William Ronald Cumming (25 January 1886 – 30 October 1951) was an Australian politician. He was born at Mount Fyans near

Mortlake Mortlake is a suburban district of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes. Historically it was part of Surrey and until 1965 was in the Municipal Borough of Barnes. For many centu ...

to grazier William Burrow Cumming and Adeline Catherine Affleck. He attended

Geelong Grammar School , motto_translation = 1 Corinthians 1:30: "For us, Christ was made wisdom"(1 Corinthians 1:30: Christ, who has been made for us in wisdom) , city = Corio, Victoria , country = Australia , coordinates = , ty ...

and served with the 39th Battalion during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

; he was awarded the Belgian

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

. In 1914 he married Ava Irene Maidment Henty, with whom he had a son and three daughters; he would later marry Nora Lillian Crowe on 9 March 1944. On his return from the war he managed his father's property at Mount Fyans, which was sold in 1933. Cumming purchased land at Camperdown. He served on Mortlake Shire Council from 1924 to 1947, as president from 1932 to 1933. In 1935 he was elected to the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

as the

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...

member for Hampden. A supporter of

Ian Macfarlan Ian Macfarlan (born John Robert Macfarlan; 21 November 1881 – 19 March 1964) was the Deputy Leader of the Australian Liberal Party in the Australian state of Victoria during 1945. He was briefly commissioned as the 35th Premier of Victor ...

, he was Minister of Agriculture in the stop-gap Macfarlan Ministry of 1945, but was defeated at the subsequent election. In 1949 he moved to

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, where he died in 1951.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cumming, William 1886 births 1951 deaths United Australia Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Vice-Presidents of the Board of Land and Works 20th-century Australian politicians People educated at Geelong Grammar School Ministers for Agriculture (Victoria)