William John Williams (1856–1947) was an English-born Australian politician. He was born in

Gwennap Gwennap ( kw, Lannwenep (village), Pluw Wenep (parish)) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is about five miles (8 km) southeast of Redruth. Hamlets of Burncoose, Comford, Coombe, Gwennap, Coomb ...

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 ...

and was brought up in Wales where he was a house painter. He arrived in

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 ...

around 1890 and settled in

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

, where he worked on mining machinery, before conducting an auctioneering and agency business. He was an prominent member of the labor movement, holding various offices including president, vice-president and auditor of the

Amalgamated Miners' Association Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan ama ...

, and president and secretary of the

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...

branch of the Political Labour League. He was an alderman in the Broken Hill council from 1899 until 1900. There was a bitter contest to be the Labour candidate for the district of Alma in 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 ...

at the 1901 election.

Jabez Wright Jabez Wright (25 April 1852 – 10 September 1922) was an English-born Australian politician. Wright was born at Greenwich in England, the son of Jabez Gladstone Wright. He worked in North and South America before moving to South Australia, ...

, the Mayor of Broken Hill, had a history of using unscrupulous means and was frequently in conflict with Williams, who had alleged that Wright had breached the rules of the Political Labour League and was prevented from being its candidate. Wright was selected as the candidate and Williams, despite signing a pledge not to oppose the selected candidate, stood as an candidate. Williams went on to win

the election ''The Election'' () is a political drama series produced by Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV). With a budget of HK$15 million, filming started in July 2014 and wrapped up on 28 October 2014. Popularly voted to be the inaugural drama of ...

by 91 votes. Alma was abolished in the 1904 re-distribution of electorates following the

1903 New South Wales referendum A referendum concerning the reduction of the members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly was put to voters on 16 December 1903, in conjunction with the 1903 federal election. The referendum was conducted on the basis of optional preferen ...

, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90 and was split between

and Sturt. Williams chose to contest Sturt but was easily defeated by the Labour candidate

Arthur Griffith Arthur Joseph Griffith ( ga, Art Seosamh Ó Gríobhtha; 31 March 1871 – 12 August 1922) was an Irish writer, newspaper editor and politician who founded the political party Sinn Féin. He led the Irish delegation at the negotiations that prod ...

. He did not stand as a candidate at any further elections for the Legislative Assembly. He died in Broken Hill in 1947.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, William 1856 births 1947 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly British emigrants to the Colony of New South Wales