73 Facts About George Reid

Sir George Houston Reid was an Australian politician, diplomat and barrister who served as the fourth prime minister of Australia, from 1904 to 1905, holding office as the leader of the Free Trade Party.

George Reid previously served as the 12th Premier of New South Wales from 1894 to 1899, and later the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom of Australia from 1910 to 1916.

George Reid later joined the New South Wales civil service, and rose through the ranks to become secretary of the Attorney-General's Department.

George Reid was something of a public intellectual, publishing several works in defence of liberalism and free trade.

George Reid began studying law in 1876 and was admitted to the bar in 1879.

From 1883 to 1884, George Reid was Minister of Public Instruction in the government of Alexander Stuart.

George Reid joined the Free Trade Party of Henry Parkes in 1887, but refused to serve in Parkes' governments due to personal enmity.

When Parkes resigned as party leader in 1891, George Reid was elected in his place.

George Reid became premier after the 1894 election and remained in office for just over five years.

George Reid was an advocate of federation and played a part in drafting the Constitution of Australia, where he became known as a strong defender of his colony's interests.

George Reid retained the leadership of the Free Trade and Liberal Association after federation, and consequently became Australia's first Leader of the Opposition.

George Reid included four Protectionists in his cabinet, but was unable to achieve much before his government was brought down in July 1905.

At the 1906 election, George Reid secured the most votes in the Australian House of Representatives and the equal-most seats, but was well short of a majority and could not form government.

George Reid resigned as party leader in 1908, after opposing the formation of the Commonwealth Liberal Party.

George Reid accepted an appointment as Australia's first High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in 1910, and remained in the position until 1916.

George Reid subsequently won election to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, serving until his sudden death two years later.

George Reid was born on 25 February 1845 in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland.

George Reid was the fifth of seven children born to Marion and John Reid; he had four older brothers and two younger sisters.

George Reid was named after George Houstoun, a former Conservative MP for the Renfrewshire constituency who had died a few years earlier.

George Reid's father, the son of a farmer, was born in Tarbolton, Ayrshire.

At the time of George Reid's birth he was a minister in the Church of Scotland, which he had joined in 1839 after previously ministering in various secessionist Presbyterian churches; he remained loyal to the established church in the Disruption of 1843.

George Reid arrived in Melbourne in May 1852, and his father subsequently led congregations in Essendon and North Melbourne.

George Reid received his only formal schooling at the Melbourne Academy, now known as Scotch College.

George Reid received a classical education, and in later life recalled that he had "no appetite for that wide range of metaphysical propositions which juveniles were expected to comprehend"; he found Greek a "lazy horror".

George Reid left school aged about 13, when the family settled in Sydney, and began working as a junior clerk in a merchant's counting house.

In later life, George Reid praised his parents for his good upbringing.

George Reid became head of the Attorney-General's Department in 1878.

George Reid made a name for himself by publishing pamphlets on topical issues.

George Reid's career was aided by his quick wit and entertaining oratory; he was described as being "perhaps the best platform speaker in the Empire", both amusing and informing his audiences "who flocked to his election meetings as to popular entertainment".

Alfred Deakin detested George Reid, describing him as "inordinately vain and resolutely selfish" and their cold relationship would affect both their later careers.

George Reid was elected top of the poll to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as a member for the four-member electoral district of East Sydney in the 1880 New South Wales colonial election.

George Reid was not very active at first, as he was building up his legal practice, although he was concerned to reform the Robertson Land Acts, which had not prevented 96 land holders from controlling eight million acres between them.

George Reid served 14 months in this office and succeeded in passing a much improved Education Act, which included the establishment of the first government high schools in the leading towns, technical schools and the provision of evening lectures at the university.

In February 1884, George Reid lost his seat in parliament owing to a technicality; The Elections and Qualifications Committee held that the Governor had already issued five proclamations prior to the appointment of Francis Suttor to the office of Minister of Public Instruction thus both Suttor and his successor George Reid were incapable of being validly appointed.

At the resulting by-election George Reid was defeated by a small majority as a result of the government's financial hardships due to the loss of revenue from the suspension of land sales.

George Reid supported Sir Henry Parkes on the free trade side but, when Parkes came into power in 1887, declined a seat in his ministry.

