People Australia

Arthur Knight Wallace (1879-1952) carpenter, trade union official, mayor and parliamentarian

Birth: 25 December 1879 at Yacka, South Australia, son of Andrew Wallace (1851-1902), a storekeeper born at York, Western Australia, and Eliza Hodges (1856-1896), born in South Australia. Marriage: 10 December 1908 at the Court House, Broken Hill (socialist ceremony), to Elizabeth Ahern (1877-1969), a fellow Socialist. They had one son and one daughter. Death: 21 August 1952 in Prince Henry’s Hospital, at South Melbourne, Victoria; usual residence Barrett Street, Albert Park, Melbourne. 

• Educated at Wimmera, South Australia. Spent his youth in Mallee and Gippsland in Victoria and served in the 4th Imperial Bushmens’ Regiment in South Africa. He was invalided home on 23 July 1901.
• Spent four years in Central Australia. A member of the Victorian Socialist Party, he was VSP assistant-secretary in 1909-1910 and a delegate to Interstate Socialist Conferences in 1908 and 1910.
• He was secretary of the Broken Hill (NSW) branch VSP in 1908-1909. A member of the Barrier Social Democratic Club and Barrier Socialist Propaganda Group. Edited a labour paper. He was associated with Tom Mann in the 1909 Broken Hill strike and Mann was a witness to his marriage.
• With his wife, Wallace advocated close relations between Socialist and Labor parties. They lived in Adelaide from 1909 to 1916 and both were active in the Socialist Party of South Australia.
• Returned to Broken Hill then went Melbourne in 1916. Rejoined the VSP and the Labor Party. He and his wife were active anti-conscriptionists. He was VSP financial secretary in 1917-1918, publisher-manager of the VSP children's newsletter Dawn and secretary of the Socialist Co-operative Society (1919). He worked as a carpenter and was president of the Carpenters' Union. Left the VSP in 1919.
• Wallace was Labor member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the seat of Albert Park from November 1919 until defeated in March 1927 and from November 1929 to April 1932. He was a supporter of the Premiers' Plan (1932). He resigned from parliament suffering high blood pressure.
• He was South Melbourne city councillor in 1928-1937 and mayor in 1933-1934.
• Commissioner Geelong Harbour Trust 1932-1933; member South Melbourne Technical College.
• With wife, for many years ran small library in Albert Park. 
• Cause of death: bronchopneumonia (days), congestive cardiac failure (2 years) and hypertension (years). 

Sources
Geoff Browne, Biographical register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900-84 (Melbourne, 1985); Recorder, no. 82, June 1976; Verity Burgmann, Biographical register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900-84 (Melbourne,1985); Joy Damousi, Socialist Women in Australia, c.1890-c.1918, Ph D thesis, ANU. 1987.