Preceded by New seat Nationality Australian Succeeded by Moses Gabb | Preceded by New seat Succeeded by Division abolished Name Paddy Glynn | |
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Born 25 August 1855
Gort, Ireland ( 1855-08-25 ) Died 28 October 1931(1931-10-28) (aged 76)
North Adelaide, South Australia | ||
Patrick (Paddy) McMahon Glynn KC (25 August 1855 – 28 October 1931) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1901 to 1919, representing South Australia (1901-1903) and Angas (1903-1919) for the Free Trade Party and its successors the Anti-Socialist Party, Commonwealth Liberal Party and Nationalist Party. In federal politics, he served variously as Attorney-General (1909-1910), Minister for External Affairs (1913-1914) and Minister for Home and Territories (1917-1920).
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He had previously been a member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1887 to 1890, representing Light, and 1895 to 1896 and 1897 to 1901, representing North Adelaide. This had included a brief stint as Attorney-General of South Australia in the Solomon Ministry of 1899.
Early life
Glynn was born in Gort, County Galway, Ireland and educated at the French College, Blackrock and Trinity College, Dublin. Glynn graduated with a BA and LLB, and was the medallist for Oratory at the Law Students Debating Society of Ireland in 1880. The same year saw Glynn immigrate to Australia.
Political career
Glynn was admitted to the Victorian bar. His time in Victoria was not a success and in 1882 he moved to Kapunda, South Australia to open a branch of an Adelaide-based law firm. His success in Kapunda allowed him to open his own law firm in Adelaide and involve himself in the political sphere. He also edited for some time the Kapunda Herald.
Glynn served as president of the South Australian branch of the Irish National League and helped found the South Australian Land Nationalisation Society. His community profile assisted him in his election to the South Australian House of Assembly as the member for Light in 1887. As an advocate of free trade, Glynn was considered a conservative but his support of progressive issues like female suffrage and land nationalisation isolated him from his conservative colleagues.
Glynn was defeated at the 1890 election and stood unsuccessfully for Light again at the 1893 election but returned to South Australian colonial politics in 1895 as the member for North Adelaide. With this victory, he became the first person in Australia to be elected under adult suffrage (whereby females had the right to vote). He was defeated a year later at the 1896 election, however, he won the 1897 North Adelaide by-election, serving until 1901. He briefly served as Attorney-General of South Australia in 1899.
Glynn was a member of the Convention that framed the Australian Commonwealth constitution in 1897–98. He was regarded as one of the ablest authorities in Australia on constitutional law. He made major contributions to Murray River water rights, free trade, standardising rail gauges and universal suffrage. He also contributed a reference to God in the preamble to the Australian Constitution, and helped found the Free Trade Party, one of the major parties in early twentieth-century Australian politics. In the lead up to the inaugural federal election, Glynn acted as the informal deputy leader of the Free Trade Party and managed the Free Trade election campaigns in South Australia and Western Australia, while Free Trade leader George Reid oversaw the rest of Australia. As a result, Glynn was not only comfortably elected to the single statewide Division of South Australia but, together with Reid, he is said to have "created Australia's first national political campaign."
At the 1903 election, Glynn was returned unopposed in the Division of Angas and was unopposed in 1910, 1913 and 1914 before losing his seat at the 1919 election. While in parliament, Glynn served variously as Attorney-General, Minister for External Affairs and Minister for Home and Territories.
Later life
Glynn retired from politics in 1919, and died at North Adelaide in 1931. He married Abigail Dynon, who predeceased him, and was survived by two sons and four daughters. He was a fine Shakespearian scholar; several of his literary papers were published, as were also various legal and political pamphlets.