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Fast facts: Chris Watson
Personal profile
Born:
(probably) 9 April 1867, Valparaiso, Chile
Education:
Weston school, New Zealand (c.1877–79); typographical trade certificate c.1886
Employment:
newspaper compositor, union official, company director
Memberships:
Typographers Union, Oamaru; New Zealand Land League; Typographical Association of NSW; Land Nationalisation Society NSW
Marriage:
27 November 1889 and 30 October 1925
Children:
Jacqueline (1927, from marriage to Antonia Dowlan)
Died:
18 November 1941, Double Bay, Sydney
Buried:
cremated, ashes at North Sydney Crematorium
Honours:
no official honours conferred
Born:
1859, England
Died:
19 July 1921, Sydney
Political profile
Terms as PM:
27 April 1904 – 18 August 1904
Terms as MP:
NSW Legislative Assembly: July 1894 – March 1901 (Young)
House of Representatives: 9 May 1901 – December 1906 (Bland); December 1906 – 13 April 1910 (South Sydney)
Leader of the Opposition: 18 August 1904 – 5 July 1905
Portfolios:
Treasurer: 27 April – 18 August 1904
Political memberships:
Australian Labor Party (1900–16; leader Federal Parliamentary Party, 8 May 1901 – 24 October 1907); Nationalist Party (1917–c.22), Australian Workers Union (1894–1916); Australian Industries Protection League (NSW)
After:
Australian Workers Union official;
National Roads Association president (1920–23);
National Roads and Motorists Association president (1923–41)
Quiz facts
- made Australia the first nation with a labour Prime Minister
- established the solidarity rule by which he was expelled from the Labor Party
- designed the soldier settlement scheme in 1917
- trustee of Sydney Cricket Ground
- a founder of the National Roads and Motorists Association
- a founder and first chairman of Ampol in 1936