William Aikenhead (7 May 1842 – 3 April 1902) was an Australian politician, who was a member of the

Tasmanian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart. The Assembly has 25 m ...

from 1898 until his death in office in 1902. Aikenhead was born in Launceston. His father,

James Aikenhead James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

, was the founder, editor and proprietor of '' The Examiner'' newspaper, and later became a politician on the

Tasmanian Legislative Council The Tasmanian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. It is one of the two chambers of the Parliament, the other being the House of Assembly. Both houses sit in Parliament House in the state capital, H ...

. In 1869, James Aikenhead transferred his editorship of ''The Examiner'' to his son, where he worked for ten years. On 21 June 1898, Aikenhead stood as a candidate in a by-election for the

electoral district of Devonport The electoral district of Devonport was a single-member electoral district of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. It was based at the town of Devonport on Tasmania's north coast. The seat was created in a redistribution ahead of the 1897 election o ...

. He was elected, however one of the other candidates, John McCall, petitioned the

Supreme Court of Tasmania The Supreme Court of Tasmania is the highest State court in the Australian State of Tasmania. In the Australian court hierarchy, the Supreme Court of Tasmania is in the middle level, with both an appellate jurisdiction over lower courts, and de ...

that Aikenhead had engaged in bribery and "treating by agent"—Aikenhead's representative, Archibald Phillips, had promised electors a "go in" if he was elected, and the night after the election plied local hotels with free beer paid for by Aikenhead. The court found against Aikenhead, and declared his election void, although they did not declare McCall elected, and instead called another by-election. Aikenhead was disqualified from running for Devonport for two years, however when the member for Latrobe,

Henry Murray Henry Alexander Murray (May 13, 1893 – June 23, 1988) was an American psychologist at Harvard University, where from 1959 to 1962 he conducted a series of psychologically damaging and purposefully abusive experiments on minors and underg ...

, resigned to contest the Devonport by-election, Aikenhead nominated for the Latrobe vacancy and was elected. Aikenhead was re-elected in the March 1900 general election, and continued to serve until his death in office on 3 April 1902. He was succeeded by Murray, whom he had defeated in 1900, and who returned to his old seat when elected unopposed in the by-election triggered by Aikenhead's death.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aikenhead, William 1842 births 1902 deaths Members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly Australian newspaper editors 19th-century Australian politicians