People Australia

George Dankel, n.d.

Dankel, George (Caspar Adolph Maria Prosper Dankel to 1909) (1864-1926) butcher, politician, beet-sugar farmer. 

Birth: 6 March 1864 at Brunswick, Germany, son of Caspar Dankel. Marriage: 1886 at Mannum, South Australia, to Amelia Caroline Curdine. They had one daughter and five sons. Death: 31 May 1926 at Kensington, SA. 

• Educated primary school, Germany. To New South Wales in 1879 to avoid military conscription.
• Became butcher, Kensington, South Australia. Member of Labor Party until 1916. A leading member of Clarion Fellowship of Socialists (established at Adelaide in 1902), speaking frequently at Adelaide & suburban Democratic Clubs. Member of Kensington & Norwood Corporation 1895-1906.
• In 1898 helped found Labour Regulation League to campaign for greater employment through the enforcement of maximum hours legislation.
• Contested SA seat of Gumeracha, 1899 and Federal seat of Torrens, 1902. Labor member of the House of Assembly for Torrens from 27 May 1905 until defeated on 9 February 1912.
• Held the seat of Boothby in the Federal parliament from 31 May 1913 until he retired on 26 March 1917. Left Labor over conscription, joining Nationalist Party.
• Became beet-sugar farmer.
• Cause of death: morbus cordis.

Joan Rydon (ed), A biographical register of the Commonwealth Parliament 1901-1972 (ANU Press, 1975); Howard Coxon, John Playford and Robert Reid, Biographical Register of the South Australian Parliament 1857-1957 (Adelaide, 1985); Verity Burgmann, In Our Time: Socialism and the Rise of Labor, 1885-1905, (Sydney, 1985); Worker (Wagga), 19 June 1913. p 21.