John Wren
Encyclopedia
John Wren was an Australian businessman. He has become a legendary figure thanks mainly to a fictionalised account of his life in Frank Hardy
's novel Power Without Glory
, which was also made into a television series. Wren exercised considerable influence in Victorian
politics and business, but he was not as powerful as subsequent legend has suggested. Wren's granddaughter, Gabrielle Pizzi
, also achieved renown as an art dealer credited with raising the profile of Aboriginal art.
, an inner working-class suburb of Melbourne
, the son of Irish Catholic immigrants. In 1890, while working in a Collingwood shoe factory, he bet his entire savings on Carbine
, the winner of the Melbourne Cup
. In 1903 he added considerably to that sum when his own horse, Murmur, won the Caulfield Cup
.
's successful Tattersalls
totalisator venture. The Collingwood tote made Wren a rich man and also gave him political influence in the inner suburbs. In 1905 he inherited the running of business interests in pony and horse racing from another Collingwood identity, and later made further expansions into gambling, cinemas, goldmining, newspaper publishing, and professional cycling. He subsequently had a role in the establishment of Moonee Valley Racecourse
in Melbourne, which competed with the Victoria Racing Club
's course at Flemington
.
Wren became best known as a boxing
promoter and through this success he was able to establish the Stadiums Limited organisation, which acquired venues in most major Australian capitals, including Sydney Stadium
, Festival Hall, Melbourne
and Festival Hall, Brisbane
.
Wren, along with promoters Snowy Baker and Hugh D. McIntosh
, was accused of using his influence to prevent the great young Australian boxer Les Darcy
from fighting in America, where he had fled at the end of 1916 to earn money to support his family (according to Darcy) before he would serve in WWI. To quote Greg Growden : "All three realised their meal ticket had dudded them... Wren telegrammed Baker stating he would make certain Darcy was blackbanned in America.". In contrast, James Griffin in "Australian Dictionary of Biography" states : "Locals were discouraged from seeking world titles abroad, but Wren had no part in Les Darcy's nemesis". Griffin also points out that Darcy departed the day before the 1916 conscription referendum (which Wren supported). This illustrates the controversy surrounding John Wren's affairs.
, and although he supported conscription for the war he grew increasingly anti-British after the Easter Rising
in Dublin in 1916. This made him a supporter of the powerful Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix
, who became a close friend and neighbour. However, Niall Brennan tells us that Dr Mannix made a mistake with his public association with Wren as it damaged the Catholic Church, and : "He (Wren) tried hard but was never successful in buying the Archbishop as he bought politicians", and describes how Mannix refused Wren's contribution of most of a £50,000 testimonial at Mannix's departure for the USA and Rome in 1920 : "It was the last effort to wrap a tentacle around the Archbishop; and it failed".
Under Mannix's influence Wren was fiercely anti-Communist
, and after the war he used his wealth to support politicians who opposed Communism and defended Catholic interests. In return he expected them to protect his business interests, both legal and illegal. By the 1920s, however, Wren no longer needed to be involved in small-time activities like illegal betting, and most of his money came from legal, if not entirely respectable, businesses such as racing and boxing promotion. It was during this period that he also became an influential patron of the Collingwood Football Club
.
During the 1920s, '30s and '40s Wren controlled a political machine in Melbourne's inner suburbs, which he used mainly in the interests of moderate Catholic
Labor
politicians such as James Scullin
, Frank Brennan and Tom Tunnecliffe. But he was also a friend and supporter of the Country Party
Premier of Victoria Albert Dunstan
, and it was his influence which led state Labor leader John Cain
to support Dunstan's minority Country Party government through the 1930s.
member Frank Hardy
launched a savage attack on Wren in his self-published 1950 novel Power Without Glory
, in which Wren appears thinly disguised as a character called John West. The book also included characters based on other important Victorian and Australian political figures, including Victorian Premier Sir Thomas Bent
and Prime Minister James Scullin
, as well as Roman Catholic Archbishop Daniel Mannix
.
