Josiah Thomas was an 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...

 Australian miner and politician.

Thomas was born in Camborne

Camborne

Camborne is a town and civil parish in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is at the western edge of a conurbation comprising Camborne, Pool and Redruth....

, Cornwall, UK and went to Mexico as a child with his father and later worked in mines in Cornwall. He travelled to Australia in the mid-1880s and worked at the Barrier Range, near Broken Hill

Broken Hill, New South Wales

-Geology:Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the...

. He was appointed as a member of a royal commission on collieries in 1886 and worked as a mining captain and assayer in 1890. He married Henrietta Lee Ingleby in July 1889 and they subsequently had two sons and one daughter.

Thomas was elected to the executive of the Amalgamated Miners' Association (AMA) in July 1891 and became president of its Broken Hill branch in 1892. He was a member of the Defence Committee formed during the 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike

1892 Broken Hill miners' strike

The 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike was a sixteen week strike which was one of four major strikes that took place between 1889 and 1920 in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia....

. As a result of his criticism of the magistracy

Local Court of New South Wales

There are over 160 Local Courts in New South Wales. Local Court cases are heard by a magistrate without a jury. It hears summary offences as well as indictable offences and committal hearings. It hears civil claims up to $100,000 and has a Small Claims Division for claims less than $10,000. It...

 in relation to the arrest of eight fellow committee-members on conspiracy charges, he was dismissed as a Justice of the Peace

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

. The mining companies refused to give him work and he had to take up labouring, although as president of the AMA, he was appointed to a New South Wales Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 inquiry into lead poisoning

Lead poisoning

Lead poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems...

 at the mines in 1892.

Political career

Thomas was elected as 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...

 member for Alma

Electoral district of Alma

Alma was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales from 1894 to 1904, named after Alma, a locality in southern Broken Hill, now known as South Broken Hill.-Members for Alma:...

, covering part of Broken Hill in the Legislative Assembly in 1894, where he campaigned for improvements to workplace health and safety. He opposed the bills for the federation of Australia

Federation of Australia

The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...

 because he considered their referenda provisions inadequate.

Thomas was elected the Australian House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 in the inaugural election in 1901 for the seat of Barrier

Division of Barrier

The Division of Barrier was an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It was named for the Barrier Range near the city of Broken Hill in western New South Wales...

. He was appointed Postmaster-General in Andrew Fisher's first ministry

First Fisher Ministry

The First Fisher Ministry was the seventh Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 13 November 1908 to 2 June 1909.Australian Labor Party...

 from November 1908 to June 1909 and his second ministry

Second Fisher Ministry

The Second Fisher Ministry was the ninth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 29 April 1910 to 24 June 1913.Australian Labor Party*Hon Andrew Fisher, MP: Prime Minister and Treasurer*Hon Billy Hughes, MP: Attorney-General...

 from April 1910 to October 1911, when he became Minister for External Affairs

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Australia)

In the Government of Australia, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is responsible for overseeing the international diplomacy section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In common with international practice, the office is often informally referred to as Foreign Minister...

 on the death of Lee Batchelor

Lee Batchelor

Egerton Lee Batchelor, known as Lee Batchelor, , Australian politician, was the 2nd leader of the South Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party, a member of the First Australian Parliament, and the first member for the Federal Division of Boothby in South Australia, from 1903 to 1911...

 until the defeat of the government in June 1913. He visited England as a member of the Imperial Parliamentary Association in 1916 and was thus absent during Labor's split over conscription. On his return he joined Billy Hughes

Billy Hughes

William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....

' Nationalist Party of Australia

Nationalist Party of Australia

The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

. Thomas was elected to the Senate

Australian Senate

The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...

 in 1917

Australian federal election, 1917

Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 May 1917. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

, but lost in 1922

Australian federal election, 1922

Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes lost its majority...

. He was re-elected in 1925

Australian federal election, 1925

Federal elections were held in Australia on 14 November 1925. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 22 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

 but lost again in 1928

Australian federal election, 1928

Federal elections were held in Australia on 17 November 1928. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

.

After politics, Thomas was active as a methodist preacher opposed to gambling, smoking and drinking and in particular supporting prohibition of alcohol. He participated in the establishment of Sydney radio station 2CH

2CH

2CH is a commercial radio station in Sydney, Australia, at 1170 kHz AM. It broadcasts an oldies format, and is aimed to an older age demographic...

 by the New South Wales Council of Churches. Thomas' first wife died in 1901 and he married her sister Clara Ingleby in 1909. One of his sons with Henrietta was killed on the Western Front

Western Front (World War I)

Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...

 during World War I. He died of heart disease

Heart disease

Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...

 in the Sydney suburb of Croydon Park

Croydon Park, New South Wales

Croydon Park is a suburb, in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Croydon Park is about 13 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is divided between the local government areas of the City of Canterbury, Burwood Council and Municipality of...

. He was survived by his second wife and a son from each of his marriages.