People Australia

Ted Hanson, n.d.

Edward Joseph (Ted) Hanson (1873-1950) plumber, trade union official and parliamentarian

Birth: 5 September 1873 at Woolloongabba, Brisbane, Queensland, son of English-born parents John Hanson (1847-1916), a plumber, from Stockport, Cheshire, and his second wife Mary Ann, née Castree (1852-1884), from Orcop, Herefordshire. Marriage: 19 August 1903 at Wesleyan Methodist Church, Albert Street, Brisbane to Queensland-born Elizabeth McKay (1881-1969), They had four daughters and four sons. Death: 26 October 1950 at Brisbane. Religion: Baptist. 

• Ted was educated in Brisbane. Became a plumber at Buranda.
• Served in the 2nd Queensland Light Horse Regiment in the South African War from 1899 to 1901.
• A founder of the Australian Plumbers’ and Gasfitters’ Employees’ Union, he was organising secretary of the Queensland branch from 1911 to 1924.
• President of the Brisbane Trades and Labor Council. Executive member of the Brisbane Industrial Council. Member of the 1912 strike committee. Associated with the south side branches of the Australian Labor Party.
• Queensland director of the Australian Natives’ Association. President of the Queensland Trade Union Congress. President of the Boer War Veterans’ Association. Member Brisbane Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board 1916 to 1922.
• Appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council from 19 February 1920 to 23 March 1922, when he helped to abolish it.
• Elected Labor member of the Legislative Assembly in a by-election for the seat of Buranda on 16 August 1924. Chairman of Committees 1932-1939. Speaker of the House from 8 August 1939 until 31 July 1944. Retired from politics on 3 May 1947.
• Cause of death: acute myocardial failure, coronary occlusion and coronary atherosclerosis.
• Father of trade union leader Edward John (Jack) Hanson.

Sources
Worker (Brisbane), 17 February 1926, 30 October 1950; Daily Mail (Brisbane), 30 April 1926; Courier Mail (Brisbane), 27 October 1950; D. B. Waterson, Biographical register of the Queensland Parliament 1860-1929 (2nd revised edition, Sydney, 2001).