Littleton Ernest Groom

Littleton Ernest Groom
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1867 – 1936

Born22 April 1867 in Toowoomba, Queensland, AustraliaDied6 November 1936 in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, aged 69

Practised at the Brisbane bar, combining it with church and educational work: the Brisbane Literary Circle, the Brisbane School of Arts and the Queensland University extension movement. He collaborated on legal reports and texts, and was joint author with Sir John Quick of The Judicial Power of the Commonwealth (1904).

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Family

Parents

WG William Henry Groom 1833–1901 father

Places 9 locations

BirthEducationWorkOtherDeath / burial

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1860s
Born 22 April 1867

Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

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1880s
22
Education (University of Melbourne) 1889–1892

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Attended Ormond College at the University of Melbourne on scholarships. Wikipedia records a Bachelor of Arts in 1889 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1891; the Australian Dictionary of Biography records MA 1891 and LLM 1892. The date range spans the earliest and latest degree years cited.

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1890s
24
Occupation (Barrister) 1891–1901

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Practised at the Brisbane bar, combining it with church and educational work: the Brisbane Literary Circle, the Brisbane School of Arts and the Queensland University extension movement. He collaborated on legal reports and texts, and was joint author with Sir John Quick of The Judicial Power of the Commonwealth (1904).

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1900s
33
Deputy Judge, District Court of Queensland 1900

Queensland, Australia

Appointed a deputy judge of the District Court of Queensland in 1900, the year before he entered federal parliament.

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34
Death of father William Henry Groom 8 August 1901

Melbourne, Victoria, Australiaaged 68
34
Member for Darling Downs, Australian House of Representatives from 14 September 1901 to 12 October 1929

Darling Downs, Queensland

Won the Darling Downs by-election of 14 September 1901 caused by the death of his father William Henry Groom, the sitting member, on 8 August 1901. He stood at the request of his father's supporters and with the endorsement of the Barton government, and was elected with a substantial majority. He held the seat continuously until his defeat at the general election of 12 October 1929.

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38
Minister for Home Affairs from 5 July 1905 to 12 October 1906

Appointed by Alfred Deakin to the Liberal Protectionist ministry. The department covered the Commonwealth Public Service, public works, federal elections and the siting of the national capital; his championing of expanded Commonwealth activity brought clashes with the states over the proposed Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics and the federal capital site.

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39
Attorney-General of Australia from 12 October 1906 to November 1908

First term as Attorney-General, in the Deakin government. He defended the policy of new protection, helped enforce H. B. Higgins's Harvester Judgement on a minimum wage, represented the Commonwealth in the High Court when the Excise Tariff (Agricultural Machinery) Act 1906 was challenged, and carried the legislation providing Commonwealth invalid and old-age pensions in 1908.

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42
Minister for External Affairs from 2 June 1909 to 1910

One of only three Liberal Protectionists taken into the Fusion government of 2 June 1909, he held External Affairs for about eleven months until the government's defeat at the 1910 election. He carried the High Commissioner Bill of 1909, which established Australian representation in London.

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1910s
46
Minister for Trade and Customs from June 1913 to September 1914

Minister for Trade and Customs in Joseph Cook's Liberal government. The government's programme of reversing Labor's measures frustrated his own initiatives, and he and Cook often said the Liberals could achieve little while Labor controlled the Senate.

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50
Vice-President of the Executive Council from 16 November 1917 to March 1918

Became Vice-President of the Executive Council in W. M. Hughes's Nationalist government on 16 November 1917, having served as assistant minister for defence from 17 February 1917. He was prominent in the conscription plebiscite of 1917.

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50
Minister for Works and Railways from 27 March 1918 to December 1921

Pushed a vigorous development programme, supervised increased Commonwealth involvement in the Murray waters conservation scheme, and drove construction at Canberra, where the department's secretary Walter D. Bingle called him 'the man who lifted the whole business out of the bog'.

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1920s
54
Attorney-General of Australia from 21 December 1921 to 18 December 1925

Second term as Attorney-General, spanning the Hughes and Bruce-Page governments. He presided over a new public service superannuation scheme and replaced the public service commissioner with a board of three, led the Australian delegation to the fifth assembly of the League of Nations in 1924, and pursued deportation proceedings against foreign-born radicals. Bruce demanded his resignation, which took effect on 18 December 1925.

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56
Title (KC) 1923

Appointed King's Counsel in 1923.

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56
Title (KCMG) 1 January 1924

Appointed a Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George on 1 January 1924, while Attorney-General.

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58
Speaker of the House of Representatives from 13 January 1926 to 12 October 1929

Elected Speaker unopposed on 13 January 1926 after losing the attorney-generalship, and supervised the parliament's move from Melbourne to Canberra, opening the first Canberra session on 9 May 1927. In September 1929 he declined to use his casting vote against Hughes's amendment to the Maritime Industries Bill, holding the impartiality of the Chair to be 'most sacred'; the amendment carried by one vote, the parliament was dissolved and the Bruce-Page government was heavily defeated on 12 October 1929.

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1930s
64
Member for Darling Downs, Australian House of Representatives from 19 December 1931 to 6 November 1936

Darling Downs, Queensland

Denied Nationalist endorsement, he had lost Darling Downs at the 1929 election and returned to the Brisbane bar. He won the seat back as an independent on 19 December 1931, defeating his successor Arthur Morgan on the first count, joined the United Australia Party in August 1933, chaired the Bankruptcy Legislation Committee from 1932 to 1936, and held the seat until his death.

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Undated
Education (Toowoomba Grammar School)

Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

Educated at Toowoomba North State School and then Toowoomba Grammar School, where he was school dux and captain of the cricket and football teams.

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1930s
69
Buried November 1936

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

After a well-attended funeral service at Parliament House he was buried in the grounds of the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist, Reid, Canberra.

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69
Died 6 November 1936

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia