John Gratton Wilson (18 August 1863 – 20 August 1948) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

for Villiers and Heytesbury from 1902 to 1903 and a Free Trade Party member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

for Corangamite from 1903 to 1910. Gratton Wilson was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and educated at the Percy Watkins School in West Melbourne and Wesley College. He studied medicine at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

and practised in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

until 1896, when he returned to Australia, becoming a doctor and farmer at "Farnham Park" near

Warrnambool Warrnambool ( Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (Al ...

. He was the Warrnambool president of the

Australian Natives Association The Australian Natives' Association (ANA) was a mutual society founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. It was founded by and for the benefit of native-born white Australians and membership was restricted exclusively to that group. The A ...

, honorary secretary of the Warrnambool Hospital and secretary of a local Patriotic League. In 1902, he was elected to the

for the seat of Villiers and Heytesbury on a platform of "assisting in every practicable way the interests of the dairyman, the agriculturalist and the pastoralist" alongside support for the economic reforms of the Irvine government. However, he resigned his state seat, which was about to be abolished in a redistribution, in November 1903 and successfully transferred to federal politics, winning the

seat of Corangamite as a member of the Free Trade Party. In federal parliament, Gratton Wilson described himself as a protectionist but opposed the

Protectionist Party The Protectionist Party or Liberal Protectionist Party was an Australian political party, formally organised from 1887 until 1909, with policies centred on protectionism. The party advocated protective tariffs, arguing it would allow Australi ...

due to his hostility towards their more positive relationship with the Labor Party. He thus went into Opposition to

Alfred Deakin Alfred Deakin (3 August 1856 – 7 October 1919) was an Australian politician who served as the second Prime Minister of Australia. He was a leader of the movement for Federation, which occurred in 1901. During his three terms as prime ministe ...

, but voted against free trade policies. His maiden speech, in March 1904, opposed proposals to increase House sitting days as it would be "too great a tax on businessmen's time". He was re-elected in 1906 but was defeated in 1910 by future

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

James Scullin James Henry Scullin (18 September 1876 – 28 January 1953) was an Australian Labor Party politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Scullin led Labor to government at the 1929 Australian federal election. He was the first Catho ...

. He attributed his defeat to "apathy and treachery" by anti-Labor supporters who thought he would win and did not assist him in the face of a strong Labor campaign and "misrepresentations and misunderstandings". He served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

from 1916 to 1919 as a member of the Army Medical Corps, after which he returned to his Warrnambool medical practice and farm. He retired in 1920 and later moved to "Iluka" at

Moonlight Head Moonlight Head is a locality located on the Great Ocean Road in southwest of Victoria on the Southern Ocean. It is believed to be the headland seen by Matthew Flinders from the '' Investigator'' during a break in showery weather, on the night o ...

(later Yuulong) near

Cape Otway Cape Otway is a cape and a bounded locality of the Colac Otway Shire in southern Victoria, Australia on the Great Ocean Road; much of the area is enclosed in the Great Otway National Park. History Cape Otway was originally inhabited by the Gadub ...

. His Yuulong home was destroyed in bushfires in 1934, though he was still residing in the area in 1939 when he made a donation of 375 ferns to the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens. He died at

Colac, Victoria Colac is a small city in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, approximately 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne on the southern shore of Lake Colac. History For thousands of years clans of the Gulidjan people occupied the region o ...

in 1948, aged 85.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Gratton Free Trade Party members of the Parliament of Australia Commonwealth Liberal Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Corangamite Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Victoria (Australia) state politicians 1863 births 1948 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians