Thomas Francis Mead (4 May 1918 – 22 January 2004) was an Australian politician, elected as 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 ...

representing the seat of

Hurstville Hurstville is a suburb in Southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south of the Sydney CBD and is part of the St George area. Hurstville is the administrative centre of the local government area of the Georges Riv ...

for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. He was also a political journalist.

Early years

Mead was born in Randwick,

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 ...

, the son of a horse trainer Robert George Mead and Lilian Margaret Ryan.

Political career

Mead gained the seat of

in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly after the 1965 election winning it from the Labor Party representative, Bill Rigby. Mead retained the seat for four terms until the 1976 election at which time Kevin Ryan led the return to Labor.

Journalism

Mead worked extensively as a journalist culminating with a position in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery for ten years. He worked as a special writer and music critic for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' from 1952 until 1955 and became chief of staff from 1955 until 1961. Mead then moved into management role, working as managing editor of Suburban Publication Pty Limited from 1961 until 1965. From management he moved into owning and directing smaller Sydney newspapers, holding an interest in the ''St George Daily Leader'' and becoming director in 1968, and chairman of the ''

Manly Daily The ''Manly Daily'' is an Australian community newspaper, covering the Northern Beaches region of Sydney. The paper is one of News Corp Australia's community newspapers in New South Wales. It was delivered free to homes and businesses on Wednesd ...

'' in 1974. He wrote ''Killers of Eden'' (published 1961), the story of the killer whales which, for several generations, worked with humans, catching whales at Twofold Bay, NSW. He also wrote ''Manly ferries of Sydney Harbour : the seven mile ships'' (published 1994). Mead died in the

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 ...

suburb of

Manly, New South Wales Manly is a beach-side suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is north-east of the Sydney central business district and is currently one of the three administrative centres of the Local government in Australia ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mead, Thomas Francis Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales 1918 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians