Henry Lefroy

James Denton
James Denton
Constituency	Moore
Personal details
Born	24 March 1854; Nationalist

Sir Henry Bruce Lefroy

KCMG (24 March 1854 – 19 March 1930) was the eleventh Premier of Western Australia.^[1]

Biography

Lefroy was born in

Justice of the Peace

, and he was for a time a member of the local Board of Education. He married Rose Agnes Wittenoom in Perth on 15 April 1880, and they had three sons and a daughter.

On 2 August 1892, Lefroy was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Moore in a by-election. On 12 May 1897, he was appointed Minister for Education in John Forrest's government. He held this portfolio until 28 April 1898, when he instead became Minister for Mines. He did not contest the election of 24 April 1901, and so ceased to be a minister when parliament reconvened on 27 May.

From July 1901 until 1904, Lefroy was

Agent-General for Western Australia in London. During his time in London, his first wife died on 17 April 1902. In 1903, he was appointed CMG

, and on 23 November 1904, he married Madeleine Emily Stewart Walford in London. He had two sons and a daughter by his second wife.

After returning to Western Australia, Lefroy unsuccessfully contested the Metropolitan-Suburban Province in the Western Australian Legislative Council. He was again a member of the Victoria Plains Road Board from 1906 to 1909, and was then chairman of the Moora Roads Board from 1909 until 1917.

On 3 October 1911, Lefroy was again elected to the Legislative Assembly seat of Moore, after a hiatus of over ten years. In 1915, he replaced

Nationalist Party. A Nationalist Party was formed in May 1917, but the party voted to reconstruct the ministry by caucus election. Recognising that the intention was to oust the present ministry, Wilson and three of his ministers walked out of the meeting. Lefroy remained, and was elected leader of the party. Wilson then had no choice but to resign as premier, and Lefroy became Premier of Western Australia

on 28 June 1917.

Lefroy's entire ministry was elected by the whole parliamentary party, and it remains the only non-Labor government of Western Australia to be chosen in this way. It was an ill-assorted group, and consequently Lefroy's premiership was marked by infighting, factionalism and a lack of discipline. On one occasion a

MacCallum Smith leaked this embarrassing information to the press, Lefroy resigned as premier and leader of the Nationalist Party on 17 April, and Hal Colebatch

was elected in his place. Lefroy continued as member for Moore but was defeated at the general elections of 12 March 1921. He spent his remaining years at Walebing, dying there on 19 March 1930.

References

Sources

ISBN 0-85564-170-3
.

ISBN 0730738140
.

ISBN 0-85564-214-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
)

Serle, Percival (1949). "Lefroy, Henry". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
The Constitution Centre of Western Australia (2002). Governors and Premiers of Western Australia. West Perth, Western Australia: The Constitution Centre of Western Australia.
ISBN 0-7307-3821-3
.

Kimberly, W.B. (compiler) (1897). History of West Australia. A Narrative of her Past. Together With Biographies of Her Leading Men. Melbourne: F.W. Niven.

Citations

^ Cameron, Catherine, "Lefroy, Sir Henry Bruce (1853–1930)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 11 December 2021

External links

Preceded by Frank Wilson	Premier of Western Australia 1917 – 1919	Succeeded by Hal Colebatch

[1] Cameron, Catherine, "Lefroy, Sir Henry Bruce (1853–1930)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 11 December 2021

[1]