Jump to content

Stanley Argyle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Stanley Argyle
Argyle in 1935
32nd Premier of Victoria
Elections: 1932, 1935
In office
19 May 1932 – 2 April 1935
MonarchGeorge V
GovernorThe Lord Somers
The Lord Huntingfield
DeputyRobert Menzies
Ian Macfarlan
Wilfrid Kent Hughes
Preceded byEdmond Hogan
Succeeded byAlbert Dunstan
Treasurer of Victoria
In office
19 May 1932 – 2 April 1935
Preceded byEdmond Hogan
Succeeded byAlbert Dunstan
7th Leader of the Opposition in Victoria
In office
2 April 1935 – 23 November 1940
PremierAlbert Dunstan
DeputyIan Macfarlan
Wilfrid Kent Hughes
Preceded byThomas Tunnecliffe
Succeeded byThomas Hollway
In office
3 September 1930 – 19 May 1932
PremierEdmond Hogan
DeputyIan Macfarlan
Preceded byWilliam McPherson
Succeeded byThomas Tunnecliffe
Party positions
Leader of the United Australia Party in Victoria
In office
15 September 1931 – 23 November 1940
DeputyIan Macfarlan
Robert Menzies
Ian Macfarlan
Wilfrid Kent Hughes
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byThomas Hollway
Leader of the Nationalist Party in Victoria
In office
3 September 1930 – 15 September 1931
DeputyIan Macfarlan
Preceded byWilliam McPherson
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Deputy Leader of the Nationalist Party in Victoria
In office
5 September 1928 – 3 September 1930
LeaderWilliam McPherson
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byIan Macfarlan
Cabinet posts
Chief Secretary of Victoria
In office
22 November 1928 – 12 December 1929
PremierWilliam McPherson
Preceded byG. M. Prendergast
Succeeded byThomas Tunnecliffe
In office
18 November 1924 – 20 May 1927
PremierJohn Allan
Preceded byThomas Tunnecliffe
Succeeded byG. M. Prendergast
In office
7 September 1923 – 18 July 1924
PremierHarry Lawson
Preceded byMatthew Baird
Succeeded byThomas Tunnecliffe
Minister of Public Health
In office
22 November 1928 – 12 December 1929
PremierWilliam McPherson
Preceded byW. J. Beckett
Succeeded byW. J. Beckett
In office
18 November 1924 – 20 May 1927
PremierJohn Allan
Preceded byJohn Percy Jones
Succeeded byW. J. Beckett
In office
7 September 1923 – 18 July 1924
PremierHarry Lawson
Alexander Peacock
Preceded byMatthew Baird
Succeeded byJohn Percy Jones
Electorate
Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Toorak
In office
1 October 1920 – 1 November 1940
Preceded byNorman Bayles
Succeeded byHarold Thonemann
Personal details
Born
Stanley Seymour Argyle

4 December 1867
Kyneton, Colony of Victoria
Died23 November 1940(1940-11-23) (aged 72)
Toorak, Victoria, Australia
CitizenshipBritish
NationalityAustralian
Political party
Height5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Spouse
Violet Ellen Jessie Lewis
(m. 1895; died 1940)
Children4
RelativesMichael (cousin)
Residence(s)Toorak, Victoria, Australia[a]
Education
Alma mater
Military service
Allegiance Australia
Branch/service Australian Army
Years of service1914–1917
RankLieutenant colonel
Unit
Battles/warsWorld War I

Sir Stanley Seymour Argyle KBE, MRCS, LRCP (4 December 1867 – 23 November 1940), was an Australian radiologist and politician. He served as premier of Victoria from 1932 to 1935 and was the state leader of the Nationalist Party and United Australia Party from 1930 until his death in 1940.

Early life

[edit]

Argyle was born in Kyneton, Colony of Victoria[1] in 1867 to Edward Argyle, a grazier from England, and Mary Clark.[2] He was educated at the Kyneton School, Hawthorn Grammar School, and Brighton Grammar School before attending Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated in medicine. He went on to study bacteriology at King's College London.[3]

Political career

[edit]

After further study in the United Kingdom, he went into general practice in Kew and was later a pioneer of radiology in Australia. He was a member of the Kew City Council from 1898 to 1905 and was mayor from in 1903 to 1905. During World War I, he was consultant radiologist to the Australian Imperial Force in Egypt, France and England. He returned to Australia in 1917 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and resumed his medical practice at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. He invested in the pasteurization of milk and citrus growing.[4]

In 1920, Argyle was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the seat of Toorak as an independent Nationalist. Between 1923 and 1928, he was Chief Secretary and Minister for Health in the ministries of Harry Lawson, John Allan, Alexander Peacock and William McPherson. When McPherson resigned as leader of the Nationalist Party, Argyle was chosen to succeed him and, in 1931, the party was renamed the United Australia Party (UAP). He led the opposition to Ned Hogan's minority Labor Party government, which was unable to cope with the effects of the Great Depression and was heavily defeated at the May 1932 elections.

