Roy Robert Rawson (11 May 1898 – 14 June 1971) was an Australian politician.

Early life

He was born at

Woods Point Woods Point is a small town in Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia and is located on the banks of the Goulburn River. At the , Woods Point and the surrounding area had a population of 37, down from 94 in 2006. History The town began as a g ...

to gold miner Robert Rawson and Ellen Smith. From the age of fourteen, he was employed in a

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 ...

warehouse, and in 1916 he campaigned against

military conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...

. From 1916 to 1918 he was a wireless operator for the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

, and after the war, he managed first a tea room in Bourke Street and then, from 1922, a bookshop in Swanston Street. In April 1925 he married schoolteacher Florence Elizabeth Mitchell, with whom he had one son, political scientist, Don Rawson. His daughter-in-law for a period was classicist

Beryl Rawson Beryl Rawson (née Wilkinson; 24 July 1933 – 22 October 2010) was an Australian academic. She was Professor and Visiting Fellow in Classics at the Faculty of Arts of the Australian National University (ANU). Her work "made ANU a significant ce ...

Politics

From 1927 he owned his bookshop in Exhibition Street, where he also ran the headquarters of the Book Censorship Abolition League (1934–36) and subsequently the Australian Council for Civil Liberties. He moved to Upwey in 1951, where he became vice-president of the local Labor Party branch. In 1952, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Southern Province, and served until his defeat at the

1958 Victorian Legislative Council election Elections were held in the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday 21 June 1958 to elect 17 of the 34 members of the state's Legislative Council for six year terms. MLCs were elected in single-member provinces using preferential voting. This wa ...

. Rawson died at

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

in 1971.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rawson, Roy 1898 births 1971 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Council 20th-century Australian politicians Royal Navy personnel of World War I Military personnel from Victoria (Australia)