57 Facts About Eddie Ward

Edward John Ward was an Australian politician who represented the Australian Labor Party in federal parliament for over 30 years.

Eddie Ward was the member for East Sydney for all but six and a half weeks from 1931 until his death in 1963.

Eddie Ward served as a minister in the Curtin and Chifley governments from 1941 to 1949, and was known for his role in the ALP split of 1931.

Eddie Ward was born in Sydney and left school at the age of 14; he became involved in the labour movement at a young age.

Eddie Ward was elected to the Sydney Municipal Council in 1930, and the following year won Labor preselection for the 1931 East Sydney by-election.

Eddie Ward was elected to the House of Representatives, but Prime Minister James Scullin refused him admission to the ALP caucus due to his support for Jack Lang.

Eddie Ward lost his seat at the 1931 federal election.

In 1941, Eddie Ward was elected to cabinet by the ALP caucus and appointed Minister for Labour and National Service by Prime Minister John Curtin.

Eddie Ward had an uneasy relationship with Curtin, and his claims about the "Brisbane Line" led to a royal commission which found they were unsubstantiated.

Eddie Ward received an effective demotion after the 1943 election, becoming Minister for Transport and External Territories.

Eddie Ward held those offices until Labor lost power in 1949.

Eddie Ward died in office in 1963, having been the longest-serving MP since 1961.

Eddie Ward was born on 21 March 1899 in Darlington, Sydney, New South Wales.

Eddie Ward was the fourth child and oldest son born to Mary Ann and Edward James Ward; his father worked for the Sydney tramways.

Eddie Ward's parents were Australian-born, while all of his grandparents were Irish Catholics except for his paternal grandfather who was an English-born Protestant.

Eddie Ward began his education at the St Francis de Sales convent school in Surry Hills, later attending the Cleveland Street Public School and the Crown Street Public School.

Eddie Ward was largely self-educated and was an avid reader.

Eddie Ward left school at the age of 14 and worked variously as a fruit-picker, printer's devil, tarpaulin-maker, and as a clerk at a hardware store.

Eddie Ward eventually found work at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops, but was sacked for his involvement in the 1917 general strike.

Eddie Ward refused to participate in some of his required duties and was detained at a military disciplinary camp at Middle Head for a week.

In September 1917, Eddie Ward began working for Resch's Limited in Redfern labelling beer bottles.

Eddie Ward left the brewery in December 1920 and moved to Lithgow to work as a clerk at Hoskins Iron and Steel.

Eddie Ward's duties included those of weighman, dispatch clerk and ledger-keeper.

Eddie Ward was made redundant after eight months and returned to Sydney where he was unemployed for several months.

Eddie Ward successfully applied for reinstatement to New South Wales Government Railways in 1924, seven years after his termination.

Eddie Ward was immediately assigned to the Sydney Tramways as a labourer in the overhead lines section of the Leichhardt Tram Depot.

Eddie Ward was active in the Tramways Union and was involved with a rank-and-file movement to remove certain officeholders, which resulted in an investigation by the union's national executive and eventually court proceedings.

Eddie Ward emerged as "a dominant force in the union" which brought him to the attention of prominent Labor figures such as Jack Lang, Jack Beasley, and Jock Garden.

Eddie Ward was friends with Bill McKell from a young age.

Eddie Ward remained loyal to the ALP during the 1916 party split over conscription and organised opposition to ALP prime minister Billy Hughes within his branch.

Eddie Ward subsequently served as campaign director for Beasley at the 1928 federal election.

In 1930, Eddie Ward was elected to the Sydney City Council as the alderman for Flinders Eddie Ward.

Eddie Ward served on the council's committees for works, electricity, and health.

Eddie Ward was elected alongside Jock Garden and the two "became a powerful force in City Council affairs".

Eddie Ward helped establish a co-operative bakery in Surry Hills to provide cheaper bread for the unemployed.

Eddie Ward was first elected to the House of Representatives at the 1931 East Sydney by-election in the midst of the Great Depression and the rise to prominence of NSW's Labor Premier Jack Lang, whose policies for dealing with the depression were considered radically left wing.

Eddie Ward was a Lang supporter and gained notoriety soon after his election when Prime Minister and ALP leader James Scullin refused to allow Eddie Ward into the ALP caucus.

Eddie Ward lost his seat later that year to the United Australia Party at the federal election.

At the ensuing February 1932 by-election, Eddie Ward reclaimed the seat, again as a Lang Labor candidate.

Eddie Ward remained in Lang Labor until 1936, when he returned to the ALP.

In 1941, Eddie Ward entered the ministry of new Prime Minister John Curtin.

In early 1945, Eddie Ward was secretly offered the post of Australian minister to the Soviet Union by Norman Makin, acting on Curtin's behalf as an apparent attempt to secure Eddie Ward's removal from the ministry.

Eddie Ward declined to accept the position and in later years recounted that "Curtin tried to send me to Siberia, but I wouldn't go".

Eddie Ward would continue to harbour leadership aspirations throughout the rest of his career.

Eddie Ward vigorously opposed the Bretton Woods system and Australia joining the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction, because he believed international financiers were responsible for the Depression in Australia during the 1930s.

Eddie Ward was famous for sardonically "welcoming" Menzies back to Australia after his many three-month absences in England at the beginning of each parliamentary year.

Eddie Ward was the subject of a parliamentary outburst by Menzies during a discussion of the Communist Party Dissolution Bill.

Eddie Ward often criticised Menzies and in 1944, had called him "a posturing individual with the scowl of a Mussolini, the bombast of a Hitler and the physical proportions of a Goring".

Eddie Ward refused an invitation to a function celebrating Labor-turned-Nationalist Prime Minister Billy Hughes' 50 years in parliament, saying "I don't eat cheese", a reference to Hughes' nickname of "Billy the Rat".

In 1961, upon the defeat of Earle Page, Eddie Ward became the Father of the Australian House of Representatives.

However, with the end of his leadership aspirations and the onset of advanced atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus and heart disease, Eddie Ward was losing political importance although he was still seen as an elder statesman of the Labor Party.

Calwell would later write in his autobiography that he believed that the party could have won the 1961 election if Eddie Ward had been his deputy instead of Whitlam.

Eddie Ward was still serving as Member for East Sydney when he died of a heart attack at St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst.

Eddie Ward was given a state funeral and buried with Catholic rites in Randwick Cemetery.

The journalist Arthur Hoyle believed that many of Eddie Ward's generation believed that he was "most authentic voice that the working class in Australia has had".

In 1924, Eddie Ward married Edith Bishop, after several years of courtship.

Eddie Ward was a devout Catholic who "regularly read the Bible".