Hardy was tried for criminal libel
in 1951 because of the depiction in the novel of "West's" wife having an affair, but he was acquitted on the grounds that the work was, as he said, a mixture of fact and fiction. It was the last prosecution for criminal (as opposed to civil) libel in Victoria
. The case attracted enormous publicity, coinciding as it did with the anti-Communist referendum
and served mainly to give the novel and the negative portrayal of Wren greater prominence. In 1976, the novel was made into an Australian Broadcasting Corporation
television series starring Martin Vaughan as West.
grand final. He was not the only notable Collingwood figure to die that month: legendary coach Jock McHale
had died twenty-two days earlier.
Frank Brennan's son, the author Niall Brennan, gave a favourable portrayal of Wren in his 1971 biography, John Wren: Gambler. Hugh Buggy
's The Real John Wren (1977), with a Foreword by Arthur Calwell
, Federal Parliamentary Labor Party Deputy Leader, was also very favourable. A more balanced account was given by Chris McConville's article in Labour History, "John Wren: Machine Boss" (1981). John Wren: A Life Reconsidered by James Griffin (2004) presented an essentially positive view of Wren's life and career.
Frank Hardy
Francis Joseph Hardy, or Frank, was an Australian left-wing novelist and writer best known for his controversial novel Power Without Glory. He also was a political activist bringing the plight of Aboriginal Australians to international attention with the publication of his book, The Unlucky...
's novel Power Without Glory
Power Without Glory
Power Without Glory is a 1950 novel written by Australian writer Frank Hardy. It was later adapted into a mini-series by the Australian Broadcasting Commission .- Publication :...
, which was also made into a television series. Wren exercised considerable influence in Victorian
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
politics and business, but he was not as powerful as subsequent legend has suggested. Wren's granddaughter, Gabrielle Pizzi
Gabrielle Pizzi
Gabrielle Pizzi was an Australian art dealer who promoted Aboriginal art from the Western Desert from the early 1980s.-Early life:Born Gabrielle Wren, in Sydney she moved to Hobart when she was five years old...
, also achieved renown as an art dealer credited with raising the profile of Aboriginal art.
Early life
Wren was born in CollingwoodCollingwood, Victoria
Collingwood is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra...
, an inner working-class suburb of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, the son of Irish Catholic immigrants. In 1890, while working in a Collingwood shoe factory, he bet his entire savings on Carbine
Carbine (horse)
Carbine , was an outstanding New Zealand bred Thoroughbred racehorse, who competed in New Zealand and later Australia. During his racing career he won 30 stakes or principal races...
, the winner of the Melbourne Cup
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
. In 1903 he added considerably to that sum when his own horse, Murmur, won the Caulfield Cup
Caulfield Cup
The Caulfield Cup, one of Australia's richest Thoroughbred horse races and the richest of its type in the world is held annually by the Melbourne Racing Club. The race is a handicap like the Melbourne Cup, which means that horses that compete in the Caulfield Cup are capable of running on the...
.
Racing and boxing activities
In 1892 Wren established an illegal totalisator (betting shop) behind a tobacconist's shop in Johnston St, Collingwood. The shop provided entry to a spacious wood yard at the rear, which was heavily fortified preventing easy access by the authorities. The betting model he employed for delivering transparent odds to his clients was adopted from George AdamsGeorge Adams (businessman)
George Adams was an Australian publican and lottery promoter best known as the founder of Tattersall's.-Life:...
's successful Tattersalls
Tattersalls
Tattersalls is the main auctioneer of race horses in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1766 by Richard Tattersall , who had been stud groom to the second Duke of Kingston. The first premises occupied were near Hyde Park Corner, in what was then the outskirts of London...
totalisator venture. The Collingwood tote made Wren a rich man and also gave him political influence in the inner suburbs. In 1905 he inherited the running of business interests in pony and horse racing from another Collingwood identity, and later made further expansions into gambling, cinemas, goldmining, newspaper publishing, and professional cycling. He subsequently had a role in the establishment of Moonee Valley Racecourse
Moonee Valley Racecourse
Moonee Valley Racecourse is a horse-racing track in Melbourne, Australia which hosts races for Thoroughbreds. Located six kilometers from the Melbourne CBD, it is the home of the Moonee Valley Racing Club...
in Melbourne, which competed with the Victoria Racing Club
Victoria Racing Club
The Victoria Racing Club was founded in 1864. It was formed following the disbanding of the Victoria Turf Club and the Victoria Jockey Club. A legacy passed from the Victoria Turf Club was the annual “race that stops a nation”, the Melbourne Cup, which was first contested in 1861.From its...
