Walter Massy-Greene

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Walter Massy-Greene was an Australian politician.

Massy-Greene was born in London on November 6, 1874 and was educated at Oxford University. He emigrated to Australia in 1891. He worked as a farmer, gold prospector and bank officer before becoming a dairy farmer in the Lismore area. Massy-Greene was elected to local government prior to standing for Federal Parliament.

He was elected to the House of Representatives for the seat of Richmond in 1910. He was initially elected as a member of the Commonwealth Liberal Party. However in 1917, following the Australian Conscription Crisis, the Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party formed a coalition and Massy-Greene became a member of the resultant Nationalist Party. He continued to represent Richmond until 1922 when he was defeated by a Country Party candidate. He was a Nationalist Party Senator for New South Wales from 1923 to 1925 and from 1926 to 1938.

In the Fourth Hughes Ministry Massy-Greene was an Honorary Minister in charge of matters relating to price-fixing (27 March 1918 – 17 January 1919). He was then promoted to be Minister for Trade and Customs (17 January 1919 – 21 December 1921). On 10 March 1921 he became the first Minister for Health, a position he held until 5 February 1923. He then became Australian Minister for Defence until 5 February 1923.

He was relegated to the back bench during the Bruce Ministry. In the First Lyons Ministry he became the minister assisting the Leader of the Government in the Senate (6 January 1932 – 23 June 1932) and assistant Treasurer (6 January 1932 – 25 September 1933). He died in 1952.

Preceded by William Watt	Minister for Customs and Trade 1919–1921	Succeeded by Arthur Rogers
Preceded by Split from Trade and Customs	Minister for Health 1921–1923	Succeeded by Austin Chapman