Jack Duncan-Hughes

Jack Duncan-Hughes MC
Member of the Australian Parliament for Boothby
In office 16 December 1922 – 17 November 1928
Preceded by	William Story
Succeeded by	John Price
Senator for South Australia
In office 19 December 1931 – 30 June 1938
Preceded by	Harry Kneebone
Member of the Australian Parliament for Wakefield
In office 21 September 1940 – 21 August 1943
Preceded by	Sydney McHugh
Succeeded by	Albert Smith
Personal details
Born	(1882-09-01)1 September 1882 Watervale, South Australia
Died	13 August 1962(1962-08-13) (aged 79)
Political party	Liberal (1922–25) Nationalist (1925–31) UAP (1931–43)
Alma mater	University of Adelaide University of Cambridge
Profession	Barrister

John Grant "Jack" Duncan-Hughes MC (1 September 1882 – 13 August 1962) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for Boothby from 1922 to 1928, of the Australian Senate for South Australia from 1932 to 1938, and of the House of Representatives for Wakefield from 1940 to 1943. He represented the Nationalist Party (1922–28) and its successor the United Australia Party (1932–38, 1940–43).

Early life

Duncan-Hughes was born at "Hughes Park" near Watervale, South Australia, the son of colonial and state politician Sir John Duncan; his surname was changed to Duncan-Hughes as a child in honour of his great-uncle Sir Walter Watson Hughes. He was educated at St Peters College in Adelaide and Cheltenham College in England and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1905), Bachelor of Laws (1906) and Master of Arts (1910). He was admitted to the Bar at the Inner Temple in London in January 1907 and upon returning to Australia was admitted to the South Australian Bar in December 1908. He practised as a solicitor in Adelaide from 1909 until 1914 in partnership with a colleague as Jessop and Duncan Hughes. He was a director of the Wallaroo and Moonta Company and was a member of the state council of the Boy Scouts Association.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Military service

In July 1915, Duncan-Hughes left Australia for England with the intention of serving in World War I and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery of the British Army in September 1915. He served in France and Belgium and was awarded both the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre in 1918. He returned to Australia in July 1919.^[7][8][9] He was appointed aide-de-camp to Governor-General of Australia Ronald Munro Ferguson in January 1920 and was attached to the personal staff of the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) as the representative of the Governor-General on his Australian tour in mid-1920. Duncan-Hughes was promoted to private secretary to the Governor-General in August 1920.^[10][11]

Politics

Duncan-Hughes was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1922 federal election, defeating incumbent fellow Nationalist William Story during a bitter split in the Nationalist Party in South Australia. The federal Nationalist Party in South Australia consisted of members of two separate state parties, the Liberal Union and National Party, which had had a bitter falling out around the 1921 state election. This led the more dominant Liberal Union to oppose all federal Nationalist MPs who were members of the state National Party at the 1922 election. Story, the incumbent Boothby MP, was a member of the National Party, and Duncan-Hughes was selected to challenge him. In the resulting three-cornered contest, Duncan-Hughes topped the poll on primaries, narrowly ahead of Labor, with Story finishing third, and Duncan-Hughes then won the seat on Story's preferences.^[12][13][14] Duncan-Hughes and his colleague Malcolm Cameron were invited to participate in the first post-election meeting of the Nationalist caucus on 17 January 1923.^[15] In reference to the position of Prime Minister Billy Hughes, he reportedly "explained that he would support the Nationalist party, but he held no reservations on the question of leadership".^[16]

Duncan-Hughes held Boothby until his defeat in 1928. In 1932, he was elected to the Senate as a United Australia Party Senator for South Australia, but retired at the end of that term in 1938.^[17] He came out of retirement at the 1940 federal election in an attempt to win back the Wakefield seat after it had been lost to Labor at a by-election following the death of Charles Hawker; he won the seat, but was defeated in 1943 after only one term.^[18][19]

Personal life

During his political career, he also served as the president of the Adelaide Club from 1935 to 1937 and was a board member of the Wyatt Benevolent Institution. He died at his home at Medindie in 1962 and was buried at Penwortham Cemetery.^[1][3][20] In 1963, a collection of 6,200 volumes accumulated by Duncan-Hughes was donated to the National Library of Australia.^[21]

His brother, Walter Gordon Duncan, was a long-serving member of the South Australian Legislative Council.^[22]

References

1. "Former M.H.R. dies in South Australia". The Age. 15 August 1962. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
2. "Next Federal Elections". Chronicle. South Australia. 29 April 1922. p. 44. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
3. "Duncan-Hughes, John Grant (1882–1962)". The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
4. "Wallaroo and Moonta Company". The Express and Telegraph. 28 September 1915. p. 4. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
5. "Boy Scouts' Association". The Advertiser. 17 December 1915. p. 13. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
6. "Advertising". The Advertiser. 1 February 1909. p. 2. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
7. "Social Notes". The Journal. South Australia. 31 July 1915. p. 19. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
8. "Commonwealth Members of Parliament who have served in war: Colonial wars and the First World War". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
9. "Personal". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 30 July 1919. p. 10. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
10. "Personal". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 20 August 1920. p. 8. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
11. "Royal Visit Honours". The Register (Adelaide). South Australia. 23 August 1920. p. 7. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
12. "A Nationalist Split". The Examiner (Tasmania). Vol. LXXX, no. 102. Tasmania, Australia. 1 May 1922. p. 5. Retrieved 31 July 2021 – via Trove.
13. "Boothby Battle". The Journal. Vol. LVII, no. 16017. South Australia. 27 December 1922. p. 1 (5 P.M. Edition). Retrieved 31 July 2021 – via Trove.
14. "Commonwealth of Australia Legislative Election of 16 December 1922". Psephos. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
15. "Mr. Hughes's fate". The Daily Telegraph. 17 January 1923.
16. "The Nationalists". The Sydney Morning Herald. 17 January 1923.
17. "Senator Duncan-Hughes". Chronicle. South Australia. 11 February 1937. p. 40. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
18. "Clare Men's Branch Liberal and Country League". Northern Argus. South Australia. 11 August 1939. p. 5. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
19. "Wakefield and Barker Polls Declared". Murray Pioneer. South Australia. 16 September 1943. p. 1. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
20. Fort, Carol (2008). Keeping a Trust: South Australia's Wyatt Benevolent Institution and Its Founder. Wakefield Press. p. 240. ISBN 9781862547827.
21. "Library Tables Report". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 18 September 1963. p. 8. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.
22. "Out Among the People". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 13 February 1940. p. 17. Retrieved 26 December 2019 – via Trove.

 

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by William Story	Member for Boothby 1922 – 1928	Succeeded by John Price
Preceded by Sydney McHugh	Member for Wakefield 1940 – 1943	Succeeded by Albert Smith