Lewis Nott
Encyclopedia
Lewis Windermere Nott was an Australia
n politician, medical practitioner and hospital superintendent. He represented two federal electorates, more than 1,000 km and 21 years apart.
was later a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
. Lewis Nott was educated at Maryborough
Grammar School. He then studied assaying at the School of Mines and Industries
, Ballarat
, Victoria
before undertaking a medical degree at the University of Sydney
. In 1913, he married Doris Ashbury in the Sydney
suburb of Woolwich
. Ashbury was the granddaughter of John Ingham Aspinall, a member of the well-known Aspinall family.
They travelled to Scotland
where he continued studying medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
. At the outbreak of World War One
he enlisted in the Royal Scots
and rose captain and made adjutant. In 1916 he was wounded and twice mentioned in dispatches
. He resigned his commission and resumed his medical training in December 1916. On graduation in 1918 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and in 1919 worked at the Pilkington Special (Orthopaedic) Hospital, St Helens
, Lancashire
.
and then was appointed medical superintendent of Mackay
District Hospital. From 1924 to 1927 he was mayor of Mackay
. In 1925
he won the seat of Herbert
, then including Mackay and Townsville, in Federal Parliament
for the Nationalist Party
. In this contest he unexpectedly defeated the Australian Labor Party
candidate Ted Theodore
, who had resigned as Premier of Queensland
in order to enter federal politics (he had to wait for a by-election in 1927 in a Sydney seat before he was successful). In 1928
Nott lost the seat to the Labor candidate, George Martens
. He ran unsuccessfully in North Sydney
(1929
), Calare
(1934
) and East Sydney
(1940
).
Nott moved to Canberra
in 1927, the year that it became the national capital. In 1929 he was appointed Medical Superintendent of the Canberra Hospital
and held this position until 1934 and from 1941 to 1949. He was also a private practitioner throughout this period.
He campaigned for the creation of an advisory council for the Federal Capital Territory (in 1938 renamed the Australian Capital Territory
, ACT) and was elected as a member of the council from 1935 to 1949. In 1949
, he was elected as an independent as the first representative of the Division of Australian Capital Territory
in the Federal Parliament, where he had unlimited speaking rights but could only vote on matters affecting the ACT. His break in parliamentary service of 21 years (1928–1949) is a record for the Australian parliament. He was one of only five people who have represented more than one state or territory in the House of Representatives, and the only one to represent both a state and a territory.
He was defeated by the Labor candidate Jim Fraser
in the 1951 election
. He was subsequently appointed as medical officer at the Newborough Clinic, Yallourn
, Victoria, but collapsed on the flight to Melbourne and died the next day of leukemia
in Royal Melbourne Hospital
and is buried in the Presbyterian Section of the Woden Cemetery, Canberra.
. The older daughter, an ice skater, moved to Canada
where she married. The second daughter, Lyndal, died in a laboratory accident on 10 April 1966 in Canberra. Their third son was born in Canberra. One of his grandchildren, Matthew Nott, is a surgeon and environmentalist.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician, medical practitioner and hospital superintendent. He represented two federal electorates, more than 1,000 km and 21 years apart.
Early life and war service
Nott was born at Windermere, a sugar-plantation located near Bundaberg, Queensland. He was the son of Frederick Lewis Nott, a Planter, and Jean Blair. His younger brother Frederick LancelotFrederick Lancelot Nott
Frederick Lancelot Nott was a politician in Queensland, Australia and a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1920 to 1927.Nott was born in East Maitland, New South Wales, the son of Frederick Lewis Nott and Jean...
was later a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
Queensland Legislative Assembly
The Queensland Legislative Assembly is the unicameral chamber of the Parliament of Queensland. Elections are held approximately once every three years. Voting is by the Optional Preferential Voting form of the Alternative Vote system...
. Lewis Nott was educated at Maryborough
Maryborough, Queensland
Maryborough is a city located on the Mary River in South East Queensland, Australia, approximately north of the state capital, Brisbane. The city is serviced by the Bruce Highway, and has a population of approximately 22,000 . It is closely tied to its neighbour city Hervey Bay which is...
