 August 1939 to 16 May 1941. Born in Melbourne, Mair worked in various businesses there before moving to Albury, New Sout ...

. Beale was a very active member in parliament, particularly supporting South Coast dairy farmers and the ship building industry. He also called for inquiries into police corruption related to illegal gambling and into wastage in the wheat industry. In September 1942, Beale died suddenly of a heart attack at age 53 after being in parliament for only 16 months. The Premier,

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 ...

, said that Beale's method of attacking political problems was unorthodox but that no one ever doubted his sincerity and he was untiring in his efforts for his constituents. Beale did not hold parliamentary or ministerial office. His son,

Jack Beale Jack Gordon Beale AO (17 July 1917 – 7 June 2006) was an Australian politician who championed the need for Australia to conserve and develop its water resources. He was also Australia's first environment minister. In his obituary in The Sydn ...

, was elected to replace him in the South Coast seat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beale, Rupert 1889 births 1942 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 20th-century Australian politicians