John William Croft (20 January 1871 – ) was an Australian politician. Born in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, he was educated in state schools before becoming an apprentice bootmaker. Moving to

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

in the 1890s, he was Secretary of the Coastal Trades and Labour Council. In 1903, he was elected to the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The powers, role and composition of the Senate are set out in Chap ...

as a

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Senator for Western Australia. He retired in 1910. The circumstances surrounding Croft's death are unclear, and no death certificate registered for him has been located in Australia. Members of his family have variously recorded that he disappeared after heading off on a mysterious "mission" to Uruguay in 1913, but that he attended his mother's funeral in 1925 and was not listed as deceased on his father's 1929 death certificate. Another theory was that Croft committed suicide and this was covered up.

References

1871 births Year of death unknown Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Western Australia 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-senator-stub