Caricature of W T Ely by Syd Miller SW 2Apr1932

William Thomas Ely (7 June 1869 – 19 April 1957) was an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

from 1920 to 1922 and 1925 to 1932, representing the electorates of

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

(1920–22, 1925–27) and Granville (1927–1932). He was Minister for Health during the second

Lang Lang may refer to: *Lang (surname), a surname of independent Germanic or Chinese origin Places * Lang Island (Antarctica), East Antarctica * Lang Nunatak, Antarctica * Lang Sound, Antarctica * Lang Park, a stadium in Brisbane, Australia * Lang, ...

government from 1931 until 1932. Ely was born at

Andersons Creek Andersons Creek is a Stream, creek in Warrandyte and Park Orchards, Victoria, Park Orchards, east of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is a tributary of the Yarra River. For tens of thousands of years it was used as a foo ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

and trained as a journalist. He worked for ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, for which he was assigned to cover the Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide conventions in the leadup to

Federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

, and later, some of the first meetings of the federal parliament. Ely was appointed as a representative of the newspaper in Sydney in 1905, and subsequently settled there. In 1912, he became co-proprietor of the ''

Cumberland Times Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

'' newspaper in

, a role he held until his election to parliament. Ely entered state politics at the 1920 election, when he won the last seat in multi-member

with the preferences of Jack Lang. He lost the seat to Nationalist Thomas Morrow in 1922, but won it back in 1925. The multi-member system was abolished in 1927, and Ely contested and won the recreated seat of Granville. He was re-elected in 1930 as Labor won government, and Ely was appointed to the new ministry, initially as Assistant Minister for Labour and Industry, but being promoted to Minister for Health in 1931, following Lang's sacking of

James McGirr James McGirr (6 February 1890 – 27 October 1957) was an Australian politician. He served as premier of New South Wales from 1947 to 1952, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He led the party to victory at the 1947 an ...

. His career came to an end at the 1932 election, amidst Labor's heavy defeat after Lang was sacked as Premier by Governor

Philip Game Sir Philip Woolcott Game (30 March 1876 – 4 February 1961) was a Royal Air Force commander, who later served as Governor of New South Wales and Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (London). Born in Surrey in 1876, Game was educated at Cha ...

; one of many Labor MPs to lose their seats, Ely was defeated by United Australia Party candidate Claude Fleck. He again contested Granville in a much closer race in 1935, but lost to Fleck by 82 votes. Ely retired from politics after his 1935 loss, and subsequently became a poultry farmer. He died at Bondi in 1957.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ely, Bill 1869 births 1957 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Ministers for health (New South Wales)