In 1919, Prowse was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the member for Swan, representing the Farmers' and Settlers' Association, which in 1920 solidified to become the Australian Country Party.
27 Facts About John Prowse
1.
2.
John Prowse transferred to the new seat of Forrest in 1922, allowing party colleague Henry Gregory to contest Swan.
3.
John Prowse served as chairman of committees from 1934 to 1943, the first member of his party to hold the position.
4.
John Prowse held Forrest until his defeat in 1943 by future Labor minister Nelson Lemmon.
5.
John Prowse died at his home in Donnybrook, Western Australia the following year.
6.
John Prowse was born on 16 June 1871 in Adelong, New South Wales.
7.
John Prowse was the son of Mary Ann and James Prowse.
8.
John Prowse's mother was born in Ireland, while his father, born in England, was a miner and farmer.
9.
John Prowse was educated at Adelong Public School and King's College in Melbourne.
10.
John Prowse relocated to Perth in 1903 after being appointed state manager for Western Australia.
11.
John Prowse was a lay preacher in the Methodist Church and was active in the temperance movement, serving as president of the West Australian Temperance Alliance from 1905 to 1911.
12.
John Prowse was a grandmaster in the Orange Order and "busy in the early organisation of philanthropic causes in Perth, including the Blind and Deaf and Dumb Institutions, and the Children's Protection Society".
13.
In 1919, John Prowse was appointed by the state government to the board of the newly created Discharged Soldiers' Land Settlement Board, overseeing the soldier settlement scheme for World War I veterans.
14.
John Prowse served as mayor of the Municipality of Subiaco from 1904 to 1905.
15.
John Prowse was a supporter of the Greater Perth Movement and was elected to a one-year term as mayor of Perth in 1913.
16.
In 1913, John Prowse was elected to the executive of the newly created Farmers' and Settlers' Association of Western Australia.
17.
John Prowse was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1919 federal election, standing as an FSA candidate and defeating the incumbent Australian Labor Party member Edwin Corboy in the seat of Swan.
18.
John Prowse joined the new federal Country Party when parliament sat after the election.
19.
John Prowse transferred to the new seat of Forrest at the 1922 election.
20.
John Prowse was an opponent of Prime Minister Billy Hughes and after the election supported making Hughes' removal as prime minister a condition of the Country Party entering into a coalition with Hughes' Nationalist Party.
21.
John Prowse was re-elected after the 1937 election and, along with UAP speaker Walter Nairn, continued in the post after the Fadden government was defeated in 1941 and replaced by an ALP minority government led by John Curtin.
22.
John Prowse married Edith McNeilance in 1896, with whom he had six children.
23.
John Prowse was widowed in 1939 and remarried in 1941 to Jean Murdoch, with his parliamentary colleague Harold Holt serving as best man.
24.
In 1910, John Prowse went into partnership with his brother Albert and purchased Wallatin station, situated in the Wheatbelt north of Doodlakine.
25.
Albert's son Edgar John Prowse was elected to federal parliament in the 1960s.
26.
John Prowse retired to his farming property Bangadang near Donnybrook, which he had purchased in 1929.
27.
John Prowse died suddenly at Bangadang on 20 May 1944, aged 72.