People Australia

William Price, c.1915

Price, Richard William (William) (1869-1937) labourer, trade union official, journalist and parliamentarian

Birth: 16 April 1869 at Chepstow, Monmouth and Gloucester, South Wales, United Kingdom, and baptised as Richard William, son of Henry George Price (1841-1914), a farm labourer and later railway employee, and Jane, née Croatt (or Croate) (1843-1939). Marriages: (1) [as Richard William] 20 July 1892, with Methodist forms, at Forbes, New South Wales to Sarah Ann Loxley (1866-1914), born at Forbes, NSW. They had three daughters. (2) [as Richard William] 19 April 1924 at Ebenezer Baptist Chapel, Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom, to Gladys Olwen Dorothy Jones (1889-1968), born at Aberavon, Wales. They had one son. Death: [registered as William Richard] 22 June 1937 in a private Hospital at Subiaco, Perth, WA; usual residence Evans street, Shenton Park, Perth. Religion: Anglican on his service record. Buried in the Presbyterian cemetery, Karrakatta. 

• Educated at Chepstow National School. Emigrated to Brisbane in 1885. Was a bushworker in Queensland. Organiser for the General Labourers’ Union, Western Queensland, in 1889.
• Was then an organiser for the Australian Shearers’ Union in New South Wales. Worked as a clerk and labourer at Forbes, NSW.
• Moved to Western Australia in 1896. Gained work as a miner and shearer. Formed branches of the Australian Workers’ Union at Leonora and Mt Morgan in 1898. President of WA Shearers’ Union. Member of the Miners and General Labourers’ Union.
• Journalist by 1903, on staff of Kalgoorlie Sun in 1904, Perth Truth from 1905 to 1909. In Western Australian electoral rolls his name is given as William Price.
• Entered WA parliament as Australian Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly, for seat of Albany at a by-election on 18 September 1909. Held the seat until 29 September 1917.
• Putting his age down by four years, as William Price he was appointed 2nd lieutenant in 28th Battalion, Australian Imperial force on 27 July 1915 at Fremantle. Posted to Egypt with the 4th Division, then served with 47th Battalion in France. Gassed at Pozières, he was invalided to England. Served at the AIF Depot, Tidworth, 1917. Adjutant N4 Command Depot Hindcott 1918. Promoted Captain on 12 November 1918. Camp commandant 1919 then recreational training officer and in Demobilisation Department. Adjutant of transport. Returned to Australia on 5 June 1920. His appointment was terminated on September 1920.
• Appointed MBE on 1 January 1919.
• After a few months in WA, he went to London, where he was employed as a journalist by the Empire Parliamentary Association from 1921 to 1926. Lived in Aberavon, Wales, in 1924.
• Returned to WA in 1930. Was a timekeeper and costs clerk with the Main Roads Department. Vice-president of the Federated Clerks’ Union until his death; delegate to Metropolitan Council (Labor) 1937. Press reports in 1937 indicated it was his intention to contest ALP preselection at the next general election.
• President of West Perth Branch of the Returned Services League. Member of the Anzac Club. Was a Freemason.
• Cause of death: acute appendicitis, chronic bronchitis, arterial hypertension and auricular fibrillation.

David Black and Geoffrey Bolton, Biographical Register of members of the parliament of Western Australia, vol 1, 1870-1930, (Perth, 1990); J. S. Battye (ed), Cyclopedia of Western Australia, Vol. I, 1912 p 352.