George Stephenson Beeby (1869 - 1942)

Born 23 May 1869 in Alexandria, New South Wales (Australia)

Ancestors

Husband of Helena Maria (West) Beeby — married 1892 in Newtown, New South Wales (Australia)

Died 18 Jul 1942 at age 73 in Killara, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

George Beeby is Notable.

Sir George Beeby KBE was an Australian politician, judge and author. He was one of the founders of the Labor Party in New South Wales, and represented the party in State Parliament from 1907 to 1912. He fell out with the party and afterward served as a Nationalist and a Progressive. He left parliament in 1920 to join the State Arbitration Court, and in 1926 was appointed to the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, of which he was Chief Judge from 1939 until his retirement in 1941.

Formative years

George Beeby was born in the Colony of New South Wales (1788-1900)

George Stephenson Beeby was born on 23rd May 1869 in Alexandria, New South Wales (Australia). He was the son of English emigrant Edward Beeby, a bookkeeper, and Isobel Thompson. ^[1] He was educated at Crown Street Public School.

On 3rd July 1884 George entered the New South Wales Education Department, where he became a pupil teacher at Macdonald Town (Erskineville) Public School. He didn't keep at it though, drifting through several jobs—working in a bulk iron store, debt-collecting, bookkeeping, stenography in a law firm and accountancy. In 1891 he was secretary of the first Labor Electoral League formed at Newtown and helped in the return of two local Labor candidates at the general election. In 1892 he became editor and manager of the Bowral Free Press, but left it before the end of the year also.

George married Helena West on 9th March 1892 in the Camperdown Church of Christ, in Sydney's inner southern suburbs. ^[2]

In 1893, become one of the chief propagandists of the new Labor Party, he organised Labor in the New England district. As editor-proprietor, in 1894 he began the New England Democrat with £50 capital and one compositor, but it soon failed and the Beebys returned to Sydney broke. He survived the mid-1890s depression by intermittent clerical work and freelancing.

Lawyer and politician

George was a Solicitor, Barrister and Judge

By 1899 George and Helena had three children. George obtained work at £1/15/- a week with the legal firm of Lawrence & Rich and studied law. In 1901 he was with M J Brown and on 16th November was admitted as a solicitor, afterwards founding the firm of Beeby & Moffatt, which specialised in industrial matters.

A fourth, and final, child appeared in 1903. Their places of birth registration also display the uncertainty and unsettledness of the 1890s: Leichhardt (inner western suburbs), Petersham (southern suburbs), Annandale (inner western suburbs) and St Leonards (northern suburbs) respectively.

In 906 George published Three Years of Industrial Arbitration in New South Wales.

He had remained active in the Labor Party and unsuccessfully stood for election in several elections. However, he won the seat of Blayney for the Labor Party at the 1907 State election. He served as Minister of Public Instruction and Minister for Labour and Industry from October 1910 until September 1911, when he was shuffled to Secretary for Lands and Minister of Labour and Industry. In December 1912 he resigned from the ministry, parliament and Labor Party in protest at the power of the extra-parliamentary Labor Party executive. He regained his seat as an independent the following month after a bitter campaign.

George had been called to the bar in 1911 and worked to build a successful practice as a barrister.

Following discussions with the Farmers and Settlers' Association (FASA) the Progressive Party was founded in July 1915 with George as leader. The party proposed preferential voting, extension of Federal powers and the formation of new States. In February 1916 a pact was reached with the Liberal Party to combine against the Labor Party. When W A Holman formed his ministry in November 1916, George was once more appointed Minister for Labour and Industry with a seat provided for him in the Legislative Council. In 1918 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Wagga Wagga.

Towards the end of that year, with the (First World) War winding down, he visited Britain and the United States and, shortly after his return in June 1919, resigned from the government as a protest against administrative acts in connexion with the sale of wheat without the calling of tenders and the allotting of coal contracts. George was elected as the member for Murray in March 1920.

Judge and writer

George was an author and playwright

Nevertheless, in August 1920 George once more resigned from parliament to take up appointments as a judge of the New South Wales Industrial Court of Arbitration and president of the Board of Trade. In September, his eldest daughter, Doris, became his associate, remaining so until 1939.

In 1923 George published Concerning Ordinary People, containing four long and two short plays, ranging from tragedy to farce. They all feature dialogue rather than action, argument rather than plot; but they engage attention with their warm, human understanding. In a volume of readable plays, In Quest of Pan, 1924, his intimacy with the law and industrial relations enabled him to present a compelling court-room scene and stress the need for tolerance and mutual respect in the settlement of strikes. He also released a satire in verse on some of the Australian poets of the period. He was a founder of the Players' Club, which produced several of his works, including Merely Margaret in September 1927.

In 1926 George was appointed to the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, of which he was appointed Chief Justice in 1939. In July 1928 he broke his leg in a Melbourne street and did not return to the bench until December 1929. He published A Loaded Legacy, a light novel, in 1930. He visited England in 1936 on six months leave.

In the King's Birthday Honours 1939 he was created Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) as Chief Justice of the Arbitration Court. ^[3]

Seriously ill, George retired from the bench in 1941. He had proved a notable judge, often in conflict with militant unions, but ensuring the growth of the whole arbitration system on a socially harmonious base.

Death

Aged 73 years, George passed away of cerebro-vascular disease on 18th July 1942 in Killara, in Sydney's northern suburbs. ^[4] He was survived by his wife, their son and three daughters.

Sources

1. ↑ New South Wales Birth Index #4077/1869; registered at Redfern
2. ↑ New South Wales Marriage Index #5651/1892; registered at Newtown
3. ↑ Australian Honours: KBE; accessed 25 Jan 2024
4. ↑ New South Wales Death Index #16867/1942; registered at Chatswood

See also:

• Nairn, Bede. 'Beeby, Sir George Stephenson (1869–1942)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1979; accessed online 25 Jan 2024.