Robert Stopford (12 February 1862 – 28 January 1926) was an English-born Australian politician. He is the great-great-grandfather of comedian and actress

Rebel Wilson Rebel Melanie Elizabeth Wilson (born Melanie Elizabeth Bownds; 2 March 1980) is an Australian actress, comedian and producer. After graduating from the Australian Theatre for Young People in 2003, Wilson began appearing in the SBS comedy ser ...

Biography

He was born at

Upholland Up Holland (or Upholland) is a village in Skelmersdale and is a civil parish in the West Lancashire district, in the county of Lancashire, England, west of Wigan. The population at the 2011 census was 7,376. Geography The village is on a sma ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, to property owner John Stopford and Jane Elizabeth, ''née'' Yates. He attended University College, Liverpool, and became a medical practitioner, working in Ireland and

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

before travelling to New Zealand in 1902 and settling in Wellington. Stopford had been a supporter of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

in England but joined the

Independent Political Labour League The Independent Political Labour League (IPLL) was a small New Zealand political party. It was the second organised political party to win a seat in the House of Representatives, and was a forerunner of the modern Labour Party. Formation The IP ...

(forerunner to the present day

New Zealand Labour Party The New Zealand Labour Party, also known simply as Labour (), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers descri ...

) whilst living there. Stopford also became involved in the

Plunket Society The Royal New Zealand Plunket Trust provides a range of free services aimed at improving the development, health and wellbeing of children under the age of five within New Zealand, where it is commonly known simply as Plunket. Its mission is ...

, an infant welfare movement founded by

Truby King Sir Frederic Truby King (1 April 1858 – 10 February 1938), generally known as Truby King, was a New Zealand health reformer and Director of Child Welfare. He is best known as the founder of the Plunket Society. Early life King was born in N ...

. In 1905 he moved to Auckland accepting a job running the local hydropath institute. Whilst there he was also elected a member of the

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1989 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elec ...

1907 Events January * January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Moment magnitude scale, Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000. February * February 9 – The "Mud March (suffragists), Mud March", the ...

. Stopford was the only successful candidate from the Labour ticket and became the first ever Labour candidate elected to the city council. He thought of politics as a means of advancing child welfare. In 1911 he arrived in Sydney and settled in Balmain, where he ran a children's clinic. Just as in New Zealand he supported the Labor Party in Australia until 1917, when he joined the Nationalist Party over the issue of

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

. From 1922 to 1925 he served as a Nationalist 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 Balmain. Stopford died in Balmain in 1926.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stopford, Robert 1862 births 1926 deaths People from Up Holland Alumni of the University of Liverpool English emigrants to New Zealand Politicians from Wellington City Independent Political Labour League politicians Auckland City Councillors British emigrants Immigrants to New Zealand Immigrants to Australia Australian paediatricians Australian Labor Party politicians Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly