People Australia

Arthur Smith, 1899

Melbourne Punch (Vic), 15 June 1899, p 19

Arthur Norman Smith (1862-1935) journalist, mayor and trade union official 

Birth: July 1862 at Bow, Middlesex [London], England, son of Thomas William Smith (1836-1900), India rubber manufacturer, and Elizabeth, née Plunkett (1837-1905).  Marriage: 1894 at Ascot Vale, Victoria, to native-born Mariannie (or Mary Anne) Topp (1868-1943). They had one son and one daughter. Death: 15 July 1935 in his usual residence at Elmie Street, Melbourne, Victoria. 

• Lived in London. Arrived in Victoria in 1883, and after a flying visit to Sydney and from there to California, settled in Hawthorn, Victoria, and lived there for about fifty years. Became proprietor of a newspaper in Hawthorn.
• Elected for Yarra Ward to Hawthorn municipal council in 1896 and was mayor of Hawthorn in 1898-1899. In October 1897 he had been defeated as the Liberal candidate for the Legislative Assembly seat of Evelyn by the sitting member E. H. Cameron. He lost his seat on the Hawthorn Council in August 1901.
• Entered metropolitan journalism in 1897, which was a new phase from suburban newspapers.
• Reported meetings of the the Federal Convention for Reuters Agency and intercolonial sheets in Melbourne. Represented Reuters and many country and interstate journalists at sittings of the Commonwealth Parliament as an occupant of the press gallery and lobbyist for twenty-six years before it moved to Canberra.
• Vice-president and member of the federal executive (then called central committee) of the Australian Journalists' Association (AJA). Second general president of the AJA in 1911-1912; assistant secretary in 1911; general treasurer from 1918 until he retired in 1923. Made life honorary member of the AJA in 1927.
• Authored book ‘Thirty Years of the Commonwealth of Australia 1901-31’.
• Cause of death: coronary thrombosis (2 days). After his death the family bequeathed funds to the University to present an annual lecture on an important aspect of journalism. In 2024 it is still extant and reputed to be the oldest journalism lecture series in Australia.
• His wife was for many years keenly interested in Hawthorn municipal affairs and charity work. His son Neville Hawthorn Smith (1897-1957) was magazine editor of the Argus and Australasian.
• His daughter Lady Winifred Iris Evelyn Mackenzie, née Smith (1900-1972) was a noted physician, specializing in orthopaedics and anaesthetics, and a senior administrative officer in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps in World War II.

Sources
Journalist, 24 April 1931, p 49, 31 July 1935, 31 August 1935, p 10, 31 October 1936.