Wilfrid Mylchreest Simmonds, (19 December 1889 – 2 January 1967) was an Australian butcher, auctioneer, sugar farmer and politician, briefly a Senator for Queensland. Born in

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

, Queensland, he was educated at Mulgrave before becoming a sugar cane grower. After serving in the military 1917–1919, he sat on Mulgrave Shire Council. He was an unsuccessful Country Party candidate for the division of Kennedy at the

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *January ...

and 1943 elections. At the , the first to use a single transferable vote under a

proportional voting Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

system, he was fourth on the

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

senate ticket and was elected to a short term seat. His term began on 22 February 1950 and was not due to end until 30 June 1952, however a

double dissolution A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissolution ...

was called and his term ended on 19 March 1951. The coalition was defending 7 seats, having won all three seats at the , but felt that its prospects of winning 6 of the ten seats at the were best if it was only running 6 candidates. As the most junior senator he was dropped from the coalition senate ticket. Simmonds was appointed a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1961. He died in Babinda in 1967, aged 77.

References

1889 births 1967 deaths National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Queensland Members of the Australian Senate Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-National-politician-stub