Grammar School. He then studied assaying at the School of Mines and Industries
University of Ballarat
The University of Ballarat is a dual-sector university in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It was formed by the passage of an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1994, from the Ballarat College of Advanced Education...
, Ballarat
Ballarat, Victoria
Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...
, 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....
before undertaking a medical degree at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. In 1913, he married Doris Ashbury in the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
suburb of Woolwich
Woolwich, New South Wales
Woolwich is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woolwich is located 11 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Hunter's Hill....
. Ashbury was the granddaughter of John Ingham Aspinall, a member of the well-known Aspinall family.
They travelled to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
where he continued studying medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is an organisation dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and advancement in surgical practice, through its interest in education, training and examinations, its liaison with external medical bodies and representation of the modern surgical workforce...
, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh was established in the 17th century. While the RCPE is based in Edinburgh, it is by no means just a Scottish professional body - more than half of its 7,700 Fellows, Members, Associates and Affiliates live and practice medicine outside Scotland, in 86...
, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, is an institute of physicians and surgeons in Glasgow, Scotland.Founded by Peter Lowe after receiving a royal charter by James VI in 1599, as the Glasgow Faculty, this institution originally existed as a regulatory authority to ensure that...
. At the outbreak of World War One
World 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...
he enlisted in the Royal Scots
The Royal Scots
The Royal Scots , once known as the Royal Regiment of Foot, was the oldest, and therefore most senior, infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, having been raised in 1633 during the reign of Charles I of Scotland...
and rose captain and made adjutant. In 1916 he was wounded and twice mentioned in dispatches
Mentioned in Dispatches
A soldier Mentioned in Despatches is one whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which is described the soldier's gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy.In a number of countries, a soldier's name must be mentioned in...
. He resigned his commission and resumed his medical training in December 1916. On graduation in 1918 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and in 1919 worked at the Pilkington Special (Orthopaedic) Hospital, St Helens
St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens with a population of just over 100,000, part of an urban area with a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 Census...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
.
Medical practitioner and politician
Nott returned to Australia and took part in the campaign against hookwormHookworm
The hookworm is a parasitic nematode that lives in the small intestine of its host, which may be a mammal such as a dog, cat, or human. Two species of hookworms commonly infect humans, Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus. A. duodenale predominates in the Middle East, North Africa, India...
and then was appointed medical superintendent of Mackay
Mackay, Queensland
Mackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
District Hospital. From 1924 to 1927 he was mayor of Mackay
City of Mackay
The City of Mackay was a Local Government Area located in the Central Queensland region of Queensland, Australia, encompassing the regional city of Mackay and the surrounding region. The City was created as a municipal borough in 1869, and prior to amalgamation with the Shire of Pioneer in 1994,...
. 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...
he won the seat of Herbert
Division of Herbert
The Division of Herbert is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. Eligible voters within the Division elect a single representative, known as the member for Herbert, to the Australian House of Representatives. The division was first contested at the 1901 election...
, then including Mackay and Townsville, in Federal Parliament
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
for the Nationalist Party
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...
. In this contest he unexpectedly defeated 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...
candidate Ted Theodore
Ted Theodore
Edward Granville Theodore was an Australian politician. He was Premier of Queensland 1919–25, a federal politician representing a New South Wales seat 1927–31, and Federal Treasurer 1929–30.-Early life:...
, who had resigned as Premier of Queensland
Premiers of Queensland
Before the 1890s, there was no developed party system in Queensland. Political affiliation labels before that time indicate a general tendency only. Before the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, political parties were more akin to parliamentary factions, and were fluid, informal and...
in order to enter federal politics (he had to wait for a by-election in 1927 in a Sydney seat before he was successful). 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...
Nott lost the seat to the Labor candidate, George Martens
George Martens
George William Martens was an Australian politician. Born in Mount Perry, Queensland, he received a primary education before becoming a bushworker. He was active in the trade union movement, notably the Sugar Workers Union, and was an organiser with the Australian Workers' Union, of which he...