George Reid did not like Parkes personally and felt he would be unable to work with him.

When payment of members of parliament was passed, George Reid, who had always opposed it, paid the amount of his salary into the treasury.

George Reid had become one of Sydney's leading barristers by impressing juries by his cross-examinations and was made a Queen's Counsel in 1898.

In May 1891 four free traders, George Reid, Jack Want, John Haynes and Jonathan Seaver, voted against the Fifth Parkes ministry in a motion of no confidence, which was only defeated by the casting vote of the Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.

George Reid was elected leader of the opposition in his place.

At the 1894 election George Reid made the establishment of a real free trade tariff with a system of direct taxation the main item of his policy, and had a great victory.

Edmund Barton and other well-known protectionists lost their seats, Labor was reduced from 30 to 18, and George Reid formed his first cabinet.

At an early stage of the session, Parkes pressed the question of federation, and in response George Reid invited the premiers of the other colonies to meet in conference on 29 January 1895.

Meanwhile, George Reid had great trouble in passing his land and income tax bills.

George Reid obtained a dissolution, was victorious at the polls, and heavily defeated Parkes for the new single-member electoral district of Sydney-King.

George Reid eventually succeeded in passing his acts, which were moderate, but was strenuously opposed by the council, and it was only the fear that the chamber might be swamped with new appointments that eventually wore down the opposition.

George Reid was successful in bringing in reforms in the keeping of public accounts and in the civil service generally.

On four occasions between December 1895 and May 1899 George Reid was temporarily appointed to the vacant position of Solicitor General for New South Wales to allow him to deputise for the Attorney General of New South Wales, Jack Want, in his absence.

George Reid took on the position of Attorney-General in addition to being Premier in the last months of his government.

George Reid supported the federation of the Australian colonies, but since the campaign was led by his Protectionist opponent Edmund Barton he did not take a leading role.

George Reid was dissatisfied by the draft constitution, especially the power of a Senate, elected on the basis of States rather than population, to reject money bills.

At the Sydney and Melbourne sessions of the Convention in 1897 and 1898, George Reid moved amendments based on those comments, covertly obtaining several concessions to British wishes.

George Reid denied a suggestion that he had been "talking with 'Joe'".

George Reid did copy Chamberlain's comments to a select few other delegates, but they never revealed this.

George Reid told his audience that he intended to deal with the bill "with the deliberate impartiality of a judge addressing a jury".

George Reid concluded by declaring "my duty to Australia demands me to record my vote in favour of the bill".

Subsequently, George Reid was able to secure greater concessions for New South Wales.

George Reid fought for federation at the second referendum and it was carried in New South Wales, with 56.5 percent of valid votes cast for 'Yes'.

George Reid was elected to the first federal Parliament as the Member for the Division of East Sydney at the 1901 Australian federal election.

Labor no longer trusted George Reid and gave their support to the Edmund Barton Protectionist Party government, so George Reid became the first Leader of the Opposition, a position well-suited to his robust debating style and rollicking sense of humour.

George Reid was the only person in Australian federal parliamentary history to win back his seat at a by-election triggered by his own resignation, until John Alexander in 2017.

George Reid was the first former state premier to become Prime Minister.

George Reid did not have a majority in either House, and he knew it would be only a matter of time before the Protectionists patched up their differences with Labor, so he enjoyed himself in office while he could.

George Reid envisaged a spectrum running from socialist to anti-socialist, with the Protectionist Party in the middle.

For George Reid, anti-socialism was a natural product of his long-standing belief in Gladstonian liberalism.

George Reid referred to Labor publicly using a damaging visual negative image of Labor as a hungry socialist tiger that would devour all.

When Deakin proposed the Commonwealth Liberal Party, a "Fusion" of the two non-Labor parties, George Reid resigned as party leader on 16 November 1908.

On 24 December 1909 George Reid resigned from Parliament, however his seat was left vacant until the 1910 election.

In 1910, George Reid was appointed as Australia's first High Commissioner in London.

George Reid died suddenly in London on 12 September 1918, aged 73, of cerebral thrombosis, survived by his wife and their two sons and daughter.

George Reid's wife had become Dame Flora Reid GBE in 1917.

In 1897 George Reid was made an Honorary Doctor of Civil Law by Oxford University.