James Henry Scullin (1876 - 1953)

Born 18 Sep 1876 in Trawalla, Victoria (Australia)

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah Maria (McNamara) Scullin — married 1907 in Victoria, Australia

Died 28 Jan 1953 at age 76 in 2 Urquhart St, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Australia Project WikiTree [send private message]

James Scullin is managed by the Australia Project. Join: Australia Project Discuss: australia

Biography

James Scullin is Notable.

Jim Scullin was the first Catholic to become Australian Prime Minister, the first Prime Minister to have come from an Irish background, and the first Labor Prime Minister born in Australia.

He became Prime Minister in 1929 - 2 days before the Wall Street crash - a devastating time for Australia and the rest of the world. In his two years in office he was confronted by two major crises - the severe economic hardship brought on by the Depression, and the splitting of his party - Labor - into three. Facing a hostile Senate, his government was unable to pass the legislation it wanted to deal with the Depression.

James Henry Scullin, commonly known as Jim, was born in Trawalla, Victoria, on 18 September 1876. He was the fifth of the nine children of John Scullin and Ann Logan, both immigrants from Derry, Ireland. His father, John Scullin had been a miner and later a plate-layer on the railways. James Scullin attended small state schools, first at Trawalla and later at Mount Rowan near Ballarat. He left school at about 14 to work in a grocery store but continued his education through night classes and wide reading in the Ballarat public library. He learnt debating skills as a member of the Catholic Young Men's Society and the Australian Natives' Association. He won prizes for debating at Ballarat's South Street competitions, at which he also judged for 30 years.

James had various part-time manual jobs in the Ballarat district until his mid-twenties. Then for ten years he ran a grocer's shop at Ballarat for James McKay & Sons. About 1903 he joined the Political Labor Council and helped in Labor's campaigning in State elections. In 1906 he was Labor's candidate for Ballarat in the Federal election against Alfred Deakin, the prime minister. He then became a political organizer for the Australian Workers' Union, helping to form branches of the P.L.C. in the western half of the State, and publicing the Labor cause. On 11 November 1907, in St Patrick's Cathedral, Ballarat, he married Sarah Maria McNamara, a dressmaker born in Ballarat of southern Irish parentage; they had no children.

Scullin won the south-west Victorian seat of Corangamite at the 1910 Federal elections, but lost in 1913. He then became, until 1922, editor of a Labor daily, the Ballarat Evening Echo. Scullin was endorsed for Yarra and elected in 1922, following the death of Frank Tudor. This seat he held until 1949, moving home from Ballarat to Richmond. On 26 April 1928 he succeeded Matthew Charlton as Labor leader, and won the 1929 election, With his party split, he lost in 1932, and after the losing the 1934 election and in ill health, resigned as Leader in October 1935, succeeded by John Curtin.

He died at his home in Hawthorn, Victoria, on 28th January, 1953.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Death notices in The Argus, Melbourne, Victoria, Friday 30 January 1953:
   SCULLIN, James Henry. - On January 28, at his residence, 2 Urquhart street. Hawthorn, beloved husband of Sarah Maria. -Requiescat in pace.
   SCULLIN. James Henry. - On January 28, at his residence, 2 Urquhart street. Hawthorn, beloved son of the late John and Ann Scullin, formerly of Ballarat, loved brother of John-(deceased), Mary (Mrs. O'Brien, deceased). Annie (Mrs. Brosnan). Eliza (Mrs. Parle). Rose (Mrs. Kean), Daniel (deceased), and Catherine (Mrs. McNeill). - Requiescat in pace.

• Wikipedia entry on James Scullin
• Australian Dictionary of Biography - James Henry Scullin
• National Museum of Australia - James Scullin
• Museum of Australian Democracy (Old Parliament House) - James Scullin
• Find A Grave: Memorial #7253162, database and images (accessed 24 May 2019), memorial page for James Henry Scullin (18 Sep 1876–28 Jan 1953), citing Melbourne General Cemetery, Carlton North, Melbourne City, Victoria, Australia; Maintained by Find A Grave.