John Stanley Verran (24 December 1883 – 30 August 1952) was an Australian politician. Verran was born in Moonta, the son of

John Verran John Verran (9 July 1856 – 7 June 1932) was an Australian politician and trade unionist. He served as premier of South Australia from 1910 to 1912, the second member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to hold the position. Verran was b ...

, later

Premier of South Australia The premier of South Australia is the head of government in the state of South Australia, Australia. The Government of South Australia follows the Westminster system, with a Parliament of South Australia acting as the legislature. The premier i ...

. He went to work in a mine at the age of 11, and later worked as a clerk in

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

. He was involved in the formation of the

Federated Clerks' Union The Federated Clerks Union of Australia (FCU) was an Australian trade union representing clerical workers, in existence from 1911 to 1993, when it amalgamated with the Australian Services Union. History Between 1900 and 1907, attempts were made to ...

, and served as president of the

Australian Government Workers Association The Australian Government Workers Association was an Australian trade union representing workers employed by state and federal governments, despite its name based only in South Australia. It was founded on 26 May 1906 by Ernest Roberts as the Sou ...

. In 1918, he was elected to 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 ...

as a

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

, at the same election as his father was defeated standing for the splinter

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

. In 1924, he was selected by the party's general plebiscite as one of fifteen Labor candidates for the metropolitan area at the forthcoming election, but was defeated by Frank Condon by one vote in a Port Adelaide electorate committee vote for which two candidates would contest Port Adelaide. He was subsequently chosen to contest the more difficult seat of Sturt and lost. In 1925, the second Port Adelaide MP, John Price, resigned from parliament when he was appointed

Agent-General for South Australia The Agent-General for South Australia is the official representative of the South Australia, State of South Australia to the United Kingdom. The position is a quasi-diplomatic representative responsible for representing the State to the Crown a ...

. Verran was selected by general plebiscite as the Labor candidate in the resulting by-election, which he won, returning to parliament. A subsequent change in party rules saw electorate committees given the power to determine their own candidates, and in August 1926 Verran lost Labor preselection for the 1927 election to John Jonas. He retired at the election, but tensions around his pre-selection defeat were touted as one of the reasons behind Condon's defeat by independent

Protestant Labor Party The Protestant Independent Labour Party, alternatively spelt Protestant Independent Labor and sometimes known as the Protestant Labour Party, was a minor Australian political party that operated mainly in New South Wales, Queensland and South ...

candidate Thomas Thompson at that election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verran, John Stanley 1883 births 1952 deaths Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Place of birth missing Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia People from Moonta, South Australia 20th-century Australian politicians