Albert Hawke
Encyclopedia
Albert Redvers George Hawke (3 December 1900 – 14 February 1989) was the 18th Premier of Western Australia
Premier of Western Australia
The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. The Premier has similar functions in Western Australia to those performed by the Prime Minister of Australia at the national level, subject to the different Constitutions...

.

Hawke was born to James Renfrey Hawke and Eliza Ann Blinman Pascoe, both of Cornish
Cornish people
The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...

 descent, in Kapunda, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

. Leaving school at the age of 13, he took up an apprenticeship as a clock-maker and jeweller before working in a lawyers office and joining the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 at 15. At the age of 23 in the 1924 elections he won the seat of Burra-Burra in the South Australian House of Assembly
South Australian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.- Overview :...

, making him the youngest person to have won a seat in that parliament.

After losing the seat by just 11 votes in the following 1927 election, he moved to Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

 in 1928, becoming a country organiser for the ALP. In 1933 he caused a major political upset by defeating the sitting Premier Sir James Mitchell
James Mitchell (Australian politician)
Sir James Mitchell GCMG was the 13th Premier of Western Australia, serving on two occasions, the Lieutenant-Governor of Western Australia for 15 years and the 22nd Governor of Western Australia....

 in the seat of Northam in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
Western Australian Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Perth....

 by 460 votes. Mitchell had held the seat for 28 years previously. Hawke held the seat himself for 35 years until the 1968 general elections at which time he did not nominate.

During his Western Australian parliamentary career he was appointed Minister for Employment and Labour in 1936 in the Collier
Second Collier Ministry
The Second Collier Ministry was the 18th Ministry of the Government of Western Australia and was led by Labor Premier Philip Collier. It succeeded the Second Mitchell Ministry on 24 April 1933, following the defeat of the Nationalist government at the 1933 election on 8 April.The ministry was...

 and Willcock
Willcock Ministry
The Willcock Ministry was the 19th Ministry of the Government of Western Australia, and was led by Labor Premier John Willcock. It succeeded the Second Collier Ministry on 27 August 1936, upon the resignation of Philip Collier as Premier on ill health grounds...

 governments. He also held the positions of Minister for Labour and Industrial Development (1939), Minister for Works, Water Supplies and Industrial Development (1943). After Labor's defeat in the 1947 elections
Western Australian state election, 1947
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 15 March 1947 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The result was a hung parliament—the four-term Labor government, led by Premier Frank Wise, was defeated with a swing of approximately 7%, but the Liberal-Country Party...

 he held various shadow portfolios before becoming Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (Western Australia)
The Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia is the leader of the largest minority political party or coalition of parties in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia. By convention, he or she is generally a member of the Legislative Assembly...

 on 3 July 1951 after Frank Wise
Frank Wise
Frank Joseph Scott Wise AO was an Australian Labor Party politician and the 16th Premier of Western Australia. He took office on 31 July 1945 in the closing stages of the Second World War, following the resignation of his predecessor due to ill health...

 resigned.

In the 23 February 1953 elections
Western Australian state election, 1953
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 14 February 1953 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The two-term Liberal-Country Party coalition government, led by Premier Sir Ross McLarty, was defeated by the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Bert Hawke.The election...

 he led Labor to victory over the two-term Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

-Country
National Party of Western Australia
The National Party of Western Australia is a political party in Western Australia. It is affiliated with the National Party of Australia but maintains a separate structure and identity....

 government of Sir Ross McLarty
Ross McLarty
Sir Duncan Ross McLarty KBE MM was the 17th Premier of Western Australia.-Early life:McLarty was born in Pinjarra, Western Australia, the youngest of seven children of Edward McLarty, a farmer and grazier and member of the Western Australian Legislative Council, and his wife Mary Jane, née Campbell...

 becoming Premier as well as Treasurer and Minister for Child Welfare and Industrial Development. In June 1953, Hawke attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Labor lost the March 1959
Western Australian state election, 1959
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 21 March 1959 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The result was a hung parliament—the two-term Labor government, led by Premier Bert Hawke, was defeated with an average swing against it of about 7 per cent, but the...

 elections to David Brand
David Brand
Sir David Brand KCMG was the 19th and longest serving Premier of Western Australia and a Member of the Legislative Assembly from 1945 to 1975.-Early life:...

's Liberals, but he stayed on as opposition leader until 1965 when he retired from politics and returned to live in South Australia.

Hawke's brother, Clement Hawke, a Congregational minister, was the father of Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....

, 23rd Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...

.
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