Argyle formed a coalition government with the Country Party, led by Allan and later by Albert Dunstan. The government had a huge majority – 45 seats to Labor's 16. Ministers included the rising star of the UAP, Robert Menzies, who became Deputy Premier, Attorney-General and Minister for Railways. Argyle, a firm fiscal conservative, held to the orthodox view that in a time of depression government spending must be cut so that the budget remained in balance. This soon brought him into conflict with both the trade unions and the farmers, but at the time there seemed to be no alternative policy. Argyle was lucky in that the economy began to improve from 1932, and the unemployment rate fell from 27 percent in 1932 to 20 percent in 1934 and 14 percent in 1935. That led a reduction in unemployment relief payments and an increase in taxation revenue, easing the state's financial crisis.

Argyle fought the March 1935 election with an improving economy and a record of sound, if unimaginative, management. With the Labor Party opposition still divided and demoralized, he was rewarded with another very comfortable majority for his coalition government. However, at that point he was unexpectedly betrayed by his Country Party allies. The Country Party leader, Albert Dunstan, was a close friend of the gambling boss John Wren, who was also very close to the Labor leader Tom Tunnecliffe (in the view of most historians, Tunnecliffe was, in fact, under Wren's control[citation needed]). Wren, aided by the Victorian Labor Party President, Arthur Calwell, persuaded Dunstan to break off the coalition with Argyle and form a minority Country Party government, which Labor would support in return for some policy concessions. Dunstan agreed to the deal and, in April 1935, he moved a successful no confidence vote in the government from which he had just resigned.

The UAP (and later its successor the Liberal Party) never forgave the Country Party for that treachery. Henry Bolte, later Victoria's longest-serving Premier, was 27 in 1935, and Dunstan's betrayal of Argyle lay behind his lifelong intense dislike of the Country Party, whom he called "political prostitutes".[citation needed] Argyle remained in politics as Leader of the Opposition until his death in 1940.

Personal life

[edit]

Argyle married Violet Ellen Jessie Lewis of "Spring Grove", Cotham Road, Kew at Holy Trinity Church, Kew on 24 January 1895.[5] They had two sons and two daughters;[6] the first of their children, Inez,[7] was born on 2 November 1895.[8] The next, Bessie Abbott,[9] was born on 26 March 1897.[10] Their elder son, Thomas Milner Stanley, was born on 11 October 1899;[11] the younger, Hector Stanley, was born on 2 October 1901.[12] The Argyles lived at Kew until 1919 when they purchased a property, "Halstead", at 29 Bruce Street, Toorak.[13] In 1933, that house was demolished and a new one built to the design of architect Marcus Martin.[14] After the death of her husband, Lady Argyle moved to Perth to be near her son Tom and his family. She died in Perth in 1963 at the age of 94. By that time, three of her four children were living in Perth.

Stanley Argyle was a cousin of the British judge Michael Argyle.[15]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Residence at the time of his death.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Obituary – Sir Stanley Argyle". The Examiner. 25 November 1940.
  2. ^ "Sir Stanley Seymour Argyle". Re-Member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851. Parliament of Victoria. Archived from the original on 23 April 2023. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  3. ^ "The Hon. Sir Stanley Argyle, M.B., M.R.C.S.". The British Medical Journal. 2 (4170): 813. 7 December 1940. JSTOR 20318463.
  4. ^ Shaw, A.G.L (1979). "Argyle, Sir Stanley Seymour (1867–1940)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
  5. ^ "Marriages", Table Talk, 11 January 1895, p. 14; "Marriages", Table Talk 25 January 1895, p. 13.
  6. ^ "Sir S. Argyle Dead" Sydney Morning Herald 25 November 1940 p. 11
  7. ^ "The Ladies Letter", Punch 12 December 1918 p. 36
  8. ^ 'Births' Melbourne Argus 5 November 1895 p. 1
  9. ^ "Ladies Letter" Table Talk 21 July 1921 p.31
  10. ^ 'Births' Melbourne Argus 13 April 1897 p. 1
  11. ^ "Births" Melbourne Argus 21 October 1899 p. 9; 'Argyle-Brinkley wedding' West Australian 23 February 1934 p. 6
  12. ^ "Births" Melbourne Argus 16 October 1901 p. 1; https://www.ancientfaces.com/person/hector-stanley-argyle-birth-1901-australia/138335231
  13. ^ "Social", Table Talk 9 January 1919 p. 30
  14. ^ "Former Premier's Home" Melbourne Age 28 March 1979, p. 37.
  15. ^ Michael Magazanik, "Argyle of the Bailey, a judge of perfect pedigree", Melbourne Age 3 June 1992 p. 3.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Geoff Browne, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900–84, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1985
  • Don Garden, Victoria: A History, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1984
  • Kate White, John Cain and Victorian Labour 1917–1957, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1982
  • Raymond Wright, A People's Counsel. A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856–1990, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992

 

Victorian Legislative Assembly
Preceded by Member for Toorak
1920–1940
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Premier of Victoria
1932–1935
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Nationalist Party in Victoria
1930–1931
Became the United Australia Party
New party Leader of the United Australia Party in Victoria
1931–1940
Succeeded by