1. Sir Norbert Michael Keenan QC was an Australian lawyer and politician who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1905 to 1911 and again from 1930 to 1950.
22 Facts About Norbert Keenan
1. 2.
Norbert Keenan was the leader of the Nationalist Party from 1933 to 1938, during the time when it was the junior partner in the coalition with the Country Party.
3.
Norbert Keenan was born in Glasnevin, County Dublin, Ireland, to Elizabeth Agnes and Sir Patrick Joseph Norbert Keenan.
4.
Norbert Keenan's father was an educationalist and a member of the Privy Council of Ireland.
5.
Norbert Keenan was sent to Downside School for his secondary schooling, and then studied law at Trinity College Dublin.
6.
Norbert Keenan was admitted to King's Inns in 1890, allowing him to practise as a barrister in Ireland, and was later admitted to the Middle Temple, allowing him to practise as a barrister in England and Wales.
7.
Norbert Keenan emigrated to Western Australia in April 1895, and settled in Kalgoorlie, where he represented the interests of British investors on the Eastern Goldfields.
8.
Norbert Keenan served in the position until December 1905, resigning to concentrate on state politics.
9.
At the 1904 state election, Norbert Keenan unsuccessfully contested the seat of Kalgoorlie as an independent, losing to the sitting Labor member, William Dartnell Johnson.
10.
Norbert Keenan reversed the result at the 1905 election, standing as a Ministerialist.
11.
When Newton Moore replaced Rason as premier in May 1906, he chose Norbert Keenan to be his attorney-general.
12.
Norbert Keenan resigned as attorney-general in May 1909, due to disagreements with the government's financial policies.
13.
Norbert Keenan did not contest the 1911 state election, with his seat being lost to Albert Green of the Labor Party.
14.
Norbert Keenan concentrated on his law practice, having been made King's Counsel in 1908, and served on the senate of the University of Western Australia from 1912 to 1918.
15.
Norbert Keenan resigned from cabinet in September 1931, due to a dispute over government policy.
16.
Norbert Keenan's party failed to make any improvement at the 1936 election, and he resigned as leader in April 1938 in favour of Ross McDonald.
17.
Norbert Keenan was opposed by Dorothy Tangney, a future Labor senator, at the 1936 and 1939 elections, but retained his seat easily on both occasions.
18.
Norbert Keenan had affiliated with the new Liberal Party upon its creation in 1945.
19.
Aged 86 at the time of the 1950 election, Norbert Keenan was opposed in Nedlands by three other candidates.
20.
Norbert Keenan polled only 23.3 percent of the first-preference vote, which was not enough to make the final two-candidate-preferred count, and the eventual victor was David Grayden, a 25-year-old leader of the party's youth wing.
21.
Norbert Keenan had married Rose Elizabeth Parker in 1900, with whom he had two children.
22.
Norbert Keenan's father was Sir Stephen Henry Parker, who was Chief Justice of Western Australia from 1906 to 1914, and her uncle was George Leake, who was Premier of Western Australia on two occasions.