Littleton Groom
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The Honourable Sir Littleton Ernest Groom (22 April 1867 - 6 November 1936) was an Australian Commonwealth Minister, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Australia's 10th longest serving federal Parliamentarian (33 years 1 month).
Groom was born in Toowoomba, Queensland and educated at Toowoomba Grammar School and the University of Melbourne where he won the 1890 University Scholarship at the Final Honours Examination in Laws. He then worked as a lawyer, Crown Prosecutor and acting judge before winning the first federal by-election in Australian history, as a Protectionist for the seat of Darling Downs, caused by the death of his father William Groom.
Groom was a member of every non-Australian Labor Party ministry from 1905 to 1926, holding at one time or another the Home Affairs, External Affairs, Trade and Customs, Works and Railways and Attorney General portfolios as well as serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Groom introduced legislation in 1906 to create a federal meteorological department and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) was in large part a product of Groom's attempts to create an Australian Department of Agriculture. He also found the time in 1924 to lead the Australian delegation to the Fifth Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva in 1924 and chaired the first committee.
As Speaker, Groom helped oversee the move of federal Parliament from Melbourne to the newly constructed capital Canberra but his refusal to use his casting vote as speaker in a controversial matter lead the Government to strongly oppose his re-election and he lost the seat of Darling Downs at the 1929 election. He won back the seat at the 1931 election and was the member for the Darling Downs at the time of his death in Canberra following a short illness.
A member of the General Synod of the Anglican Church, Groom was knighted on 1 January 1924 for his services to politics. In 1984 the Division of Groom was named in his honour and he is commemorated by a number of features in Toowoomba, including Groom Park.
Groom's elder brother Henry was a long serving member of the Queensland state parliament.
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