Arthur Drakeford

Arthur Samuel Drakeford ( born April 26, 1878 in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Victoria, † June 9, 1957 in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne, Victoria) was an Australian politician, member of the Australian Labor Party and from 1941 to 1949 Minister of the Australian Air Force and civil aviation.

He was one of the fathers of the two- airline strategy, the firm wrote a government-sponsored cartel of aviation in Australia from 1946 to the late 1980s.

Youth and union time

Arthur Drakeford came in 1978 as second son of the emigrant from England jeweler Samuel Finch Drakeford and its coming from Australia Mrs. Elizabeth Margaret, born Joseph, was born. After finishing school, he moved to Benalla, where he worked on the railroad. On May 9, 1902, he married the widowed Ellen Tyrie, born Warrington. She died in 1906, but gave birth to another son, Arthur Harold Finch Drakeford ( jr ), which politician was in the 1940s. 1903 Ford Drake took part in a railway strike and joined the local trade union section of LEDFA (Union of Railway Machinists and firefighters ) as well as the Australian Labor Party at. After training to become machine operators Drake Ford had put 1908 to Melbourne. There he married on April 19, 1911 Ellen Unger, who bore him four daughters. He was in 1914 elected to represent Victoria in the LEDFA union and was in the following years, first Vice President ( 1914-1915), President ( 1916-1917 ) and Secretary General (from 1918) of the union until they 1920 went up in the federal union of the Australian railway machinists in which he took over the post of managing director and from 1927 to 1948 the President.

Political career

From 1927-1932 he represented Essendon as a deputy in the regional parliament of Victoria, he was voted out because he 's plan to combat the global economic crisis did not support the Premier. From 1934 to 1955 he had then held the deputy seat of Maribyrnong in the federal parliament, and thus contributed to the election of John Curtin at the party president in 1935. In October 1941 was appointed the new Prime Minister Curtin to the Minister in the departments of Civil Aviation and Air Force. Drakeford, inexperienced in military affairs, focused on the coordination of resources, finance and personnel in his department and relied heavily on the guidance of the staff of the RAAF. Drakeford appointed in 1942 Vice - Air Marshal George Jones as Chief of Staff of the RAAF, which one the rest of the war lasting rivalry Jones ' with his deputy, William Bostock triggered in May. This command crisis could not solve Drakeford. Following the resignation of Norman Makin 1946 Drakeford was also Secretary of the Navy for three months until Bill Riordan took office. 1946 candidate Drakeford also unsuccessfully for the office of Vice - President of the Party Labor Party.

Drakeford long aspired to the nationalization of the Australian Civil Aviation and has been done by the chief aviation authority, Daniel McVey, supported. After the war, handed Drakeford one a legislative proposal and advised the ANAC ( Australian National Aviation Committee ) a. With the decisions of the ANAC, the state-owned airline Trans Australia Airlines was founded in 1946, which was to dominate the domestic aviation in Australia, together with the private Australian National Airlines. Drakeford also provided for the nationalization of Qantas Empire Airways in the years 1946 to 1947, and was supported in this endeavor by Qantas board member of Hudson Fysh.

In 1949 the Labor government was under Ben Chifley succeeded by the Liberal government Menzies '. Drakeford's successor as aviation and Air Force minister was Thomas White. Drakeford committed in 1951 against a ban on the Communist Party of Australia, although he himself was a moderate social democrat. As part of a split in the Labor Party in 1954, he lost his parliamentary seat in the election year 1955. Drakeford was involved in the Olympic Games in Melbourne, which took place in 1956.

Drake Ford died on 9 June 1957 in Melbourne and was honored with a state funeral.

Source

  • Australian Dictionary of Biography ( ADB Online): Biography of Arthur Drakeford (English)
  • Minister (Australia)
  • Member of the Australian Labor Party
  • Unionists ( Australia)
  • Australian
  • Born in 1878
  • Died in 1957
  • Man
Moonee Ponds, Victoria Royal Australian Air Force Essendon, Victoria George Jones (RAAF officer) Liberal Party of Australia
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