Edward Riley (1859 – 21 July 1943) was an Australian politician. He was an

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

member of the

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

for South Sydney from 1910 to 1931. Born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, he received a primary education and migrated to Australia in 1883. He was a plasterer by trade and became involved in the Plasterers' Union soon after his arrival. He was a representative of the union on the Trades and Labour Council of Sydney and twice served as the council's president. He was a founding member of the Labour Party in New South Wales, twice served as president of the Political Labour League during election campaigns and was on the board of '' The Worker'' newspaper. He was then elected by the trade unions as the employees' representative on the then Arbitration Court, serving for three years until that court's abolition. He was defeated in his first three candidacies for office: twice for the state seat of Camperdown and once for South Sydney. In 1910 he was elected to the

for the seat of South Sydney, succeeding former Labor

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Chris Watson John Christian Watson (born Johan Cristian Tanck; 9 April 186718 November 1941) was an Australian politician who served as the third prime minister of Australia from April to August 1904. He held office as the inaugural federal leader of the Au ...

. He was a chairman of the Standing Committee on Public Works from 1914 to 1917 and a member of the 1923 Select Committee on Effect of the Operation of the Navigation Act on Trade and 1926 Joint Select Committee on Commonwealth Electoral Law and Procedure. He held his seat until his defeat at the 1931 federal election, where a

Lang Labor Lang Labor was a faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) consisting of the supporters of Jack Lang, who served two terms as Premier of New South Wales and was the party's state leader from 1923 to 1939. It controlled the New South Wale ...

candidate beat him into third in the wake of the 1931 Labor split, allowing a

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four Elections in Australia, federal elections in that time, usually governing Coalition (Australia), in coalition ...

candidate to win the seat. Riley died in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in 1943 at the age of 84. He married Annie Kirk, who predeceased him in April 1931; they had three sons and three daughters. One of their sons,

Edward Charles Riley Edward Charles Riley (9 August 1892 – 9 June 1969) was an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1922 to 1934, representing the seat of Division of Cook (1906-55), Co ...

, was the member for

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * C ...

from 1922 to 1934 and served alongside his father in the House. One of their daughters, Ellen, married

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

Senator

Walter Leslie Duncan Walter Leslie Duncan (14 February 1883 – 28 May 1947) was an Australian politician and trade unionist. He was a Senator for New South Wales from 1920 to 1931. Duncan was born in Armidale, New South Wales. He moved to Sydney after leaving ...

, but predeceased them in 1922.

References

1859 births 1943 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for South Sydney Members of the Australian House of Representatives Australian plasterers Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia Colony of New South Wales people Australian MPs 1910–1913 Australian MPs 1913–1914 Australian MPs 1914–1917 Australian MPs 1917–1919 Australian MPs 1919–1922 Australian MPs 1922–1925 Australian MPs 1925–1928 Australian MPs 1928–1929 Australian MPs 1929–1931 {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub