Douglas Darby
Evelyn Douglas Darby MP (24 September 1910 – 22 August 1985) was an Australian politician, elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. His efforts in denouncing socialism, attacking the labour movement, breaking strikes, organising anti-Soviet Eastern European émigrés, supporting Australia's military commitment to the Vietnam War, and championing non-communist Taiwan, established Darby's reputation as a powerful right-wing ideologue.[1][2][3][4]
Early life
Darby was born in Lowestoft, England, and remained proud to be British throughout his life. His parents were Percy Charles Darby, estate agent, and his wife Jessie, née Ainslie, a branch secretary of Shop Assistants Union.[1]
He trained at
When Europe went to war in 1939, Darby attempted to enlist in the Second Australian Imperial Force but was rejected because of myopia. Instead, having studied at the University of Sydney and having graduated with a Bachelor of Economics in 1938, he was seconded from primary teaching to the Youth Section of the Federal Department of Labour and Industry, to work as a vocational officer.[3]
Darby went on to found the British Orphans' Adoption Society (BOAS) which "sought to bring British war orphans to Australia for legal adoption." From June 1940 to January 1941, the Society sent 2,000 pounds in weight of warm clothing to England. Dame Enid Lyons, the widow of former prime minister Joseph Lyons, Professor F.A. Bland, Darby's economics professor, and Sir Arthur Rickard, owner of Sydney's largest real estate company, became BOAS patrons.[3]
Political career
In 1945 BOAS became a member of the
Representing Prime Minister Menzies' "forgotten people" in post-war Manly, Darby proved a strong advocate for his middle-class seaside constituency, and his advocacy of conservative moral values and individual liberty and his opposition to communism became the hallmarks of his career.[3][4]
A year after winning Manly for the Liberal Party,
Breaking strikes won Darby approval in his electorate and among his parliamentary colleagues, acts that he increasingly saw as fighting the enemy of communism within. Darby's preoccupation with the communist menace, and success of his "interventions", encouraged him to mount 'Operation Potato' in March 1947, after 6,000 Sydney waterside workers "refused to convert to a 53-hour week again", and he used volunteers to unload food ships under police protection. That helped Darby to return with an increased majority in that year's state election.[3]
As the
After losing pre-selection for Manly in 1961, he resigned from the Liberal Party. He successfully contested the seat in the 1962 and 1965 State election elections as an Independent, and was readmitted to the Liberal Party in August 1966.[1][2][4]
Darby also campaigned against juvenile hooliganism,
From 1960, support for
He retired from State parliament in 1978, after 33 years as a parliamentarian.[2]
Personal life
Darby married fellow teacher Esme Jean McKenzie in 1941 and moved to the Sydney beachside suburb of Manly in 1951, before purchasing "Whitehall",[7] at nearby 37 White Street, Balgowlah in 1953 where he spent the rest of his life.[8] Douglas and Esme had two sons (James and Michael),[9] four daughters (Alison, Jennifer, Norma and Rosemary) and an adopted Chinese daughter (Mala).
He died on 22 August 1985 after undergoing heart surgery at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital at Wahroonga, New South Wales.[10]
His wife, Esme (1908–97), was educated at Fort Street Girls High School, Sydney Teachers College and the University of Sydney (graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1934). She worked as a teacher in the years 1928-41 and 1943-44. While living in the Manly area she supported The NSW Society for Crippled Children. After a failed bid in 1961 to gain pre-selection for the seat of Mackellar, she supported the Australian Housewives Association on the Captive Nations Week committee, accompanied her husband to several anti-communist conferences overseas and to Taiwan, and was a committee member of the Australia-Free China Society. In 1975 she was awarded an MBE for her promotion of youth welfare.[1]
Bibliography
The following books and pamphlets were written by Douglas Darby:
- Orphans of the War, Sydney: British Orphans Adoption Society, 1944
- A Brief Assessment of the Wyndham Report, Sydney, N.S.W.: s.n., 1959. Joint author: New South Wales. Committee Appointed to Survey Secondary Education in New South Wales. Report 1957.
- Lenin, Master or Monster, Belmore, N.S.W.: News Digest-International, 1970. "The text of an address given at the Wallace Theatre, Sydney University, April 17th 1970, on the occasion of the centenary of Lenin's birthday".[11]
- The New Rat Track, Sydney: D. Darby, 1971
- The Natural Anti-Pollutionist, St. Ives, N.S.W.: South Pacific Federation of Natural Therapeutists, 1972
- Out of the Night, Taipei: Australia-Free China Society, 1975
- Oil for Lamps of Freedom, Taipei and Sydney: Australia-Free China Society, 1972; 2nd edition, Australia-Free China Society, 1977
- The Radiance of a Star, Sydney: Wentworth Books, 1972
- Why Croatia?, [Victoria]: D. Darby, c. 1975
- Slovakia's Quest for Freedom, Sydney: Australian Slovak's Association, 1978
- Australia's Debt to the Republic of China, Sydney: Australia-Free China Society, 1978
- Trust the Two Per Cent: A Comparative Study of Free China and Communist China, Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Centre for International Studies, 1982
- Christmas Means Giving, Balgowlah, N.S.W.: D. Darby, 1982
- The Forgotten Factor: The Twenty-Seventh Christmas Poem, Balgowlah, N.S.W.: D. Darby, 1983
References
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Mr Evelyn Douglas Darby (1910-1985)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^ Labor History, Number 89, November 2005, pp. 87-100. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
- ^ a b c John Peel, "Author analyses success of dumped member", The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 November 1968, p. 6.
- ^ Geraldine O'Brien, "A crusader for the Taiwan cause", The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 March 1979, p. 6.
- Free China Review, Volumes 24-25, W.Y. Tsao, 1974, page 4
- ^ Balgowlah, dictionaryofsydney.org. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
- ^ John Morecombe, "Noble residence fit for a prime minister, a local MP, a seamen’s church and now a family", Daily Telegraph, 2 May 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
- ^ Henriques-Gomes, Luke (17 January 2021). "'It was life or death': the plane-hijacking refugees Australia embraced". Guardian Australia. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ "Douglas Darby, former MP, dies", The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August 1985, p. 5.
- ^ Lenin, Master or Monster, nla.gov.au. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
Further reading
- R. W. Connell and Florence Gould, Politics of the Extreme Right, Sydney, Sydney University Press, 1967 (Sydney Studies in Politics Series, No. 7).
- Dave Davies, The Ustasha in Australia, ISBN 0909913102.
- ISBN 0855721294.
- Denis Freney, Nazis Out of Uniform: the Dangers of Neo-Nazi Terrorism in Australia, Denis Freney, Sydney South, 2000 [1984], ISBN 0959645829.
- ISBN 019553512X.
- John Playford, The Truth Behind Captive Nations Week and the Extremist Émigrés: A.B.N. (Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations) in Australia, Outlook Publication, Sydney, reprinted 2000.
- ISBN 0868400912.
- K. I. Turner, 'A Profile of Manly' in: John Power (ed.), Politics in a Suburban Community: The N.S.W. State Election in Manly, 1965, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1968, ISBN 0424057107.
- Katharine West, Power in the Liberal Party: A Study in Australian Politics, F.W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1965 Connell and Gould, Politics of the Extreme Right, p. 37. Darby believed that his quest for moral leadership in parliament led to his political isolation. See John Power, 'The Candidates', in John Power (ed.), Politics in a Suburban Community: the N.S.W. State Election in Manly, 1965, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1968, ISBN 0424057107.
External links
- Evelyn Douglas Darby interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection at National Library of Australia
- Darby Family Papers, 1902-1986 at State Library of New South Wales
- Darby family - papers, 1902-1986, with Cusack family papers, ca. 1914-1950 at Trove Australia