25 Facts About John Verran

John Verran was an Australian politician and trade unionist.

John Verran served as premier of South Australia from 1910 to 1912, the second member of the Australian Labor Party to hold the position.

John Verran began working in the copper mines at Moonta as a young boy and eventually became president of the local miners' union.

John Verran was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly in 1901 as a member of the United Labor Party, the predecessor of the current ALP.

John Verran was chosen as the party's leader in 1909, following the death of Thomas Price, and won a majority at the 1910 state election.

John Verran's agenda was hampered by the obstructionist Legislative Council and the government was defeated in 1912.

John Verran resigned as leader in 1913 and left the party following the split of 1916, losing his seat in 1918.

John Verran was born at Gwennap, Cornwall in England, on 9 July 1856 and when only three months old was taken by his parents to Australia.

John Verran received very little education and before he was 10 years old was working at the copper-mines as a pickey-boy, whose job it was to sort the ore above ground.

John Verran learned to read with encouragement from the ministers of the Primitive Methodist church at Moonta.

John Verran was elected president of the Moonta miners' association and held this office from 1895 to 1913.

John Verran married Catherine Trembath in Moonta on 21 February 1880.

On 3 June 1910 John Verran became Premier, and was commissioner of public works and minister of mines and of water-supply.

Relations between the assembly and the council were strained, with John Verran petitioning the British parliament to veto the council's decision.

John Verran called a 1912 election over the power of the upper house to veto the lower, however Labor suffered a swing against them, and were left with 16 of 40 seats.

John Verran introduced the Aborigines Bill in 1910 which revealed the ignorance and racism of white attitudes towards Australia's indigenous people at the time, and was a member of the Royal Commission on Aborigines.

John Verran sought to close all Lutheran schools, disenfranchise people of German origin or birth and demand that Lutheran children "be taught pure English, and taught by those who are British, and taught what it is to be British".

John Verran was succeeded as leader of the Labor Party by Crawford Vaughan in 1913, and John Verran broke with the party in 1917 over the conscription issue.

John Verran stood as an independent in 1921 and a Liberal in 1924, without success.

John Verran stood unsuccessfully as a Nationalist candidate for the Senate at the 1922 federal election and for the House of Representatives seat of Hindmarsh at the 1925 election.

On 30 August 1927, aged 71, John Verran was elected by state parliament to fill a casual vacancy caused by the death of ALP senator Charles McHugh.

John Verran was defeated at the 1928 election after just over a year in the Senate.

John Verran's wife predeceased him and he was survived by three sons and four daughters.

John Verran died at his daughter's home in Unley and was given a state funeral.

John Verran was a man of fine character whose honesty was proverbial.