David Charles McGrath (10 November 1872 – 31 July 1934) was an Australian politician. Originally a member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

, he joined

Joseph Lyons Joseph Aloysius Lyons (15 September 1879 – 7 April 1939) was an Australian politician who served as the 10th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1932 until his death in 1939. He began his career in the Australian Labor Party (ALP), ...

in the 1931 Labor split that led to the formation of 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 ...

Early life

McGrath was born at

Newtown, Victoria Newtown is an inner western suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. At the , Newtown had a population of 10,155. It is a primarily residential area occupying one of the highest points of urban Geelong, has always been a desirable place of resi ...

to David McGrath, an Irish-born miner, and Evelyn, née Horsefield, an Englishwoman. He attended Newtown State and Creswick Grammar schools before working at the family store at Allendale. He was a member of the South Ballarat football team during the 1890s. He married Elizabeth Johnstone Gullan in Ballarat on 24 May 1898; the couple moved to Pitfield Plains in 1900 to expand the family business.

State politics

In 1904, McGrath 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 presidin ...

for

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

, representing the seat of Grenville. He became known as a spokesman for the mining industry, and earned the nickname "Bull" for his promotion of Labor in country areas; with Frank Anstey, he travelled extensively in the

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It cove ...

area in November 1904.

Federal politics

In May 1913, McGrath transferred to the federal

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

, representing the seat of Ballaarat. A vocal advocate for improved conditions for soldiers, McGrath enlisted in the armed forces in March 1916, travelling overseas as part of the Australian Imperial Force. He was promoted to warrant officer in December 1916 and was discharged as medically unfit in 1918. McGrath lost the 1919 election by a single vote to

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

challenger Edwin Kerby. However, McGrath alleged irregularities in the count. As a result, the election was declared void and 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 ...

was held in July 1920, in which McGrath was elected. He continued to support soldiers' issues, notably

repatriation Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

benefits, and criticised the method of bestowing Imperial honours. Following the election of the

Scullin Government Scullin may refer to: In places: * Scullin, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Division of Scullin, an electorate in the Australian House of Representatives People with the surname Scullin: * James Scullin (1876–1953), Prime Mi ...

at the 1929 federal election, McGrath was elected chairman of committees. In the wake of the Great Depression he became drawn to Sir Otto Niemeyer's solution to the nation's financial situation. As a result, in 1931 he was one of the Labor members who joined

in leaving the Labor Party and merging with the Nationalists to form the

(UAP). He was thus reunited with a number of former Labor members who favoured conscription in

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 had opposed it at the time. McGrath remained chairman of committees until parliament was dissolved prior to the 1931 election. He was re-elected as a UAP member and continued in parliament until his death from ill health in 1934. He was buried in Ballarat, and was survived by his wife, two daughters and two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGrath, Charles 1872 births 1934 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia United Australia Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Ballarat Members of the Australian House of Representatives South Ballarat Football Club players Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 20th-century Australian politicians Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Australian military personnel of World War I