A visit to Parliament House in Melbourne

Last Wednesday I went on a group tour of Parliament House in Melbourne. This magnificent building is a wonderful example of high-Victorian public architecture.

The double-storey Parliamentary Library, with its gas lights, curving staircases and central ten-sided table is particularly impressive.

 

Hanging in what is known as Queen’s Hall is a portrait of Sir Harry Lawson (1875 – 1952), politician and Premier of Victoria from 1918-1924. Lawson was a first cousin of my great grandmother Beatrix de Crespigny nee Hughes. The portrait, painted in 1981, is a copy of a 1923 portrait by John Longstaff.

Sir Harry Lawson, portrait by John Perry 1981. This copy of ‘Portrait of Sir Harry Lawson’ 1923 by John Longstaff (original held at Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum) was presented to the Parliament of Victoria by the Lawson Family and the Perpetual Executors and Trustees Association of Australia Ltd in 1981.

 

Also on display is crockery from the Parliament House collection, with it a program for a dinner given to Harry Lawson by the Government of Victoria on 20 December 1922, shortly before Lawson’s departure for an official trip to Europe.

The Age, reporting the dinner, called the date ‘Mr Lawson’s lucky day’. 20 December coincided with the 23rd anniversary of Lawson’s selection to Parliament, and he had been offered his first position in Cabinet on 20 December 1913). Lawson served as Premier from 1918 to 1924.

Our group also visited the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne’s war memorial, in St Kilda Road. Lawson was a trustee of the Shrine of Remembrance. It was commissioned while he was Premier.

Report of the opening of the Shrine on 11 November 1934: VICTORIA’S GREAT SHRINE OF REMEMBRANCE. (1934, November 12). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 13. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205078251

 

Further reading

• Donald S. Garden, ‘Lawson, Sir Harry Sutherland Wightman (1875–1952)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lawson-sir-harry-sutherland-wightman-7117/text12277, published first in hardcopy 1986
• Paul Strangio; Brian J. Costar (2006). The Victorian Premiers, 1856-2006. Federation Press. pp. 161–. ISBN 978-1-86287-601-9. from Google Books
• History of Parliament House from https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/about/the-parliament-building/history-of-the-building
• Shrine of Remembrance Conservation Management Plan prepared October 2010, retrieved from http://images.heritage.vic.gov.au/attachment/64891

Harry Lawson elected Victorian Premier March 1918

Next month it will be one hundred years since Harry Lawson (1875-1952) was elected the 27th premier of Victoria.

Harry Lawson was the son of John Wightman Lawson (1830-1892), a Presbyterian minister from Edinburgh, Scotland, and his wife Penelope Bell, née Hawkins (1851-1898). Harry was born in Dunolly but the family moved to Castlemaine in 1884.

Harry Lawson trained as a solicitor and entered Victorian parliament at the age of 24.

Next month in Lawson’s home town of Castlemaine there will be a lunch to celebrate the centenary of Sir Harry Lawson becoming Premier of Victoria in 1918.

My great grandmother Beatrix Champion de Crespigny née Hughes (1884-1943) was a first cousin of Sir Harry Lawson. The noted feminist Vida Goldstein (1869-1949) was also a first cousin of both Harry Lawson and my great grandmother. All three were grandchildren of Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins (1819-1867) and Jeanie Hawkins née Hutcheson (1824-1864).

A NEW PREMIER (1918, March 19). The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 – 1954), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221939194

Trove Tuesday: MCG not available for 1956 Olympics

Harry Lawson (1875-1952) was the cousin of my great grandmother Beatrix Champion de Crespigny née Hughes (1884-1943).

Lawson was a politician from Castlemaine, Victoria. He served as premier of Victoria from 1918 to 1924 and later, from 1928 to 1934, a senator in the Federal Parliament.

He was also a trustee of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

In 1952 the trustees of the Melbourne Cricket Ground refused to make the MCG available for the Olympics. They were concerned that “there was no guarantee that the ground could be reconsolidated afterwards, and this would upset cricket and football”

The trustees and politicians managed to come to an agreement early in 1953 and the MCG was the main stadium for the 1956 Olympics.

Lawson had died in June 1952 so was not party to the resolution of the issue.

Newspaper items 

• “CLOUD-BURST” (1952, February 14). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23162857 
• M.C.G. Not For Olympics (1952, March 1). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18254344