People Australia

Eric Ogilvie, n.d.

Eric James Ogilvie (1892-1962) civil servant, trade union official and parliamentarian

Birth 9 October 1892 at Hobart, Tasmania, son of James Ogilvie (1847-1893), licensed victualler, and Catherine (Kate), née McGee, later Westbrook (1861-1919). Marriage: 1936 at Melbourne, Victoria, to native-born Lucy Ellen Coghlan (1907-1979), a telephonist. They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 3 April 1962 in Calvary Hospital, Hobart; usual residence Bedford Street, Newtown. Religion: Catholic. 

• His paternal grandmother Caroline Justin (c.1824-1855), a silk weaver born at Macclesfields, Cheshire England, arrived in Tasmania aboard the Navarino as a convict on 17 January 1840, and married George Ogilvie (c.1819-1894), a blacksmith, later brass founder, born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, who had arrived as a convict aboard the Barrosa on 13 January 1842.
• Eric was educated at Queen's College, Hobart, St Patrick's College, Ballarat, Victoria, St Virgil’s College, Hobart, and the University of Tasmania. Held various positions, including jackaroo and possibly station manager in Queensland 1914-1918.
• Acting advertising manager of Daily Post, Paymaster and assistant to construction line engineer, Hydro-Electric Commission. Was managing law clerk for his brother, Albert George Ogilvie in 1930-1932.
• Secretary of various Australian Labor Party branches. Representative on federal ALP conference and executive. Contested Denison 1925 and federal seat of Franklin in 1925.
• Elected member of the House of Assembly for Wilmot in May 1928. Attorney-General and Minister of Education and Forests 1934; Attorney-General and Minister for Education, 1934-1940; Member Standing Committee of Public Works. Resigned from parliament in August 1940.
• Appointed Industrial Registrar and Chief Inspector Factories, Department of Labour and Industry in 1940. Retired in 1957.
• Also organised new State Industrial Department. Represented Tasmanian Industrial Welfare Division Commonwealth Dept. and Labour and National Service.
• Secretary of the Clerks' and Electricians' Union. Federal vice-president of the Federated Clerks' Union of Australia. Chairman of the Engineering, Electricians', Boilermakers', Blacksmiths' and Sheet Metal Workers', and Boot Trades Fed Industrial Trades Committees.
• Representative to International Labour Organization conference Geneva in 1954; University of Tasmania Council, Commissioner SC.
• Commissioned justice of the peace in 1940 and coroner in 1958; was also a JP in Queensland.
• Member of the Hobart Greyhound Speed Coursing Club, the Hobart Commercial Travellers' Association, the Hobart Royal Automobile Club and of the Celtic Club.
• Cause of death: coronary occlusion and diabetes mellitus.
• His brother Albert was premier of Tasmania from 1934 to 1939.

Sources
Scott Bennett & Barbara Bennett, Biographical Register of the Tasmanian Parliament, 1851–1960, Canberra, 1980.