Summary heading
Hon William Oliver Archibald (CP 548)
Career within Commonwealth
William Oliver Archibald was born at St Pancras in London,
the son of a cabinetmaker. Educated at national schools in London, he was
apprenticed in the piano-building trade before migrating to New Zealand in
1879. From about 1882, Archibald was employed in South Australia, including on
the Port Adelaide wharves and with the Islington railway workshops. He became
an executive member of the Railway Service Mutual Association, Chairman of the
Port Adelaide Working Men’s Association, a lecturer at Adelaide’s Democratic
Club and a foundation member of South Australia’s United Labor Party (Leader,
1905-08). As Member for Port Adelaide in the South Australian House of Assembly
(1893-1910), Archibald sat on various commissions and select committees and was
responsible for steering several important bills through the House.
In 1910, Archibald was elected to the House of
Representatives as Member for Hindmarsh, initially representing the Australian Labor
Party (ALP) and from 1917, the National Party. He was defeated at the 1919
general election.
Early in his Commonwealth Parliamentary career, Archibald
was a member of the Parliamentary Party invited to England for the Coronation of
His Majesty, George V (1911). He was also a member of the House of
Representatives Select Committee on Irregular Conduct and Interference (1914)
and an effective backbencher. Archibald held two portfolios. In the third Fisher
Government, he was Minister for Home Affairs (1914-15). His criticisms of the
Walter Burley Griffin design for the national capital were included in matters
subsequently investigated by the Royal Commission on Federal Capital
Administration (1916-17). In 1916, he resigned from the ALP on the conscription
issue and joined W M Hughes’ National Labor Party. He served in Hughes’ second
Ministry as Minister for Trade and Customs (1916-17).
Archibald died intestate in Adelaide in 1926.
Links to other Commonwealth Persons
Publications
End notes
Sources
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 7 (1891-1939), p 89
Commonwealth Parliamentary Handbook 1901-1920, p 26
Summary heading
Unregistered links
Apr 1893-Apr 1910: South Australian House of Assembly – Member for Port Adelaide