George Kerr (Australian politician)

George Kerr
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Barcoo
In office 20 May 1893 – 2 October 1909
Preceded by	Tommy Ryan
Succeeded by	T. J. Ryan
Personal details
Born	George Kerr (1853-02-07)7 February 1853 Beadnell, Northumberland, England
Died	18 January 1930(1930-01-18) (aged 76) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Resting place	Toowong Cemetery
Nationality	English
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Other political affiliations	Ministerial, Opposition, Independent
Spouse(s)	Florence McCulloch (m.1882 d.1883), Susan Jane Moore (nee Deacon) (m.1891)
Occupation	Blacksmith, Grazier
Religion	Methodist

George Kerr (1853–1930) was an Australian politician, grazier, and blacksmith. He was born on 7 February 1853 at Beadnell, Northumberland, England and after training to become a blacksmith moved to Queensland in 1877. He became a mining speculator on the Croydon goldfields and then set up his own forge in Tambo, Queensland to service mining operations in the local region. He became involved in local politics for the Australian Labor Party, and in 1893 he was elected to represent the electoral district of Barcoo in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland and served in that post until 1909. He rose to senior positions within the party, culminating in his election as leader of the Queensland Parliamentary Labor Party in 1904 after the death of his predecessor William Henry Brown.^[1] Kerr's leadership was complicated by a split in the party in 1905 in which he and other senior Labor figures opted to form a coalition with the Liberal Party to achieve state-wide reforms. Although initially he commanded the confidence of the party, a state conference of the party in 1907 rejected Kerr's leadership and the Liberal-Labor coalition, opting to go into the 1907 state election alone.^[2] Kerr continued in parliament as an independent Labor member but was challenged by official Labor candidates until his defeat in his seat in 1909. He died on 18 January 1930 in Brisbane^[3] and was buried in Toowong Cemetery.^[4]

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