T. J. Ryan Information & T. J. Ryan Links at HealthHaven.com

Thomas Joseph Ryan
	Thomas Joseph Ryan
	;
19th Premier of Queensland
	In office; 1 June 1915 – 22 October 1919
Preceded by	Digby Denham
Succeeded by	Ted Theodore
Born	1 July 1876; Port Fairy, Victoria, Australia
Died	1 August 1921 (aged 45); Barcaldine, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Australian Labor Party

Thomas Joseph "T.J." Ryan (1 July 1876 – 1 August 1921) was Premier of Queensland, Australia from May 1915 until October 1919 when he resigned to enter Federal politics.

[edit] Early life

Ryan was born at Port Fairy, Victoria Australia, and was educated at South Melbourne College, Xavier College, Kew, and the University of Melbourne, where he graduated B.A. and LL.B.

He was appointed an assistant classical master at the University High School, Melbourne, and subsequently held teaching positions at the Church of England Grammar School, Launceston, at the Maryborough Grammar School, and the Rockhampton Grammar School, where he became second master. He resigned this position on being admitted to the Queensland bar in December 1901. He practised as a solicitor at Rockhampton and subsequently as a barrister at Brisbane. While at Rockhampton in 1900 he joined the Australian Natives Association and became its local president.

[edit] Queensland politician

He was afterwards a candidate for the federal seat of Capricornia and the state seat of Rockhampton North, but was defeated on both occasions. In October 1909 he was elected as Labor member for Barcoo in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, retained the seat for 10 years, and after the 1912 election was elected leader of the Labour party on the resignation of David Bowman.

The Ryan government was the first majority Australian Labor Party government of Queensland. Some of the eight members of his Cabinet had connections with the early ALP of the 1880s and the Shearer's Strike. His government would provide the example which would see Labor in power in Queensland almost continuously until 1957. Major reform of Labor laws and agricultural policy were part of the Ryan legacy. At the election in May 1915, Labour came in with a large majority and Ryan became premier, chief secretary, and attorney-general, and an era of industrial legislation and state enterprise began. Among the measures passed were the industrial arbitration act, labour exchanges act, workers' compensation act, inspection of machinery and scaffolding act, factories and shops amendment act, and workers' compensation amendment act. This was one side of the Ryan government's activities but where it particularly broke fresh ground was the entrance of the state into trading activities. Stations were purchased and run as going concerns, and many retail butchers' shops were opened in Brisbane and other parts of Queensland. Railway refreshment rooms were taken over, state hotels were built and purchased, a produce agency was established, coal mines were acquired, iron and steel works were opened, and a state insurance department was established.

Ryan showed good generalship at the 1918 election and his party was again returned with a large majority. Ryan, as the only Labor party leader in Government anywhere in Australia, was instrumental in leading the fight against conscription in the referendum launched by Billy Hughes.

Statue of Thomas J. Ryan in Queens Gardens, Brisbane

[edit] Federal politician

Ryan was asked by a resolution of a special federal conference to enter federal politics, the only occasion that such a motion has been passed. He was Campaign Director for the Labor Party during the 1919 Federal election and was elected to the House of Representatives in the Federal Parliament as the Member for West Sydney. He had been widely touted as a likely Labor leader before his premature death.^{[citation needed]}

In July 1921 he went to Queensland, against his doctor's advice, to help the Labour candidate at the Marawa by-election, contracted pneumonia, and died on 1 August 1921 in Glenco Hospital, Barcaldine, Queensland, aged 45.

[edit] Personal life

He married in 1910, Miss L. V. Cook, who proved a great helpmate to him. She survived him with a son and a daughter, and in 1944 was the Queensland government representative at Melbourne.

[edit] Legacy

The wording on the metal plaque on the pedestal on which Thomas Ryan's statue stands in Brisbane, describes him as: Scholar - Jurist - Statesman. The Federal electoral division of Ryan is named after him.

[edit] References

Queensland Political Portraits 1859-1952, University of Queensland Press, 1978
Johnston, W. Ross; D. J. Murphy. "Ryan, Thomas Joseph (1876 - 1921)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110509b.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
Serle, Percival (1949). "Ryan, Thomas Joseph". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. http://gutenberg.net.au/dictbiog/0-dict-biogR.html#ryan1.
Thomas Joseph Ryan (1876-1921) — Australian Dictionary of Biography

Political offices
Preceded by Digby Denham	Premier of Queensland 1915–1919	Succeeded by Ted Theodore
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Cornelius Wallace	Member for West Sydney 1919–1921	Succeeded by William Lambert