People Australia

Sol Rosevear, n.d.

National Library of Australia, 25964169

John Solomon (Sol) Rosevear  (1892-1953) timberworker, trade union official and parliamentarian

Birth: 4 April 1892 at Pyrmont, New South Wales, son of William John Rosevear (1851-1921), a labourer, and Maria, née McGuirk (1859-1919); both parents had been born at Balmain, Sydney. Marriage: 23 September 1916 at St Bartholomew's Anglican Church, Pyrmont, to Sydney-born Clara May White (1893-1985), a machinist. They had one daughter and one son. Death: 31 March 1953 at Petersham, Sydney. Religion: Anglican. 

• Educated to primary school level. Worked in timber mill at age of of 14. Served apprenticeship as wood machinist with Goodlet & Smith’s.
• Worked at State Timber Yard until it closed down, then at George Hudson’s until about 1929. Later worked at Thompson’s (builders) Burwood.
• Member of Timberworkers’ Union for about forty-five years and was shop steward at the age of 17. Leader of Australian Timberworkers’ Union and in 1929 member of its State committee. Actively associated with the timberworkers’ strike in 1929.
• Foundation member of the Amalgamated Timber Workers’ Union and was one of the first members to represent NSW at its Federal Conference in Hobart in 1913, being the youngest delegate at an interstate union conference.
• Assistant secretary and in 1929 president of the Australian Labor Party’s federal electorate council in Dalley; secretary of Leichhardt branch of the ALP; member of State and federal ALP executives.
• Unemployed in 1931 and on relief work at Maroubra Beach.
• He was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for the NSW seat of Dalley from 1931 until he died in office. Elected in 1931, standing for the NSW Labor Party against Federal ALP candidate E. G. Theodore, he was a Lang Labor member until 1936 when he rejoined ALP. In 1940 he won Dalley for non-Communist Labor. In the 1940-1941 split he was deputy leader of Jack Beasley’s Non-Communist Labor Party. He again rejoined the ALP in 1941.
• Rosevear was Speaker of the House of Representative from 1943 to 1950. He was member of bankruptcy legislation committee in 1932-1936; temporary Chairman of Committees in 1934-1943; member of the joint committee on war expenditure in 1942; member of man-power and resources survey committee 1941-1942, chairman 1942; controller of leather and footwear 1942-1945; chairman of post-war planning committee of leather and footwear industries 1944-1945; member of the joint committee on broadcasting of parliamentary proceedings 1946-1953, chairman 1946-1949; member, Standing Orders Committee, 1950-1953.
• In 1948 he led the Empire Parliamentary Association delegation to London. He was trustee of the parliamentary retirement allowance fund in 1949-1953.
• Known as a formidable debater.
• Cause of death: coronary occlusion. He was given a state funeral. 

Sources
Who’s Who in Australia 1938-1950; Sydney Morning Herald, 22, 23 March 1953; L. F. Crisp & S. P. Bennett, Australian Labor Party: federal personnel 1901-1954, (Canberra, 1954); E. Geoff Browne, 1985 pp.1-13; Labor Year Book, 1933 p.173, 1934-5 p.235; NSW Timber Worker, April 1953 p.4; E. D. Gardner, 14 April 1936; Labor Call, 26 March 1953; Age (Melbourne) 23 March 1953.