Mark Gosling (7 August 1886 – 3 May 1980) was an

English Australian English Australians, also known as Anglo-Australians, are Australians whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England. In the 2021 census, 8,385,928 people, or 33% of the Australian population, stated that they had English ancestry (wh ...

painter, building contractor and

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 of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

for the districts of

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

(1920–1927), Oatley (1927–1930) and

Kogarah Kogarah () is a suburb of Southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kogarah is located 14 kilometres (9 miles) south-west of the Sydney central business district and is considered to be the centre of the St George area. Loc ...

(1930–1932). He served as Colonial Secretary of

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 ...

from May to October 1927 and again from November 1930 to May 1932. Mark and Florence Gosling

Biography

The son of labourer Samuel Gosling and Hannah Nelms, Mark Gosling was born on 7 August 1886 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

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. In 1913 he married Florence Thorneycroft, daughter of William Joseph Thorneycroft and Esther Morgan of Warwickshire and Staffordshire, England, and they had three sons, Ronald, Derek and Robert. Florence_Thorneycroft

He received only a primary education, but would later attend

tutorial In education, a tutorial is a method of transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of a learning process. More interactive and specific than a book or a lecture, a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to complete ...

s at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

from 1916 to 1919. He became a building contractor and painter, joining the Painters' Union and serving as its vice president from 1915 to 1918. Later, he directed St George Hospital from 1920 to 1927. From 1925 to 1957, Gosling was a National Park trustee. He died in his sleep in

Bexley Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Ch ...

on 3 May 1980 as one of the last surviving members of Jack Lang's 1930 ministry.

Politics

In 1920, Gosling was elected as one of five Assembly members from the district of

, though he won only five per cent of the vote. He was re-elected in 1922 and 1925, taking 16 and then 18 per cent of the vote. In 1927, the district of St George was divided into single member districts, with Gosling winning the new district of Oatley by a margin of 3.2 per cent over James Webb. In 1930, Oatley itself was abolished and replaced with the district of

, which Gosling won again over Humphrey Earl, but lost to James Ross in 1932. Mark Gosling was active in the Australian Labor Party throughout his career, serving as president of the party's Petersham and Homedale leagues and of the Barton federal electorate council. In 1915 and 1916, he was the president of the district and Petersham campaigns against conscription, and he was a member of the party's executive from 1938 to 1939.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gosling, Mark 1886 births 1980 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly British emigrants to Australia Politicians from Birmingham, West Midlands 20th-century Australian politicians