James Corcoran (1 October 1885 – 7 May 1965) was a

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

n politician. He was the

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 labour ...

member for

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 ...

in the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly (also known as the lower house) is one of two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia, the other being the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assem ...

from 1945 until his defeat in 1947, and again from 1953 until 1956, when he transferred to the nearby seat of Millicent. He retired in 1962, and was succeeded by his son, future

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

Des Corcoran James Desmond Corcoran (8 November 1928 – 3 January 2004) was an Australian politician who served as the 37th premier of South Australia between February and September 1979, following the resignation of Don Dunstan. During his brief premier ...

Early life and military service

Born on 1 October 1885 at

Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with a population of 25,591 as of the 2021 census. The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier (volcano), Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about ...

in the

colony of South Australia A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...

, the first-born son of Thomas Corcoran and Margaret ( Fitzgerald) of Tantanoola, James Corcoran attended Burrungule Public School and Mount Gambier Grammar School. His father was employed by

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the organisation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Australian Natio ...

(SAR) when he married Margaret at Georgetown in the mid-north of the colony, where her parents were farming. The couple subsequently moved to Mount Gambier with SAR, and around 1914 Thomas retired from that work and the couple settled at Tantanoola. They had a total of three daughters and six sons. After he left school James was a pastoral worker on Coola Station near Mount Gambier before half-a-dozen years working for SAR himself. In 1914 he returned home to assist in the running of his parents' dairy farm at Tantanoola. He enlisted for service with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 15 September 1915, aged 29. Before embarking he underwent training as a

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is an enlisted rank, enlisted leader, petty officer, or in some cases warrant officer, who does not hold a Commission (document), commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority b ...

, and was provisionally promoted to

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The rank is usually the lowest ranking non-commissioned officer. In some militaries, the rank of corporal nominally corr ...

. Corcoran embarked with the 11th reinforcement draft for the largely South Australia-raised 27th Battalion on 25 March 1916, and after further training in England and substantive promotion to corporal and promotion to the acting rank of

lance sergeant Lance sergeant (LSgt or L/Sgt) is a military appointment in the armies of the Commonwealth and formerly also a rank in the United States Army. Commonwealth Lance-sergeant in the armies of the Commonwealth was an appointment given to a corporal ...

, he joined the 27th Battalion on the Western Front in France and Belgium on 13 May 1917, at which time he reverted to his substantive rank of corporal. The following month he was evacuated sick, and did not rejoin the battalion until October. While Corcoran was with the battalion, it participated in the response to the

German spring offensive The German spring offensive, also known as ''Kaiserschlacht'' ("Kaiser's Battle") or the Ludendorff offensive, was a series of German Empire, German attacks along the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during the World War I, First Wor ...

launched in mid-March 1918, playing a supporting role during the

Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux The Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux (also Actions of Villers-Bretonneux, after the First Battles of the Somme, 1918) took place from 24 to 27 April 1918, during the German spring offensive to the east of Amiens. It is notable for being the f ...

in late April, then a major role in the successful Third Battle of Morlancourt on 10 June. After his unit performed a supporting role in the highly successful

Battle of Hamel The Battle of Hamel was a successful attack by Australian Army and US Army infantry, supported by British tanks, against German positions in and around the town of Le Hamel, in northern France, during World War I. The attack was planned and co ...

on 4 July, Corcoran suffered gunshot wounds to the back and leg on 8 August during the Battle of Amiens, and was again evacuated to England. He was furloughed from hospital in mid-November, after the

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...

, and embarked to return to Australia in mid-December. Arriving back in Adelaide on 13 February 1919, he was discharged on 27 April. His younger brothers Thomas Leo, Matthew Linus, and John Joseph, also served during the war, with Thomas Leo being commissioned as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

, awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth of ...

and

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

, and killed in action in May 1918. Corcoran returned to a

mixed farming Mixed farming is a type of farming which involves both the growing of crops and the raising of livestock. Such agriculture occurs across Asia and in countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, South Africa, China, Central Europe, ...

venture at Tantanoola, and was elected as a member of the District Council of Tantanoola in 1920–1921. When the council clerk, Malcolm Cameron, was elected to 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. ...

in 1922, Corcoran applied for and secured the position as council clerk. At the same time he continued to run a small sheep and lamb pastoral property at Tantanoola. He was appointed as a justice of the peace and was president of the Tantanoola sub-branch of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA) until it closed, and was the vice-president of the Millicent sub-branch of RSSILA in 1932. During this period he was also president of the Tantanoola Show Society and the Children's Home Project Club, and a member of the local school committee. Through these and other activities, by 1932 he was well known to the people of the lower southeast of the state.

Political career

Following his unsuccessful attempt to be elected to the two-member

electoral district of Victoria Victoria was an electorate in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1857 until 1902 and from 1915 to 1993. In 1902 the district was merged with Albert to create Victoria and Albert, but was separated again in 1915, electing candidates of ...

in the

in a by-election in 1932, Jim Corcoran was also an unsuccessful candidate for the same, now single-member, district in the state elections of

1933 Events January * January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...

and

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...

, before finally prevailing in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

in September 1945. His mother Margaret died in October 1933. James was unsuccessful in his bid to be re-elected in the 1947 state election, and was unsuccessful again in the 1950 state election. While Des was still serving in Korea, his father Jim was again elected to the district of Victoria in the March 1953 state election. At the 1956 state election, Jim Corcoran successfully contested the new

electoral district of Millicent Millicent was an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia from 1956 to 1977. Based on the town of Millicent, the seat was carved out of the south of the seat of Victoria. It was held by Labor as a m ...

which had been excised from the district of Victoria as part of a redistribution, and successfully defended it in the 1959 state election. Des Corcoran left the Army in 1961 and in the 3 March 1962 state election was elected to the House of Assembly, succeeding his father as the member for Millicent. Jim died on 7 May 1965.

Footnotes

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Corcoran, Jim 1885 births 1965 deaths Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Place of birth missing Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia 20th-century Australian politicians Australian military personnel of World War I