Thomas John Hughes (9 September 1892 – 6 November 1980), sometimes known as Diver Hughes, was an Australian politician, and a member of the

Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House, Perth, Parliament House in the Western Australian capi ...

representing the seat of

East Perth East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

for two periods; from 1922 until 1927, and again from 1936 until 1943.

Biography

Hughes was born in

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at ...

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 ...

, to Felix Hughes, a labourer, and his wife Maria (née Boudan). In 1896, the family moved to

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, and he was educated at state schools. He obtained work in the Postmaster General's Office as a telegraph boy, before entering the commonwealth public service as an audit inspector. In his spare time, he rowed for Western Australia in 1914 and 1920. He was also a talented

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er, playing for two

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September ...

(WAFL) clubs (, two matches, and , 46 games). During this time he joined the Labor Party, and was both president of the Metropolitan Council and a member of the state executive. He was selected to run for the party at a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

on 18 November 1922 in

, following the resignation of J. J. Simons, and won the seat. Shortly after his election on 20 December 1922, he married Lucy Olive Stone in Inglewood. In 1926, he resigned from the Labor Party and sat from then as an Independent Labor member; however he failed to retain the seat at the 1927 election, losing to railwayman and unionist James Kenneally. After this, he practiced as an accountant and as secretary of the Mental Nurses' Union. He also gained his

bachelor of laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

in 1932 and was admitted to the bar in 1936. Having unsuccessfully contested elections for his old seat in 1930, and for West Province in the legislative council in 1934, he was successful in unseating Kenneally, by this stage a minister in the Collier government. However, it emerged that he had been an undischarged bankrupt at the time of the poll, and was hence ineligible to run, and Kenneally successfully petitioned for the poll to be declared void. A

was called for 9 May 1936, and Hughes, who had resolved his status in the interim, won again against Kenneally. He sat as a member until 1943, before resigning to contest

Division of Perth The Division of Perth is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. It is named after Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, where the Division is located. History The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was ...

in the 1943 federal election. He was unsuccessful in this, and at the 1945 Fremantle by-election. He died aged 88 at the Home of Peace in Subiaco, and was buried in the Uniting Church section of

Karrakatta Cemetery Karrakatta Cemetery is a metropolitan cemetery in the suburb of Karrakatta in Perth, Western Australia. Karrakatta Cemetery first opened for burials in 1899, the first being that of wheelwright Robert Creighton. Managed by the Metropolitan Ce ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Thomas 1892 births 1980 deaths Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Politicians from Melbourne Burials at Karrakatta Cemetery Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia Australian rules footballers from Western Australia East Fremantle Football Club players East Perth Football Club players 20th-century Australian politicians