18 Facts About William Spence

1.

William Spence had no formal education and worked as a farm labourer in the Wimmera district of Victoria from the age of 13.

2.

In 1874, William Spence was one of a number of militant mine-workers who formed the Amalgamated Miners' Association of Victoria, and he became the union's general secretary in 1882.

3.

William Spence led the union into mergers with similar unions in the other Australian colonies, forming the Amalgamated Miners' Association of Australasia.

4.

In 1894, William Spence led the amalgamation of the miners, shearers and other rural workers into the Australian Workers' Union, Australia's largest and most powerful union.

5.

William Spence was the AWU's secretary from 1894 to 1898 and president from 1898 to 1917.

6.

William Spence supported the formation of the Progressive Political League, an early labour party, in Victoria in 1891 and he was narrowly beaten at a by-election in 1892 for the seat of Dundas in the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

7.

In 1898, William Spence he became MP for Cobar in western New South Wales.

8.

William Spence remained president of the AWU, making him one of the most powerful men in New South Wales politics.

9.

Unlike many in the labour movement, William Spence supported the federation of the Australian colonies, and in 1901 he was elected to the first Australian House of Representatives as MP for the NSW Division of Darling.

10.

William Spence was not really suited to parliamentary life and did not hold office until he was appointed Postmaster-General in the third Fisher Ministry from September 1914 to October 1915.

11.

William Spence was appointed to the undemanding position of Vice-President of the Executive Council in the second Hughes Ministry from November 1916 to February 1917.

12.

In 1916, Hughes decided to introduce conscription to maintain Australia's contribution to the Allied forces in World War I Most of the Labor Party bitterly opposed this, but Spence sided with Hughes.

13.

William Spence was deposed as president of the AWU and shortly after was expelled from the union.

14.

At the 1917 federal election, although Hughes was easily returned to power, William Spence lost his seat, mainly because the AWU organised the rural workers to oppose him.

15.

William Spence was one of only a small number of people who have represented more than one state or territory in the Parliament.

16.

William Spence later took up farming at Terang, Victoria, and died of pulmonary oedema on 13 December 1926, aged 80.

17.

William Spence was survived by his wife, four daughters and three of his five sons.

18.

In 1972, the Canberra suburb of William Spence was named after him.