Sir Leslie Charles Diver (4 November 1899 – 4 August 1995) was an Australian politician who served as a Country Party member of the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

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 ...

from 1952 to 1974. He was President of the Legislative Council from 1960 to 1974. Only Clive Griffiths and Sir John Kirwan have served in the position longer.

Early life

Diver was born in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

to Charlotte Ella (née Pearce) and Joseph William Diver. Leaving school at an early age, he worked for a period as a farm labourer and contractor before buying his own farm at

Yorkrakine Yorkrakine is a small town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia; it is part of the Shire of Tammin, east of the state capital, Perth. At the , Yorkrakine had a population of 117. Since then, the area has been listed as North Tammin in t ...

(a small Wheatbelt town) in 1924. Diver was elected to the Kellerberrin Road Board in 1933, and served until 1946. He was chairman in 1940, and again from 1942 to 1946.Leslie Charles Diver
– Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 14 May 2016.

Politics

A long-time member of the Country Party, Diver first stood for parliament at the 1950 Legislative Council election, but was defeated by Norm Baxter in his candidacy for Central Province. He eventually entered parliament in May 1952, after winning the by-election caused by the death of Garnet Wood. Following the retirement of Sir

Charles Latham Sir Charles George Latham (26 January 1882 – 26 August 1968), often shortened to simply C. G. Latham, was an Australian politician, former leader of the opposition in Western Australia and the 10th President of the Western Australian Legisla ...

in 1960, Diver was elected President of the Legislative Council. He served in the position for almost 14 years (a term length surpassed by only Clive Griffiths and Sir John Kirwan), finally retiring from politics in 1974.

Later life

Diver was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

for his service in June 1975, on the recommendation on the government of Sir

Charles Court Sir Charles Walter Michael Court (29 September 1911 – 22 December 2007) was an Australian politician who was the premier of Western Australia from 8 April 1974 to 25 January 1982. A member of the Western Australian Liberal Party, Liberal Par ...

. He died in Kellerberrin in August 1995, aged 95. At the time of his death, he was the oldest-lived MP in Western Australia's history, although several others have since died at greater ages.''The Western Australian Parliamentary Handbook (Twenty-Third Edition)''
, p. 242.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diver, Leslie 1899 births 1995 deaths Australian Anglicans Australian Knights Bachelor Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council Politicians from Perth, Western Australia Presidents of the Western Australian Legislative Council National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Western Australia Western Australian local councillors 20th-century Australian politicians