. He ran unsuccessfully in North Sydney
Division of North Sydney
The Division of North Sydney is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division is named after the North Sydney area where it is located. It was proclaimed in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election...
(1929
Australian federal election, 1929
Federal elections were held in Australia on 12 October 1929. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election, with no Senate seats up for election, as a result of Billy Hughes and other rebel backbenchers crossing the floor over industrial relations legislation, depriving the...
), Calare
Division of Calare
The Division of Calare is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was first contested at the 1906 election and is named for the local Aboriginal name for the Lachlan River, which runs through the western part of the division...
(1934
Australian federal election, 1934
Federal elections were held in Australia on 15 September 1934. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent United Australia Party led by Prime Minister of Australia Joseph Lyons with coalition partner the Country Party led...
) and East Sydney
Division of East Sydney
The Division of East Sydney was anAustralian 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 abolished in 1969. It was named for the suburb of East Sydney. It was located in the inner...
(1940
Australian federal election, 1940
Federal elections were held in Australia on 21 September 1940. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...
).
Nott moved to Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
in 1927, the year that it became the national capital. In 1929 he was appointed Medical Superintendent of the Canberra Hospital
Canberra Hospital
The Canberra Hospital is a public hospital located in Garran, Canberra. It is a tertiary level centre with 500 beds and caters to a population of about 520,000...
and held this position until 1934 and from 1941 to 1949. He was also a private practitioner throughout this period.
He campaigned for the creation of an advisory council for the Federal Capital Territory (in 1938 renamed the Australian Capital Territory
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
, ACT) and was elected as a member of the council from 1935 to 1949. In 1949
Australian federal election, 1949
Federal elections were held in Australia on 10 December 1949. All 121 seats in the House of Representatives, and 42 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, where the single transferable vote was introduced...
, he was elected as an independent as the first representative of the Division of Australian Capital Territory
Division of Australian Capital Territory
The Division of Australian Capital Territory was an Australian electoral division in the Territory of the same name. The division was created in 1949 and included the whole of the city of Canberra and surrounding rural areas....
in the Federal Parliament, where he had unlimited speaking rights but could only vote on matters affecting the ACT. His break in parliamentary service of 21 years (1928–1949) is a record for the Australian parliament. He was one of only five people who have represented more than one state or territory in the House of Representatives, and the only one to represent both a state and a territory.
He was defeated by the Labor candidate Jim Fraser
Jim Fraser
James Reay Fraser was a Member of the Australian House of Representatives for the Australian Capital Territory from 1951 to 1970....
in the 1951 election
Australian federal election, 1951
Federal elections were held in Australia on 28 April 1951. All 121 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, due to a double dissolution called after the Senate rejected the Commonwealth Bank Bill...
. He was subsequently appointed as medical officer at the Newborough Clinic, Yallourn
Yallourn, Victoria
Yallourn, Victoria was a company town in Victoria, Australia built between the 1920s and 1950s to house employees of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, who operated the nearby Yallourn Power Station complex. However, expansion of the adjacent open-cut brown coal mine led to the closure...
, Victoria, but collapsed on the flight to Melbourne and died the next day of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
in Royal Melbourne Hospital
Royal Melbourne Hospital
The Royal Melbourne Hospital , located in Parkville, Victoria an inner suburb of Melbourne is one of Australia’s leading public hospitals. It is a major teaching hospital for tertiary health care with a reputation in clinical research...
and is buried in the Presbyterian Section of the Woden Cemetery, Canberra.
Family
Lewis and Doris Nott had three sons and two daughters. Their first two sons, born overseas, died young, at ages 11 years and 10 years respectively, in Sydney, NSW. They were followed by two daughters born in QueenslandQueensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. The older daughter, an ice skater, moved to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
where she married. The second daughter, Lyndal, died in a laboratory accident on 10 April 1966 in Canberra. Their third son was born in Canberra. One of his grandchildren, Matthew Nott, is a surgeon and environmentalist.