People Australia

McLeod, Norman Alexander (1867- 1909) solicitor, editor and Labor activist 

Birth: 25 December 1867 at Waipu, Northland, New Zealand, son of Murdoch McLeod (1823-1887), medical practitioner, and Margaret, née Finlayson (1828-1902). Both parents were born at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. Marriage: 23 December 1891 at Auckland, NZ, to Mary Elizabeth Burnett Pinching (1869-1942). They had two daughters and five sons. Death: 20 September 1909 in Ryan’s Federation Hotel at Mareeba, Queensland: usual residence Victoria. 

• His family was part of the special settlement scheme of Highland Scots who migrated to Waipu, New Zealand, from 1853 after some forty years in Nova Scotia.
• Norman was a cavalry officer, past grand master of the Masonic Order, solicitor and a barrister admitted to the bar of the Dominion of New Zealand.
• He arrived in Melbourne and became editor of People’s Daily (Melbourne) about 1904. When Peoples Daily finished publication he became editor of The Tocsin (Melbourne) in 1906 after the death of John Arthur Andrews.
• The Tocsin merged with Labour Call and he continued as editor from 1907 until his death. Was also a magazine writer and discourser on art and science.
• Vice-President, Victorian Political Labor Council, elected January 1908. President from April 1909 until his death.
• Was preselected as Labor candidate for Bendigo against Sir John Quick in the forthcoming Federal election, but ordered to move north by his medical advisors. Associated himself with the Mareeba branch of the Workers’ Political Organization.
• Cause of death: phthisis (6 months), haemorrhage pulmonis and asphyxia.

Sources
Worker (Wagga), 5 July 1906 p 2, 30 September 1909; Merrifield card index, State Library of Victoria; N. R. McKenzie, The Gael fares forth: the romantic story of Waipu and her sister settlements (Wellington, NZ, 1942).