Archie Cameron

The Honourable Archie Cameron
12th Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives
In office 22 February 1950 – 9 August 1956
Preceded by	Sol Rosevear
Succeeded by	Sir John McLeay
Minister for Navy
In office 14 March 1940 – 28 October 1940
Prime Minister	Robert Menzies
Preceded by	Frederick Stewart
Succeeded by	Billy Hughes
Minister for Commerce
In office 14 March 1940 – 28 October 1940
Prime Minister	Robert Menzies
Preceded by	Sir Earle Page
Succeeded by	George McLeay
Leader of the Country Party
In office 13 September 1939 – 16 October 1940
Deputy	Harold Thorby Arthur Fadden
Preceded by	Earle Page
Succeeded by	Arthur Fadden
Postmaster-General
In office 7 November 1938 – 26 April 1939
Prime Minister	Joseph Lyons Earle Page
Preceded by	Alexander McLachlan
Succeeded by	Eric Harrison
Member of the Australian Parliament for Barker
In office 15 September 1934 – 9 August 1956
Preceded by	Malcolm Cameron
Succeeded by	Jim Forbes
Personal details
Born	22 March 1895 Happy Valley, South Australia
Died	9 August 1956 (aged 61) Sydney
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Country (federal, 1927–40) LCL (state, 1932–1934) UAP (1940–44) Liberal (1944–56)
Spouse(s)	Margaret Eileen Walsh
Occupation	Farmer
Religion	Roman Catholic

Archie Galbraith Cameron (22 March 1895 – 9 August 1956) was an Australian politician. He was a Country Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1934 until his death, representing the South Australian electorate of Barker. He was federal leader of the Country Party from 1939 to 1940 and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1950 to 1956. He had previously served in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1927 to 1934.

Biography

Archie Cameron was born in Happy Valley, South Australia, and was the son of a Scottish-born farmer. He was educated at state schools and worked on his father's farm at Happy Valley until 1916, when he joined the First Australian Imperial Force and fought on the Western Front. He was gassed while in the front, suffering severe damage to his heart and lungs. After World War I Cameron took up farming at Loxton, and became active in the newly formed Country Party. In 1922, he married Margaret Eileen Walsh.^[1]

Political career

In 1927, Cameron was elected to the seat of Wooroora in the South Australian House of Assembly, and became leader of the state branch of the Country Party. He helped shepherd the merger of the SA Country Party with the Liberal Federation to form the Liberal and Country League. As part of the deal, in 1934 he was elected to the House of Representatives for Barker, a mostly conservative seat stretching from rural southeastern South Australia to the outer suburbs of Adelaide.

Cameron was an extreme conservative with a violent temper, and not really suited to parliamentary life. Despite this, he did not have long to wait for ministerial preferment; in 1937 he was appointed an assistant minister in the government of Joseph Lyons. He briefly served as acting minister for commerce in 1938, and during that time became the first minister to be "named" by the Speaker. Later that year, he became Postmaster-General. He temporarily suspended radio 2KY's licence because he objected to political views expressed on it.^[1]

In 1939 Lyons died, and the Country Party leader, Dr Earle Page, refused to serve under his successor, Robert Menzies. The Country Party then rebelled against Page's leadership, deposed him and elected Cameron as their new leader.

Cameron took the Country Party back into the coalition government under Menzies, becoming Minister for Commerce and Minister for the Navy. After the 1940 election, however, the Country Party tired of Cameron's domineering style, and replaced him as leader with Arthur Fadden. Cameron then immediately resigned from the ministry, and from the Country Party: he joined Menzies's party, the United Australia Party. He rejoined the Army and spent the rest of the war on active service in the Directorate of Military Intelligence at Army Headquarters, Melbourne, where he did useful work on the Japanese order of battle.^[1] While he was in the service, he faced what would be his only really close electoral contest. At the 1943 election, trade unionist Harry Krantz slashed Cameron's majority from a comfortably safe 15.9 percent to an extremely marginal 1.7 percent. Cameron was left as the only non-Labor MP from South Australia, and the only non-Labor member outside the eastern states with full voting rights.

Cameron followed most of the UAP into Menzies's new party, the Liberal Party, and when the Liberals won the 1949 elections Menzies appointed him Speaker of the House: mainly, it was said, to keep him out of the Cabinet. He presided over the House with an autocratic style that caused a number of celebrated rows with members on both sides. Cameron's health never recovered from his World War I gassing, and in August 1955 he contracted influenza. Despite this, he fought that year's election and was handily reelected. He eventually died of myocardial infarction in August in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. He was survived by his wife and son, but not a daughter.^[1]

References

1. Playford, John (1993). "Cameron, Archie Galbraith (1895–1956)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: Australian National University. Retrieved 18 November 2007.