Benjamin Courtice

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Benjamin Courtice (14 February 1881 – 26 April 1946) was an Australian politician.

Courtice was born in Bundaberg, Queensland and educated at Bundaberg South State School. He left school at twelve to work in the laboratory of the Millaquin sugar refinery at Bundaberg. In 1905, he was involved in the formation of the Bundaberg and District Workers' Union, which later became part of the Australian Workers' Union. He married Bertha Demaine in 1910 and they had a son and three daughters before her death in 1925. Courtice won £90 for winning a foot-race at about the time of his marriage and used it to buy a sugar farm and he subsequently became a member of various sugar growers organisations. In 1936, he married Elsie Dora Maud Joyner.^[1]

[edit] Political career

Courtice was appointed to a casual vacancy in the Australian Senate in 1937 representing the Australian Labor Party. He was Minister for Trade and Customs in the second Chifley Ministry from November 1946 until Labor's defeat at the 1949 election. He retired from the Senate at the end of his term in June 1962. He died in Bundaberg, survived by the children of his first marriage.^[1]

[edit] Notes

Political offices
Preceded by James Fraser	Minister for Trade and Customs 1946–1949	Succeeded by Neil O'Sullivan

Persondata
NAME	Courtice, Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Australian politician
DATE OF BIRTH	28 March 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia
DATE OF DEATH	7 January 1972
PLACE OF DEATH	Bundaberg, Queensland