50 Facts About Bill Denny

William Joseph Denny was an Australian journalist, lawyer, politician and decorated soldier who held the South Australian House of Assembly seats of West Adelaide from 1900 to 1902 and then Adelaide from 1902 to 1905 and again from 1906 to 1933.

Bill Denny was re-elected in 1902, but defeated in 1905.

Bill Denny served as Attorney-General of South Australia and Minister for the Northern Territory in the government led by John Verran, during which he drafted and led several important legislative reforms, including housing reforms assisting workers to purchase homes, and a law enabling women to practise law in South Australia for the first time.

Bill Denny was awarded the Military Cross in September 1917 after he was wounded while leading a convoy into forward areas near Ypres, and ended the war as a captain.

Bill Denny was again Attorney-General in the Labor governments led by John Gunn, Lionel Hill and Robert Richards, and held other portfolios in those governments, including housing, irrigation and repatriation.

Bill Denny continued his reform of the housing sector, being a key proponent of the Thousand Homes Scheme which aimed to provide affordable housing, particularly for returned soldiers and their families, and members of lower income groups.

Bill Denny published two memoirs of his military service, and when he died in 1946 aged 73, he was accorded a state funeral.

William Joseph Bill Denny was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on 6 December 1872, one of three children of Thomas Joseph Bill Denny, a publican, and his wife Annie.

Bill Denny attended Christian Brothers College, Adelaide, then worked as a weather clerk at the General Post Office, Adelaide, under the Postmaster General, Sir Charles Todd.

Bill Denny replaced James O'Loghlin, who later became a United Labor Party senator for South Australia.

Bill Denny was a councillor of the Adelaide City Council from 1898, representing Grey Ward.

Bill Denny unsuccessfully contested the two-member seat of West Adelaide in the 1899 South Australian colonial election as a ULP candidate, gaining 27.7 per cent of the vote.

Bill Denny ran as an "independent liberal" candidate, gaining 66.8 per cent of the vote.

Bill Denny contested the new four-member electoral district of Adelaide, and was elected second in the count with 14.3 per cent of the votes cast.

Bill Denny was defeated at the 1905 state election, gaining only 9.9 per cent of the votes.

Bill Denny was again returned first at the 1910 state election, after which the ULP led by John Verran formed the first Labor government of South Australia on 3 June.

Bill Denny was appointed Attorney-General of South Australia and Minister controlling the Northern Territory on 3 June 1910.

Bill Denny sponsored the Female Law Practitioners Act 1911, which enabled women to practise law in South Australia for the first time.

Tall, with "long, spindly legs", Bill Denny was a favourite of cartoonists.

Verran called an election in February 1912, and the ULP were defeated by the Liberal Union, although Bill Denny was again returned first in the seat of Adelaide with 15.8 per cent of votes cast.

Bill Denny became a member of the University of Adelaide Council in April 1912, as a representative of the Parliament.

Bill Denny was returned unopposed at the March 1915 state election.

Bill Denny enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 17 August 1915 at the age of 43, initially as a trooper.

Bill Denny was later commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 9th Light Horse Regiment.

In January 1917, despite his previous stance on conscription, Bill Denny refused requests to endorse it, instead stating that he did not think that intervention would be compatible with his duties as a soldier.

Bill Denny considered that the majority of soldiers voted against it, and deplored the split in the Labor Party that conscription had created.

Bill Denny then reorganised his command and succeeded in reaching his destination.

Bill Denny was invested with the Military Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace in November 1917.

Bill Denny resigned his commission in the AIF in 1919 and published a memoir titled The Diggers, the foreword of which was written by General Sir William Birdwood, who had commanded the AIF from 1915 until the end of the war.

Still serving overseas at the time of the 1918 state election, Bill Denny was returned first of three in Adelaide with 30.2 per cent of the ballots cast.

Bill Denny was repatriated to Australia via the United States on 2 August 1919, returning to his seat.

Bill Denny married Winefride Mary Leahy, a pianist and singer, on 15 January 1920 at St Ignatius Church, Norwood.

Bill Denny was elected second of two in 1921 and second of three in 1924 with similar proportions of the vote to that he achieved in 1918.

Bill Denny was appointed Attorney-General in the newly elected Labor government of John Gunn in April 1924, and was Minister for Housing, and initially, Assistant Minister for Repatriation.

In 1924, as Minister for Housing, Bill Denny was closely associated with the Thousand Homes Scheme, which aimed to provide affordable housing, particularly for returned soldiers and their families, and lower income groups.

The land used for this development was the site of the Mitcham military camp at which Bill Denny had trained before embarking for service overseas.

On 27 May 1925, Bill Denny arranged the appointment of Judge Herbert Kingsley Paine of the Insolvency Court to be appointed as Electoral Officer for the state, replacing Charles Mathews, a state public servant who had held the position since 1907.

Bill Denny had previously worked for Paine as a legal associate.

Bill Denny performed this role for the Soldiers' Memorial Hall at Lameroo in 1926, where his "address was punctuated with applause".

In 1931, Bill Denny was expelled from the Labor Party, along with Hill and the rest of the cabinet, for supporting the "Premiers' Plan", which sought to impose austerity measures due to the poor economic conditions.

At the 1933 election, Bill Denny lost his seat to a Lang Labor Party candidate.

Bill Denny's brother suffered from an illness that resulted from the accident which contributed to his death in June 1941.

Bill Denny wrote a further autobiographical book, A Digger at Home and Abroad, which was published in 1941.

Bill Denny continued to practice law until his death, despite difficulties associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

Bill Denny died on 2 May 1946 of a heart attack which developed at his home on Osmond Terrace, Norwood, after he returned from his office in Adelaide.

Bill Denny was survived by his wife, one son and three daughters.

Bill Denny was accorded a state funeral, and was buried at West Terrace Cemetery.

Bill Denny was "keenly interested" in sporting matters, a steward of the Adelaide Racing Club, and was an ex-captain of the Mercantile Rowing Club.

Bill Denny was the patron of the West Adelaide Football Club for twenty years ending in 1930.

Bill Denny enjoyed diving for crayfish under the rocks at the back of Rosetta Head near Victor Harbor on Encounter Bay, and was often accompanied by Ephriam "Brownie" Tripp, an Aboriginal man from the Point McLeay Aboriginal Mission.