People Australia

Frank Walsh, 1963

National Archives of Australia, A1200:L45505

Francis Henry (Frank) Walsh (1897-1968) stonemason, trade union official and State premier

Birth 6 July 1897 at O’Halloran Hill, South Australia, son of Irish-born parents Thomas Walsh (1860-1941), labourer, and Ellen, née McDonough (1873-1921). Marriage: 29 December 1925 at St Anacletus's Church, Peterborough, SA, with Catholic rites, to native-born Hilda May Cave (1900-1975). They had two sons. Death: 18 May 1968 at Parkside, Adelaide. Religion: Catholic. 

• Frank was educated at O’Halloran Hill State School, Goodwood primary school and Christian Brothers’ College, Adelaide.
• He worked as a stonemason and was State and federal president of the Operative Stonemason’s Society, before its amalgamation with the Federated Miscellaneous Workers’ Union.
• He was elected an Australian Labor Party member of the House of Assembly for the seat of Goodwood from 29 March 1941 to 1956, and for the seat of Edwardstown from 1956 until he retired from parliament at the election in March 1968.
• Walsh was deputy leader of the party from 1949 to 1960 and party leader from 1960. He was South Australian premier, treasurer and minister for immigration from 1965 until 1967: known as “the Labor premier who pulled down Uncle Tom’s (Playford) Cabin”. He was Minister for Housing 1965-1967 and Minister for Social Welfare in 1967-1968, established the Premier’s Department, SA, and promoted natural gas industries in the State.
• Approachable, ‘as Labor Premier he was still “the man next door”’.
• Cause of death: coronary occlusion. 

Sources
Howard Coxon, John Playford and Robert Reid, Biographical Register of the South Australian Parliament 1857-1957 (Adelaide, 1985); Federation News, June 1968.