Sydney Sampson (1863 – 24 March 1948) was an Australian businessman and politician who served as 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 1906 to 1919, representing the

Division of Wimmera The Division of Wimmera was an Australian electoral division in the state of Victoria. It was named after the Wimmera region in which it was located. It originally encompassed the towns of Mildura, Swan Hill Swan Hill is a city in the ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. Outside of politics, he was a newspaper proprietor.

Early life

Sampson was born in Creswick, Victoria, the fourth of seven children born to Mary Jane (née Organ) and John Sampson. His parents were both immigrants from

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, lured by the

Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capit ...

. His mother died when he was about eight years old, and his father remarried to a widow with four children of her own; two children from that marriage brought his total number of siblings to twelve. Sampson's father worked initially as a gold miner and later as a wood carter. He was president of the Creswick Miners' Association, which he had helped found with

William Spence William Guthrie Spence (7 August 1846 – 13 December 1926), was an Australian trade union leader and politician, played a leading role in the formation of both Australia's largest union, the Australian Workers' Union, and the Australian Labor ...

, and later treasurer of the local branch of the Amalgamated Miners' Association. He was forced out of the industry by mine owners in response to his leadership of a strike. Sampson moved to

Warracknabeal Warracknabeal ( ) is a wheatbelt town in the Australian state of Victoria. Situated on the banks of the Yarriambiack Creek, 330 km north-west of Melbourne, it is the business and services centre of the northern Wimmera and southern Mallee d ...

, and farmed in the Mallee for several years. In 1891, he married Matilda Brewer in St Arnaud; they had two daughters together. At the time of his first daughter's birth, which occurred in

Birchip Birchip is a town in the Mallee region of Victoria, Australia on the Sunraysia Highway north of Donald. The town is located in the Shire of Buloke local government area. At the , Birchip had a population of 694, down from the 2016 figure o ...

the following year, he listed his profession as "rabbit inspector". By 1893, Sampson was living in the small township of Jeparit, where he had bought the general store. He started a local newspaper, the ''Jeparit Leader'', and soon sold the store to his brother-in-law James Menzies in order to concentrate on the paper. He eventually sold the ''Leader'' in 1899 and purchased the ''

Warracknabeal Herald The Warracknabeal Herald is a newspaper published in Warracknabeal, Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia ...

'', which had a larger market.

Politics

At the 1906 federal election, Sampson was elected to the House of Representatives in the

, winning 51.6 percent of the vote against four other candidates. He won the endorsement of the local Protectionist Associations, but refused to guarantee support for the Deakin government and sat in parliament as an "independent Protectionist and anti-Socialist". Sampson eventually joined the new

Commonwealth Liberal Party The Liberal Party was a parliamentary party in Australian federal politics between 1909 and 1917. The party was founded under Alfred Deakin's leadership as a merger of the Protectionist Party and Anti-Socialist Party, an event known as the Fus ...

in 1909 and then the Nationalist Party in 1917. He was re-elected unopposed in 1914 and

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Fo ...

, but in 1919 lost his seat to

Percy Stewart Percy Gerald Stewart (18 October 1885 – 15 October 1931) was an Australian politician. He was an original member of the Victorian Farmers' Union and long a radical campaigner for farming interests. He helped bring down Stanley Bruce's gov ...

of the

Victorian Farmers' Union The Victorian Farmers' Union (VFU) was an association of farmers and primary producers formed in 1914 in the Australian state of Victoria. Although initially formed as an "absolutely non-political" entity, the VFU became a political party in 1916 ...

. Sampson was a member of the Committee on Public Works from 1914 to 1919, and served on three royal commissions. He was a supporter of

compulsory voting Compulsory voting, also called mandatory voting, is the requirement in some countries that eligible citizens register and vote in elections. Penalties might be imposed on those who fail to do so without a valid reason. According to the CIA World ...

, and proposed an amendment to that effect during the debate over what became the

Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 The ''Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918'' is an Act of the Australian Parliament which continues to be the core legislation governing the conduct of elections in Australia, having been amended on numerous occasions since 1918. The Act was introd ...

. His amendment was defeated comfortably, but a similar amendment was passed in 1924 and is still in force.

Later years

After losing his seat in parliament, Sampson returned to the newspaper trade, and was involved with various papers in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. He was a director of the Country Press Co-operative of Victoria, and also served on the boards of a pottery firm and a fire insurance company.Sampson, Sydney (1863–1948)
Obituaries Australia. Retrieved 15 April 2018. He was a mentor to his nephew Robert Menzies, who followed him into politics and would become the longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia.Martin (1993), pp. 49–50. Sampson died at his home in Camberwell on 24 March 1948. He was buried at the

Springvale Botanical Cemetery The Springvale Botanical Cemetery is the largest crematorium and memorial park in Victoria, Australia. It is located in Springvale, in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. History Originally known as The Necropolis Springvale, the cemetery co ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sampson, Sydney Independent members of the Parliament of Australia Commonwealth Liberal Party members of the Parliament of Australia Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Wimmera Members of the Australian House of Representatives Australian people of Cornish descent 1863 births 1948 deaths People from Creswick, Victoria 20th-century Australian politicians Colony of Victoria people