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Speaker, 9 July 1913 to 30 July 1914; 14 June 1917 to 3 November 1919; 26 February 1920 to 6 November 1922
Free Trade Party, 1903 to 1906
Anti-Socialist Party, 1906 to 1910
Liberal Party (Commonwealth), 1910 to 1917
Nationalist Party, 1917 to 1928
William Elliot Johnson (1862-1932) was Speaker in the 5th, 7th and 8th parliaments. His personal qualities and parliamentary experience helped him to be an effective Speaker in a difficult political environment.1
Johnson was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. He worked variously as a scenic artist, a telegraph operator, and a midshipman before coming to Sydney as a ship’s steward. In 1881 in Sydney he married Marie McLachlan, a dressmaker from Scotland, with whom he had two daughters, one of whom died as an infant.2
He was active in labour circles, standing unsuccessfully for the Labor Party in the NSW Legislative Assembly in 1894, but left when he saw the party take a socialist turn. He became honorary secretary of the Free Trade and Liberal Association of NSW. Although opposed to Federation, he stood for a federal seat as a Free Trader and in 1903 was elected as the Member for Lang.
After 10 years in Parliament, in 1913 Johnson was proposed for the Speakership by Prime Minister Cook’s Government, after the previous Speaker declined an offer to continue in the role. Johnson faced difficult circumstances, as the Government held power by only a slender margin. He gave his casting vote on 10 occasions, including one instance just months into the role when he voted against a no-confidence amendment, arguing that the Government had not yet ‘been afforded an opportunity to submit any of its proposed legislative measures for the consideration and judgement of the House’.3 Somewhat controversially, during this period he also exercised a deliberative vote as a member in 10 divisions when the House was in committee.
When Labor won the 1914 election, Johnson was again nominated as Speaker but was defeated by Charles McDonald along party lines. He resumed the Speakership when the Nationalists won the 1917 election and was then re-elected as Speaker at the start of the 8th Parliament in 1919. However, he was replaced by William Watt when the 9th Parliament opened in 1923, in a political move which caused Johnson to remark that ‘the position of Speaker should not be a matter for party spoils’.4
Knighted in 1920, Johnson remained in Parliament until 1928, when he was defeated at his 10th federal election, after which he returned to his profession as an artist. His wife died in 1920 and he died in 1932 while on a holiday with his daughter in Geelong. He was buried at Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney.
Florence Aline Rodway
Painter and pastel artist Florence Rodway (1881-1971) was born in Hobart, Tasmania. At 16, she enrolled in the Hobart Technical College where she studied painting and life-drawing. She won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and was tutored by visiting masters including John Singer Sargent and Solomon Joseph Solomon. Returning to Sydney, she attended Julian Ashton’s evening classes, producing oil studies and illustrations for various publications. Working primarily in pastels, Rodway received commendations for several artworks at the annual Society of Artists’ exhibition. Buoyed by the purchase of two portrait studies by the Art Gallery of NSW, she went on to establish herself as a portraitist and received up to 20 commissions per year. Known mainly for her depictions of children, her commissions also included notable public figures such as Dame Nellie Melba and Henry Lawson. A founding member of the Society of Women Painters in 1909 in Sydney, and a member of the Society of Artists from 1908 to 1930, Rodway was regarded as an accomplished portraitist with the ability to convey such personal qualities as strength and vulnerability in her subjects. Her work is held in major national and state collections throughout Australia.
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William Elliot Johnson
by Florence Aline Rodway
1919
Oil on canvas
80.4 x 52.6 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. Information in this biography has been taken from the following unless otherwise sourced: GS Reid and M Forrest, Australia’s Commonwealth Parliament 1901–1988: Ten Perspectives, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1989; GN Hawker, ‘Johnson, Sir William Elliot (1862–1932)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2021; ‘Sir E. Johnson: Death announced’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 December 1932, p. 12; ‘Late Sir Elliot Johnson’, The Mercury, 16 December 1932, p. 7. Websites accessed 1 September 2021.
2. NSW Government, Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, Births Index 4941/1886; Deaths Index 2808/1886.
3. Australia, House of Representatives, ‘Address in Reply and Statement of Ministerial Policy’, Votes and proceedings, 16, 4 September 1913, p. 44.
4. ‘Mr Watt as Speaker’, The Argus, 28 February 1923, p. 11, accessed 29 July 2021.
5. 'Rodway, Florence’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds, The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 837; P Bell, ‘Florence Aline Rodway b. 11 November 1881’, Design & Art Australia Online, 2015; S Backhouse, ‘Rodway, Florence Aline (1881–1971)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1988. Websites accessed 15 April 2021