People Australia

Ken Hoad, n.d.

Kenneth Oswald Hoad (1897-1944) railway employee, telegraphist, trade union official and politician 

Birth: 13 November 1897 at Junee, New South Wales, son of native-born parents James Edward Hoad (1858-1931) and Harriet, née Bougher (1862-190). Marriage: 1932 at Bairnsdale, Victoria, to native-born Ida Kathleen Berger (1896-1958), nurse. Death: 7 June 1944 at Junee, NSW. Religion: Anglican. 

• His father was alderman of Junee Municipality for many years and was a member of the Legislative Council for NSW from 1925 to 1931.
• Educated at Junee public school. Became a porter in the Railway Department at Junee 1913. Porter, Railway Department in Narrabri, from 1917 to 1920. Operator, Junee, 1920 to 1925.
• Branch secretary, Railway and Tramway Professional Officers’ Association, before election to parliament. Employee representative, Railway Superannuation Board, 1926. Owned property in Junee and grazing property at Ulandra near Bethungra.
• Alderman, Junee Council 1919 to 1922. Secretary of Junee branch of the Australian Labor Party.
• Contested the Legislative Assembly seat of Cootamundra in 1922 when he was reputedly the youngest candidate in the State. Elected for the seat on 30 May 1925 and held it until defeated on 18 May 1932. Again contested Cootamundra in 1935 and 1938. After leaving parliament became a farmer at Bethungra.
• Hoad’s older brother Essell (1888-1965) contested numerous elections as Labor candidate in Riverina region between World Wars I and II. His cousin Vera Leila Hoad married Arthur Neiberling Fuller, a Federal Labor politician.

Sources
Heather Radi, Peter Spearritt & Elizabeth Hinton, Biographical Register of the NSW Parliament 1901-1970 (Canberra, 1979); Labor Year Book, 1933, p.171.