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Speaker, 13 January 1926 to 9 October 1928; 6 February 1929 to 16 September 1929
Protectionist Party, 1901 to 1910
Liberal Party (Commonwealth), 1910 to 1917
Nationalist Party, 1917 to 1929
Independent, 1929 to 1933
United Australia Party, 1933 to 1936

Littleton Groom (1867-1936) served as a minister in several governments and also as Speaker. His adherence to what he saw as a key principle of the Speakership brought about the defeat of the government in which he had been a senior minister.¹

Groom was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, the son of a former convict who had risen to prosperity. A brilliant student, he studied law at the University of Melbourne before practising as a barrister in Brisbane between 1891 and 1901. He was a devout Anglican and had wide cultural and social interests. In 1894 he married Jessie Bell, with whom he had two daughters. In 1900 he was appointed a deputy judge of the District Court of Queensland.

Groom’s father, William, was elected to the House of Representatives in March 1901 as the first Member for Darling Downs but died four months later. At the subsequent by-election, Littleton Groom was elected with the Barton Government’s support. He began his political career as a Protectionist, supporting high tariffs as a means of protecting Australian industry. He was an advocate of increased Commonwealth powers, particularly in the field of industrial relations, and held several ministerial positions from 1905. Among his early achievements was legislation in 1908 to provide Commonwealth old age and invalid pensions.

Groom was appointed Attorney-General for the second time in 1921. Although the most senior minister in the House of Representatives when William Hughes resigned the Nationalist leadership in 1923, Groom was passed over for leadership of the Nationalist–Country Party coalition in favour of Stanley Bruce. Groom continued as Attorney-General until 1925, when Bruce asked for his resignation, and early in 1926 he became Speaker. As Speaker he concluded proceedings in Melbourne and presided over Parliament’s move to Canberra in 1927. His Speakership was marked by an adherence to British practice and precedent, including the idea that the Speaker should be removed from party strife.

In 1929 Groom refused to vote in Committee of the Whole to save the Government from defeat on a matter relating to Commonwealth responsibilities for industrial regulation. In refusing Bruce’s request that he vote, Groom cited the tradition of ‘the absolute impartiality of the office of Speaker’.¹⁸ The relevant amendment was carried by one vote, the Government losing what the Prime Minister had accepted as a vote of confidence. In the ensuing election both Groom and Bruce lost their seats. Two years later Groom won back the seat of Darling Downs as an Independent, and remained a member of Parliament until his death in 1936.

Frederick William Leist
Sydney-born Frederick Leist (1873-1945) studied art part-time at the Sydney Technical College while training as a furniture designer in the workshops of David Jones Ltd. He later trained at the Art Society of NSW, learning methods of plein air painting. He found his niche as a black and white artist, illustrating for the Bulletin in the 1890s and becoming staff artist for the Sydney Mail. An original Council member of the Society of Artists and then of the Royal Art Society of NSW after the merger of the two societies, Leist helped re-establish the Society of Artists in 1907. Moving to London in 1908, he worked as an illustrator before turning his focus again to painting, exhibiting regularly with the Royal Academy of Arts. Noted for his portraits of ‘handsome women’, Leist was elected to the Royal Society of Artists and to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, among other clubs and societies. In 1917, he became an official war artist with the AIF. He returned to Australia in 1926 and exhibited paintings from his travels in Sydney and Melbourne. In subsequent years Leist taught at the Sydney Technical School and continued to regularly exhibit his work in galleries and associations.³

Littleton Ernest Groom
by Frederick William Leist
1928
Oil on canvas
94.7 x 74.5 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection

References
1.Information in this biography has been taken from the following: LF Fitzhardinge, et al., Nation Building in Australia: The Life and Work of Sir Littleton Ernest Groom, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1941; D Carment, ‘Groom, Sir Littleton Ernest (1837–1936)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2021, accessed 17 July 2021; G Souter, Acts of Parliament: A Narrative History of the Senate and House of Representatives Commonwealth of Australia, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1988.
2. Souter, ibid., pp. 251–55.
3. J Kerr, ‘Frederick William Leist: b. 21 August 1875’, Design & Art Australia Online, 2014; ‘Lieutenant Fred Leist’, Australian War Memorial; M Rutledge, ‘Leist, Frederick William (Fred) (1873–1945)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986. Websites accessed 26 March 2021.