54 Facts About King O'Malley

King O'Malley was an American-born Australian politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1901 to 1917, and served two terms as Minister for Home Affairs.

King O'Malley is remembered for his role in the development of the national capital Canberra as well as his advocacy for the creation of a national bank.

King O'Malley worked as an insurance salesman before entering politics, in both professions making use of his knack for oratory and publicity stunts.

King O'Malley served a single term in the South Australian House of Assembly, before moving to Tasmania and winning election to the House of Representatives at the inaugural 1901 federal election.

King O'Malley was a political radical, and joined the Labor Party upon its creation, despite his status as one of the wealthiest members of parliament.

King O'Malley was a keen proponent of banking reform, especially the creation of a national bank, and successfully lobbied for its inclusion in the Labor platform.

King O'Malley was dissatisfied with the initial form of the Commonwealth Bank, but later proclaimed himself as its "father".

King O'Malley remained loyal to the ALP during the 1916 party split, but lost his seat at the 1917 election.

King O'Malley was probably born on 2 July 1858 in the US Territory of Kansas.

King O'Malley said that no birth certificate existed, because the registration of births was not yet standard in frontier regions.

On his 1910 marriage certificate, O'Malley listed his parents as Ellen and William O'Malley, and his father's occupation as rancher.

King O'Malley's unusual given name was supposedly taken from his mother's family name, a common practice in the United States.

In 1913, King O'Malley stated that his father was born in Ballymena, in the north of Ireland.

King O'Malley claimed to have a brother and sister, and apparently stayed with his brother Walter in the small community of Kelly, Kansas, when he returned to the US in 1917.

King O'Malley was promoted to teller at 16 and was handling loans by 19.

At various times, King O'Malley sold policies for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Home Life Insurance Company of New York, and the Equitable Life Insurance Company.

King O'Malley gave fiery public speeches in the towns where he sold insurance, warning against the dangers of what he called "stagger juice".

King O'Malley supported the pro-temperance Republican Party and, in 1884, stumped for the unsuccessful campaign by James Blaine to become the Republican presidential candidate.

King O'Malley later claimed that, if Blaine had been elected president, he would have been appointed ambassador to Chile.

In 1881, King O'Malley married Rosy Wilmot, who died from tuberculosis shortly before she was due to give birth in 1886.

King O'Malley claimed he had contracted the disease from her, and in 1888, having been given six months to live, he sailed for Queensland, Australia.

King O'Malley left for Australia a few months later, arriving in Sydney in late July 1888.

King O'Malley travelled from San Francisco, via Hawaii, aboard the SS Mariposa.

King O'Malley then went south to attend the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition, and his photograph appears in the exhibition's official albums, in which he is listed as a representative of an American glass manufacturer.

King O'Malley supposedly arrived in the country at Port Alma, Queensland, then took up residence in a cave at Emu Park, where an Aboriginal man named Coowonga nursed him back to health.

King O'Malley subsequently walked overland to Sydney and Melbourne before eventually reaching Adelaide.

King O'Malley continued to sell life insurance, excelling at self-promotion.

In January 1896, the Register reported that King O'Malley would be a candidate for the seat of Encounter Bay at the upcoming general election.

King O'Malley stood as an independent, surprising observers by topping the poll ahead of William Carpenter of the United Labor Party, sitting MP Henry Downer of the Australasian National League, and former MP Charles Hussey.

King O'Malley enjoyed strong support among the newly enfranchised female voters, who were sympathetic to his pro-temperance views.

King O'Malley next introduced a bill requiring seats to be provided for shop assistants, which failed, followed by a successful motion calling for train carriages to be provided with lavatories and better lighting.

King O'Malley strongly supported federation and, in a series of parliamentary speeches, championed the US constitution as a model for Australia.

King O'Malley was defeated when he stood for re-election in Encounter Bay at the April 1899 general election, with William Carpenter outpolling him by 14 votes, and Charles Tucker outpolling both.

King O'Malley was defeated at the 1899 election, and the following year he moved to Tasmania, the smallest of the Australian colonies.

King O'Malley was a moderately big man, auburn-haired with watchful grey eyes and a red-brown beard, wearing a wide-brimmed felt hat, blue-grey suit with huge lapels and a low-cut vest, loose cravat with a diamond collar stud, and in the centre of his cream silk shirt-front a fiery opal.

King O'Malley was clearly one of the more prominent and colourful members of the Parliament.

King O'Malley became a prominent advocate of a national bank as a means of providing cheap credit for farmers and small businessmen, but his radical ideas were not widely accepted, and many regarded him as a charlatan.

King O'Malley was not a member of Chris Watson's first Labour ministry in 1904, nor of Andrew Fisher's first ministry in 1908.

King O'Malley is well known for his involvement in the development of the national capital, Canberra.

King O'Malley voted for the rival site of Dalgety in the ninth and final ballot, having voted for Bombala and later Tooma in earlier elimination ballots.

King O'Malley became Minister for Home Affairs, and played a prominent role in the planning and development of Canberra.

King O'Malley declared American architect Walter Burley Griffin winner of the town planning competition.

On 20 February 1913, King O'Malley drove in the first peg to mark the start of the development of the city.

King O'Malley was present at the ceremony for the naming of Canberra on 12 March 1913.

King O'Malley agitated for the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, a state-owned savings and investment bank.

King O'Malley later wrote that he had led a "torpedo squad" in Caucus to force a reluctant Cabinet to establish the bank, but historians do not accept that.

Labor was defeated at the 1913 federal election and, when it returned to office at the 1914 federal election, King O'Malley was not re-elected to the Cabinet.

In October 1915 Fisher retired and King O'Malley returned to office in the first ministry of Billy Hughes, again as Minister for Home Affairs.

King O'Malley finally lost office on 13 November 1916 when Hughes and twenty-four other Labor members walked out of the Caucus and formed the National Labor ministry.

Hughes called the 1917 federal election, and King O'Malley was heavily defeated in his northern Tasmanian seat of Darwin by former Labor colleague Charles Howroyd, a conscriptionist who was running for Hughes' Nationalist Party.

King O'Malley suffered a swing of almost 15 percent against him, and was one of many Labor parliamentarians swept out in the massive Nationalist landslide.

King O'Malley stood unsuccessfully in the seat of Denison in 1919, and in Bass in 1922, but he was never again returned to elected office.

King O'Malley lived to be about 95, outliving his nemesis, Hughes, by 14 months.

Furthermore, King O'Malley was the last surviving member of Andrew Fisher's second Cabinet.