Frank Tudor

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Frank Gwynne Tudor (27 January 1866 – 10 January 1922), Australian Labor politician, was born in Melbourne, the son of working-class immigrants from Wales. He had a primary education before going to work in a sawmill, then worked in a hat factory. In the 1880s and 1890s he travelled and worked in Britain and the United States, before returning to Melbourne.

Tudor became secretary of the Hatters' Union, and President of the Melbourne Trades Hall, a federation of trade unions. He was also active in the local Labor Party. At the first federal elections in 1901 he was elected to the House of Representatives for the Division of Yarra. He was Minister for Trade and Customs in the three governments led by Andrew Fisher, in 1908-09, 1910-13 and 1914-15. He held the same position when Billy Hughes became Labor leader in 1916.

Tudor was the leading opponent in Hughes's cabinet of the Prime Minister's determination to introduce conscription for the Australian Army in World War I, although the anti-conscription lobby was mostly Irish Catholic in nature.

In September 1916 he resigned from the Cabinet. When Hughes was expelled from the Labor Party shortly afterwards, Tudor was elected as Leader to replace him. Although he was a competent minister, Tudor was not in Hughes's league as a political leader, and he and Labor suffered a heavy defeat at the 1917 elections which confirmed Hughes and his new Nationalist Party in power.

After 1917 the Labor Party began to look for a replacement for Tudor, and at the 1919 election, at which Labor was again defeated, the Premier of Queensland, Thomas Joseph Ryan, transferred to federal politics and became Tudor's deputy. Ryan would probably have replaced Tudor as leader had he not died suddenly in 1921. Tudor himself was in poor health, and he too died in January 1922.

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by None	Member for Yarra 1901 – 1922	Succeeded by James Scullin
Preceded by Robert Best	Minister for Trade and Customs 1910 – 1913	Succeeded by Littleton Groom
Preceded by Littleton Groom	Minister for Trade and Customs 1914 – 1916	Succeeded by Billy Hughes
Preceded by Billy Hughes	Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1916 – 1922	Succeeded by Mathew Charlton
Preceded by Joseph Cook	Leader of the Opposition 1916 – 1922

Leaders of the Australian Labor Party
Watson | Fisher | Hughes | Tudor | Charlton | Scullin | Curtin | Chifley | Evatt | Calwell | Whitlam | Hayden | Hawke | Keating | Beazley | Crean | Latham | Beazley | Rudd