Samuel Robert Nicholls (15 May 1885 – 26 September 1939) was an Australian politician. He was an

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

from 1917 to 1922, representing the electorate of Macquarie. Born in

Mudgee Mudgee () is a town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It is in the broad fertile Cudgegong River valley north-west of Sydney and is the largest town in the Mid-Western Regional Council Local gov ...

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 ...

, he was educated at public schools and became a clerk and cement worker. He was a trade unionist in the cement works at

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

for several years, serving as president of the Portland branch of the United Labourers Protective Society from 1910 and secretary of the Portland Cement Workers' Union from 1912. In 1917, he defeated

Ernest Carr Ernest Shoebridge Carr (28 September 1875 – 17 September 1956) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1906 until 1917 for the electorate of Macquarie, representing the Australian Labor P ...

, 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 ...

turned

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

MP, to win the

seat of Macquarie for Labor by nine votes. He refused to recruit for service during World War I, stating that he would not ask others to do what he was not prepared to do himself. One repeated concern of Nicholls in parliament was the fate of workers at the

Lithgow Small Arms Factory Lithgow Arms is an Australian small arms manufacturer located in the town of Lithgow, New South Wales. Established by the Australian Government in 1912 as the Lithgow Small Arms Factory to ease reliance on the British for the supply of defence m ...

. He held the seat until his unexpected defeat in 1922 by Nationalist

Arthur Manning Arthur Gibson Manning (1 January 1872 – 3 April 1947) was an Australian politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1922 to 1928, representing the Division of Macquarie for the Nationalist Party. He was previous a member of ...

after a redistribution weakened his margin; he alleged irregularities with the result, but nothing further occurred. Nicholls worked as an insurance agent after his political defeat. In October 1923, he was sued for not repaying a loan, and was declared bankrupt in February 1924, a situation which he attributed to having himself loaned money that had not been repaid. He was involved in a serious car crash in 1924 and was struck by lightning in 1926, but escaped with a "few bruises" and "severe shock" respectively. Nicholls nominated for Labor preselection at the 1925 federal election and 1927 state election; the first was rejected by the party as "not in order", and he was soundly defeated for the latter. He died at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital in 1939 after a long illness, aged 54, and was buried in the Church of England portion of the Wagga Wagga Cemetery.

References

Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Macquarie Members of the Australian House of Representatives 1885 births 1939 deaths Australian MPs 1917–1919 Australian MPs 1919–1922 Australian trade unionists People from Mudgee {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub