29 Facts About William Holman

William Arthur Holman was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920.

William Holman came to office as the leader of the Labor Party, but was expelled from the party in the split of 1916.

William Holman subsequently became the inaugural leader of the NSW branch of the Nationalist Party.

William Holman was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1898.

William Holman began studying law part-time, and was called to the bar in 1903.

In 1910, William Holman became Attorney-General of New South Wales in the state's first Labor government, under Premier James McGowen.

William Holman succeeded McGowen as premier in June 1913, and later that year led his party to victory at the 1913 state election.

In 1916, William Holman supported the "Yes" vote in the referendum on overseas conscription and was consequently expelled from the Labor Party.

However, it was heavily defeated at the 1920 election, in which William Holman lost his own seat.

William Holman was elected to the House of Representatives for the United Australia Party at the 1931 federal election, but was in poor health and died before completing his first term.

William Holman was educated at an Anglican school and was apprenticed as a cabinetmaker.

William Holman attributed his success and love of learning to the teaching of Matilda Sharpe who taught Latin to classes of up to 80.

William Holman joined the Single Tax League, the Australian Socialist League, and the newly formed Labor Electoral League, a forerunner of the Australian Labor Party.

In 1893, William Holman he became Secretary of the Railways and Tramways Employees' Union, representing the union on the Sydney Trades and Labor Council.

William Holman spent nearly two months in jail before the conviction was quashed.

William Holman went on to become a journalist for the Grenfell Vedette, and later its proprietor.

In 1900, William Holman began to study law part-time and, in 1903, he passed the University of London's intermediate examination, being admitted to the bar as a barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 31 July 1903.

When Grenfell was abolished in 1904 as part of the post-Federation downsizing of the Legislative Assembly, William Holman transferred to the new seat of Cootamundra.

William Holman became deputy-leader of the Labor party in 1905.

In 1910, the Labor Party first won Government in New South Wales with a slim majority of 46 seats in a parliament of 90, with James McGowen as Premier, and William Holman was made Attorney General.

On 30 June 1913 McGowen resigned and William Holman was named leader of the New South Wales Labor Party, hence becoming Premier.

The Labor Party had a policy commitment to abolishing the New South Wales Legislative Council, and William Holman moved a motion to that effect in 1893.

However, in 1912, without consultation with the party machine or the Trades and Labor Council, William Holman contradicted his position by making nine appointments to the Upper House, some of whom were not members of the Labor Party.

William Holman vigorously defended the state-owned enterprises from his new conservative allies.

William Holman was elected to the federal parliament as the Sydney seat of Martin in December 1931 as a member of the United Australia Party, which by this time had absorbed the Nationalists.

William Holman had an undistinguished time as a backbencher in the Joseph Lyons government.

William Holman was cremated at Northern Suburbs crematorium on 6 June 1934.

However, William Holman had been in poor health for several years before his election to Canberra, which probably disqualified him for ministerial preferment in any event.

On 22 January 1901, William Holman married journalist and novelist Ada Augusta Kidgell, niece of James Kidgell, a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.