Robert Henry Solly (9 September 1859 – 5 June 1932) was an Australian politician. Born in

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, Kent, to Stephen Solly and Eliza Sage, he received no formal education and worked on a farm and a rope factory. At the age of ten he moved to

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 ...

to work in the boot trade, and emigrated to

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when he was seventeen. After a year in

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he travelled to New South Wales via

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, where he worked as a station hand. After another five-year stint in Adelaide (during which time, in 1873, he married Adelaide Mary Graham, with whom he had four children), he moved to Collingwood in

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and returned to bootmaking, becoming president of the Bootmakers Union. A founding member of the Labor Party, Solly was a Richmond City Councillor from 1903 to 1909. In 1904 he was elected to the

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as the Labor member for Railway Officers, resigning in 1906 to run for the

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. Having been unsuccessful, he returned to the Assembly via a by-election for the seat of Carlton and served until his death at Carlton in 1932.

References

, - 1859 births 1932 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly People from Richmond, Victoria Victoria (state) local councillors British emigrants to colonial Australia Colony of New South Wales people {{Australia-Labor-Victoria-MP-stub