's course at Flemington
Flemington Racecourse
Flemington Racecourse is a major horse racing venue located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is most notable for hosting the Melbourne Cup, which is Australia's richest horse race. The racecourse is situated on low alluvial flats, next to the Maribyrnong River...
.
Wren became best known as a boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
promoter and through this success he was able to establish the Stadiums Limited organisation, which acquired venues in most major Australian capitals, including Sydney Stadium
Sydney Stadium
The Sydney Stadium was a sporting and entertainment venue in Sydney, New South Wales, which formerly stood on the corner of New South Head Road and Neild Avenue, Rushcutters Bay...
, Festival Hall, Melbourne
Festival Hall, Melbourne
Festival Hall is a concert and sporting venue, located at 300 Dudley Street, West Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is one of Melbourne's larger concert venues and has hosted a variety of local and international acts over many years....
and Festival Hall, Brisbane
Brisbane Festival Hall
Brisbane Festival Hall was an indoor arena, located in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.The Festival Hall was originally known as Brisbane Stadium, which was built in 1910. In 1958, the venue was demolished and a new building constructed, by then leading Queensland Construction Company E.J.Taylor &...
.
Wren, along with promoters Snowy Baker and Hugh D. McIntosh
Hugh D. McIntosh
Hugh Donald "Huge Deal" McIntosh was an Australian show-business entrepreneur born to parents of Scottish and Irish origin and modest means in Sydney's Surry Hills, then a ramshackle suburb with a reputation for crime and vice among the largely Irish immigrant population. His policeman father Hugh...
, was accused of using his influence to prevent the great young Australian boxer Les Darcy
Les Darcy
James Leslie Darcy was an Australian boxer. He was a middleweight, but held the Australian Heavyweight Championship title at the same time....
from fighting in America, where he had fled at the end of 1916 to earn money to support his family (according to Darcy) before he would serve in WWI. To quote Greg Growden : "All three realised their meal ticket had dudded them... Wren telegrammed Baker stating he would make certain Darcy was blackbanned in America.". In contrast, James Griffin in "Australian Dictionary of Biography" states : "Locals were discouraged from seeking world titles abroad, but Wren had no part in Les Darcy's nemesis". Griffin also points out that Darcy departed the day before the 1916 conscription referendum (which Wren supported). This illustrates the controversy surrounding John Wren's affairs.
Political influence
Unlike many Australian Irish-Catholics Wren supported Australian involvement in World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and although he supported conscription for the war he grew increasingly anti-British after the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
in Dublin in 1916. This made him a supporter of the powerful Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix
Daniel Mannix
Daniel Mannix was an Irish-born Australian Catholic bishop. Mannix was the Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years and one of the most influential public figures in 20th century Australia....
, who became a close friend and neighbour. However, Niall Brennan tells us that Dr Mannix made a mistake with his public association with Wren as it damaged the Catholic Church, and : "He (Wren) tried hard but was never successful in buying the Archbishop as he bought politicians", and describes how Mannix refused Wren's contribution of most of a £50,000 testimonial at Mannix's departure for the USA and Rome in 1920 : "It was the last effort to wrap a tentacle around the Archbishop; and it failed".
Under Mannix's influence Wren was fiercely anti-Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, and after the war he used his wealth to support politicians who opposed Communism and defended Catholic interests. In return he expected them to protect his business interests, both legal and illegal. By the 1920s, however, Wren no longer needed to be involved in small-time activities like illegal betting, and most of his money came from legal, if not entirely respectable, businesses such as racing and boxing promotion. It was during this period that he also became an influential patron of the Collingwood Football Club
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
.
During the 1920s, '30s and '40s Wren controlled a political machine in Melbourne's inner suburbs, which he used mainly in the interests of moderate Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Labor
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...
politicians such as James Scullin
James Scullin
James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...
