People Australia

Richard Proctor, n.d.

Richard Proctor (1852-1930) farmer, Christian Socialist

Birth: 1852 at Tranmere, Birkenhead, England, son of Peter Proctor (1809-1883), storekeeper and Elizabeth, née Jones (1811-1892). Marriage: 1880 at Melbourne, Victoria, to native-born Elizabeth, née Hutton (1860-1921). They had three daughters and five sons. Death: 24 November 1930 in hospital at Brighton, Melbourne; usual residence Selwyn Street, North Brighton. 

• Arrived in Australia when he was aged about 3 years.
• For most of life he was a potato farmer at Bolwarra in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. Was a Christian Socialist and self-publicist.
• Presented several papers at the Congregational Union (NSW) and submitted several articles to its press. In 1891 he wrote and published The New Evangel, advocating cooperation to overcome economic deprivation, denouncing the evils of alcohol, prostitution and militarism, and argued that existing land laws were based on theft. Published articles in the Greta and Branxton Gazette.
• Labor candidate for NSW Legislative Assembly seat of West Maitland in 1894, receiving 4 percent of the vote. Stood again in 1895, polling over 20 percent of the vote as the only opposition candidate.
• Joined Australian Socialist League in 1899, contributing articles to its newspaper, The People, and delivering lectures. Produced a series of Christian Socialist tracts, including Christ’s Socialism, Is It Ours? In 1901 he stood as a Christian Socialist candidate in West Maitland, advocating aged pensions and women’s suffrage; received about 20 percent of the vote.
• Was expelled from ASL/Socialist Labor Party in 1903 for chairing an Australian Labor Party rally. For the remainder of his life he supported Labor, continuing to address meetings, publish tracts and write letters to the press.
• During 1901-1910 coal strike he advocated the nationalisation of coal mines, expressing views in the Newcastle Morning Herald.
• Consistently opposed militarism: during World War I he published letters in the Industrialist (Newcastle Industrial Council) calling on Protestant ministers to abandon the Loyal Orange Lodge, hostility to Bolshevism and Irish independence, and advocating urgent social reform.
• About 1922 he moved to Melbourne to live with his daughter. In 1926 he published Reform and Revolution arguing the need for major social reform. Also wrote letters to union journals advocating adequate workers’ compensation legislation.
• On the election of the Scullin federal Labor government in 1929 he wrote an open letter to Labor members (published in The Union Voice) urging action to nationalise credit. During the 1929-1930 Northern Coalfields lockout he published letters in various newspapers calling for the nationalisation of coal mines.
• Author of The New Evangel (book, 1891), republished as The New Religion (1922), republished again in 1930; Darkest New South Wales and the Only Way Out (pamphlet, 1894); The Epistle of Richard and The Second Epistle of Richard (pamphlets, 1895); Christ’s Socialism, Is It Ours? (pamphlet c.1900).
• Cause of death: arteriosclerosis, cerebral haemorrhage, exhaustion and heart failure (4 days).
• Four of his five sons enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. Two of them, Sergeant Richard Laurence Proctor (1889-1916), a farmer, and Private Charles Howard Proctor (1891-1915), articled to a surveyor, lost their lives. The other two who also served in World War I were Norman James Proctor (1888-1959), a grazier, and James Hutton Proctor (1893-1969), a mechanical engineer.
• Peter Proctor (1841-1915), journalist, sometime commercial editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, was his brother.

Sources
Newcastle Morning Herald, 26 November 1930. Information from Tony Laffan, 2003.