James Dickson
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Sir James Robert Dickson KCMG (30 November, 1832 - 10 January, 1901) was an Australian politician and businessman, the 13th Premier of Queensland and a member of the first federal ministry.
Dickson was born in Plymouth, Devon, and migrated initially to Victoria in 1854. He settled in Queensland in 1862, becoming an auctioneer. A wealthy and influential businessman, he was elected as a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Enoggera in 1873. He was made Secretary for Public Works and Mines in 1876 under Arthur Macalister, and was Treasurer 1876-79. In the absence of Sir Samuel Griffith he was briefly Opposition Leader, and was Treasurer again 1883-87 after Griffith became Premier. He lost his seat in 1888 but was again elected for Bulimba in 1892, supporting the importation of labourers from the South Pacific to work on the Queensland canefields.
In the so-called Continuous Ministry of the late 1890s, Dickson attained the positions of Secretary for Railways in 1897, Postmaster-General and Home Secretary 1898-99. In September 1898, after the death of Thomas Byrnes he was made Premier. The Continuous Ministry by this stage was falling apart, and Dickson had only a brief period in office before Anderson Dawson gained the support of the Legislative Assembly to become the world's first elected Labour Party leader. The Ministerialists regrouped a week later to vote Dawson out of office. Dickson lacked support to become Premier again, and that position instead went to Robert Philp, in whose government Dickosn was Chief Secretary.
Dickson was a leading supporter of federation in Queensland and was mainly responsible for winning a "yes" vote in the Queensland referendum on the proposed Constitution of Australia in 1900.
As a result, Dickson was appointed Minister for Defence in the first federal ministry under Edmund Barton on 1 January, 1901. He was intending to stand for election to the first Federal Parliament, but on 10 January he died suddenly. He was the first memebr of the Australian Parliament to die in office.
The Federal Electoral Division of Dickson and the Canberra suburb of Dickson are both named after him.
See also
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