, Frank Brennan and Tom Tunnecliffe. But he was also a friend and supporter of the Country Party
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
Premier of Victoria Albert Dunstan
Albert Dunstan
Sir Albert Arthur Dunstan, KCMG was an Australian politician. A member of the Country Party , Dunstan was the 33rd Premier of Victoria. His term as Premier was the second-longest in the state's history, behind Sir Henry Bolte...
, and it was his influence which led state Labor leader John Cain
John Cain (senior)
John Cain was an Australian politician, who became the 34th premier of Victoria, and was the first Australian Labor Party leader to win a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He was the only premier of Victoria whose son also served as premier.-Early life:Cain was born, one of 18...
to support Dunstan's minority Country Party government through the 1930s.
Power Without Glory
In 1950, the novelist and Communist Party of AustraliaCommunist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
member Frank Hardy
Frank Hardy
Francis Joseph Hardy, or Frank, was an Australian left-wing novelist and writer best known for his controversial novel Power Without Glory. He also was a political activist bringing the plight of Aboriginal Australians to international attention with the publication of his book, The Unlucky...
launched a savage attack on Wren in his self-published 1950 novel Power Without Glory
Power Without Glory
Power Without Glory is a 1950 novel written by Australian writer Frank Hardy. It was later adapted into a mini-series by the Australian Broadcasting Commission .- Publication :...
, in which Wren appears thinly disguised as a character called John West. The book also included characters based on other important Victorian and Australian political figures, including Victorian Premier Sir Thomas Bent
Thomas Bent
Sir Thomas Bent KCMG , Australian politician, was the 22nd Premier of Victoria. He was one of the most colourful and corrupt politicians in Victorian history....
and Prime Minister James Scullin
James Scullin
James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...
, as well as Roman Catholic Archbishop Daniel Mannix
Daniel Mannix
Daniel Mannix was an Irish-born Australian Catholic bishop. Mannix was the Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years and one of the most influential public figures in 20th century Australia....
.
Hardy was tried for criminal libel
Criminal libel
Criminal libel is a legal term, of English origin, which may be used with one of two distinct meanings, in those common law jurisdictions where it is still used....
in 1951 because of the depiction in the novel of "West's" wife having an affair, but he was acquitted on the grounds that the work was, as he said, a mixture of fact and fiction. It was the last prosecution for criminal (as opposed to civil) libel in Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. The case attracted enormous publicity, coinciding as it did with the anti-Communist referendum
Australian referendum, 1951
The 1951 Australian Referendum was held on 22 September 1951 and sought approval for the federal government to ban the Communist Party of Australia. It was not carried.-Background:...
and served mainly to give the novel and the negative portrayal of Wren greater prominence. In 1976, the novel was made into an Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
television series starring Martin Vaughan as West.
Death and posthumous reputation
Wren died in 1953, a month after suffering a heart attack while witnessing his team Collingwood win the VFLAustralian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
grand final. He was not the only notable Collingwood figure to die that month: legendary coach Jock McHale
Jock McHale
James Francis "Jock" McHale, was an Australian rules football player and coach for the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League in a marathon career that extended from 1903 to 1949....
had died twenty-two days earlier.
Frank Brennan's son, the author Niall Brennan, gave a favourable portrayal of Wren in his 1971 biography, John Wren: Gambler. Hugh Buggy
Hugh Buggy
Edward Hugh Buggy was a leading journalist well known as an Australian rules football writer covering the Victorian Football League ....
's The Real John Wren (1977), with a Foreword by Arthur Calwell
Arthur Calwell
Arthur Augustus Calwell Australian politician, was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for 32 years from 1940 to 1972, Immigration Minister in the government of Ben Chifley from 1945 to 1949 and Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1960 to 1967.-Early life:Calwell was born in...
, Federal Parliamentary Labor Party Deputy Leader, was also very favourable. A more balanced account was given by Chris McConville's article in Labour History, "John Wren: Machine Boss" (1981). John Wren: A Life Reconsidered by James Griffin (2004) presented an essentially positive view of Wren's life and career.