Greg McGirr

John Joseph Gregory "Greg" McGirr (11 October 1879 – 23 March 1949) was an Australian politician, elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.

The second son of John Patrick McGirr, a farmer, and Mary (née O'Sullivan) McGirr, both Irish emigrants, Greg McGirr was born in Parkes, New South Wales, and educated at St Joseph's Convent, Parkes, and St Stanislaus' College, Bathurst. He graduated in pharmacy from the University of Sydney in 1904.^[1] James McGirr, Premier of that state from 1947 to 1952, was one of his younger brothers. Another brother, Patrick, was also a New South Wales politician.^[1]

He opened chemist shops at Parkes, Peak Hill, Orange, Narromine, and eventually Sydney. He was heavily involved in land and stock trading. He joined the Australian Labor Party. In 1910 McGirr ran unsuccessfully for the seat of Orange, but won Yass at a by-election in 1913. In 1914 he married Rachel Rittenburg Miller, a schoolteacher. The couple had nine children.^[2]

He was ALP whip from 1916 until 1917. At the 1920 election proportional representation was introduced and the Yass electorate was absorbed into an expanded multi-member electoral district of Cootamundra, and he won a seat in it. Labour won the election he became Minister for Public Health and Motherhood until the defeat of the Government in the 1922 election.^[1]

He was named deputy party leader after the death of John Storey in 1921. In 1922, he won a seat in Sydney and became party leader as a result of the expulsion of its leader James Dooley from the party in March 1923. The Federal Labor Executive then intervened in the State Party and, after the interim leadership of Bill Dunn, Jack Lang became party leader in July 1923. As a result of his involvement in the previous machinations, McGirr was isolated and resigned from the party in July and attempted to establish the "Young Australia Party". He was defeated at the 1925 election and subsequently concentrated on his business interests, except for an unsuccessful attempt to win Calare for the State (Hughes-Evans) Labor Party in September 1940.^[2]

Death

He died in Sydney, aged 69, survived by his wife and eight of their nine children.^[2] One of his daughters, Trixie, moved to Britain where she became a Conservative politician and is the only Australian woman to date to have been made a life peer as the Baroness Gardner of Parkes.^[1]

Notes