Robert Sproule (16 March 1881 – 16 July 1948) was an Irish-born Australian public servant and politician who served as

Solicitor General for New South Wales Solicitor General for New South Wales, known informally as the Solicitor General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Attorney General of New South Wales, Attorney General. They can exercise the powers of the Attorney ...

from 1920 until 1922.

Early life

Sproule was born in

Omagh Omagh (; from , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers River Drumragh, Drumragh and Camowen River, Camowen meet to form the River Strule, Strule. Northern Ireland's c ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh. Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...

to farmer William Sproule and Mary Ann Clisdell. He attended the

Crown Street Public School The Crown Street Public School is a heritage-listed State school, public primary school located at Crown Street, Sydney, Crown Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by George Allen Mansfield and built from in 1 ...

until he was 14, leaving to work as a correspondence clerk and bookkeeper, continuing his education at night school, He sat the public service exam in March 1899, and was appointed a junior clerk in the Petty Sessions office of the Justice Department at Goulburn, transferring to Redfern in December 1901. He passed a further examination for promotion in April 1904. He studied 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 ...

, receiving his

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in 1907 and a

Bachelor of Law A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

in 1913. He was a court reporter from 1912 to 1919, and was called to the bar in 1913. In 1919 he was appointed the first head of the Legal Aid office.

Politics

Sproule was appointed

Solicitor General A solicitor general is a government official who serves as the chief representative of the government in courtroom proceedings. In systems based on the English common law that have an attorney general or equivalent position, the solicitor general ...

in the Storey ministry on 15 April 1920, appointed 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 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 ...

apparently by virtue of his office in what Keith Mason described as the effective beginning of the de-politicsation of the office.

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

took a different view, describing him as the Cassius of the state ministry who had proved himself a very able conspirator for the good of the ministry. Sproule continued to hold the office in the

first First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and second Dooley ministries.

The National Advocate ''The National Advocate'' was a daily newspaper published in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, between 1889 and 1963. Newspaper history The newspaper was established on 28 September 1889, co-founded by Australian businessman James Ruth ...

, which had a reputation as the mouthpiece of the Labor Party, described Sproule as having practical experience in all the courts. There is nothing to indicate that Sproule appeared in court in his role as Solicitor General, with the National Advocate emphasising his law reform and political role in administering the courts.

and

the Barrier Miner ''The Barrier Miner'' was a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Broken Hill in far western New South Wales from 1888 to 1974. History First published on 28 February 1888, ''The Barrier Miner'' was published continuously until 25 November 1 ...

speculated that he may be appointed a judge, however nothing came of that. In 1927 he left the bar to become a solicitor, working with

Richard Meagher Richard Denis Meagher (11 January 1866 – 17 September 1931) was an Australian solicitor and was the first Labor Lord Mayor of Sydney, serving from 1916 to 1917. Early life Meagher was born in Bathurst, New South Wales and educated at St S ...

. He was expelled from Labor in July 1931 because he refused to sign the Lang pledge, which required loyalty to the Premier, Jack Lang, the state executive and the Lang plan. Despite his expulsion, Sproule continued to vote for Lang legislation. The Legislative Council was re-constituted in 1934 to one where members were elected, not directly by the people, but by a joint sitting of the

New South Wales Parliament The Parliament of New South Wales, formally the Legislature of New South Wales, (definition of "The Legislature") is the bicameral legislative body of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). It consists of the Monarch, the New South Wale ...

with 60 members having a 12-year term, elected in four groups of 15 members. Sproule was one of 126 candidates however he was excluded early in the count for each of the elections. He retired from politics and continued to work as a solicitor until his death.

Personal life and death

On 15 March 1911 he married Effie Stevenson, however she died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

on 12 August 1921. Sproule died at

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

on .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sproule, Robert 1881 births 1948 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Solicitors general for New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians Irish emigrants to Australia People from Omagh Lawyers from County Tyrone Politicians from County Tyrone