Tom Mitchell (Australian politician)

Last updated

Sibyl Elyne Keith Chauvel
(m. 1935)
Tom Mitchell
Member of the Victorian Parliament
for Benambra
In office
7 June 1947 (1947-06-07) 20 March 1976 (1976-03-20)
Alma mater
Sports career
Sport Skiing
Sports achievements and titles
National finals
Military career
Service 2nd AIF
Years of service1940–1945
Rank Captain

Thomas Walter Mitchell (11 November 1906 – 4 February 1984) was an Australian politician, author and sportsman.

Mitchell was born at the family property "Towong Hill", near Corryong, Victoria and was educated at Cranbrook School, Sydney and Cambridge University from 1925 to 1930 before returning to Australia, and Towong Hill. At the time the property consisted of 17,000 acres (69 km2) of prime land beside the Murray River, but today has been reduced to 2,300 acres (9 km2), as sections have been split to various family members.

A keen skier, Mitchell founded the Australian National Ski Federation in 1932, captained the Australian skiing team and won gold medals in competitions against England and New Zealand. He was an Australian champion in the downhill and long-time member of the Ski Club of Australia. He and his wife Elyne Mitchell (daughter of General Sir Harry Chauvel) were the first people to ski the western slopes of the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains, including the demanding runs of "Little Austria".

Mitchell joined the Second Australian Imperial Force in 1940 and was a captain in the 2/22 Battalion and Headquarters 8th Division. [1] He was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and was interned in the infamous Changi POW camp until 1945, being forced to work on the Burma Railway by his captors. While at Changi, he also helped found the Changi ski club. [1] He later built a chapel, in memory of comrades lost during the war, on his property.

In 1947 he and Elyne, together with Ossie Rixon, set off in two four-wheel-drive vehicles to become the first people to cross the Australian Alps in a motor vehicle. "One", a Willys army jeep, sits in Corryong to this day.

He served as the Country Party member for Benambra in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1947 to 1976, as Attorney-General from June 1950 to 27 October 1952 and again from 31 October to December 1952. He was also Solicitor-General from June 1950 to December 1951, [2] the last politician to hold the office, [1] replaced by a non-political barrister, Henry Winneke. This was the start of a fundamental shift of the role of Solicitors-General in Australia. [3]

He contributed to the official history of the Second World War and wrote several volumes on skiing and local history.

Mitchell died in Melbourne in 1984. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corryong</span> Town in Victoria, Australia

Corryong is a small town in Victoria, Australia 120 kilometres (75 mi) east of Albury-Wodonga, near the upper reaches of the Murray River and close to the New South Wales border. At the 2016 census, Corryong had a population of 1,348.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity College, Melbourne</span> College of the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Trinity College is the oldest residential college of the University of Melbourne, the first university in the colony of Victoria, Australia. The college was opened in 1872 on a site granted to the Church of England by the government of Victoria. In addition to its resident community of 380 students, mostly attending the University of Melbourne, Trinity's programs includes the Trinity College Theological School, an Anglican training college which is a constituent college of the University of Divinity; and the Pathways School which runs Trinity College Foundation Studies and prepares international students for admission to the University of Melbourne and other Australian tertiary institutions, as well as summer and winter schools for young leaders and other short courses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Turner (Australian politician)</span> Australian politician

Sir George Turner was an Australian politician. He served two terms as Premier of Victoria, holding office from 1894 to 1899 and 1900 to 1901 as a liberal. After Federation he was invited by Edmund Barton to join the inaugural federal ministry, becoming the first Treasurer of Australia. He held office until 1904 under Barton and Alfred Deakin, then a few months later resumed office under George Reid. The government fell in 1905 and Turner retired from politics at the 1906 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Irvine (Australian politician)</span> Australian politician and judge (1858–1943)

Sir William Hill Irvine was an Australian politician and judge. He served as Premier of Victoria (1902–1904), Attorney-General of Australia (1913–1914), and Chief Justice of Victoria (1918–1935).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murray Valley Highway</span> Highway in Victoria and New South Wales

Murray Valley Highway is a 663-kilometre (412 mi) rural highway located in Victoria, Australia, between Euston, New South Wales and Corryong, Victoria. The popular tourist route mostly follows the southern bank of the Murray River and effectively acts as the northernmost highway in Victoria. For all but the western end's last three kilometres, the highway is allocated route B400.

Elyne Mitchell, OAM was an Australian author noted for the Silver Brumby series of children's novels. Her nonfiction works draw on family history and culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Dunstan</span> Australian politician

Sir Albert Arthur Dunstan, KCMG was an Australian politician who served as the 33rd premier of Victoria from 1935 to 1943 and from 1943 to 1945 and as the third deputy premier of Victoria for five days in March 1935. A member of the Country Party, now the National Party, his term as premier was the second-longest in the state's history and the longest of any third-party premier. He was the first person to hold the office of premier in its own right, and not an additional duty taken up by the Treasurer, Attorney-General or Chief Secretary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Les Norman (politician)</span> Australian politician (1913–1997)

Leslie George Norman was an Australian politician. Norman represented Glen Iris in the Victorian Legislative Assembly for four years, and led the Liberal and Country Party from 1951–1952. Norman was a staunch Methodist and an equally staunch conservative. He held strong small government views, and had little patience for the "socialism" of the Labor Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Hollway</span> Australian politician

Thomas Tuke Hollway was the 36th Premier of Victoria, and the first to be born in the 20th century. He held office from 1947 to 1950, and again for a short period in 1952. He was originally a member and the leader of the United Australia Party (UAP) in Victoria, and was the inaugural leader of the UAP's successor, the Victorian division of the Liberal Party, but split from the Liberals after a dispute over electoral reform issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Oldham</span> Australian politician (1900–1953)

Trevor Donald Oldham was an Australian politician, who was the leader of the Liberal Party in the state of Victoria from 1952 until his death in 1953. The eldest of three sons born to Arthur and Ethel Oldham, he was educated at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and the University of Melbourne. He had enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 7 November 1918, four days before the Armistice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Chitty</span> Australian rules footballer

Robert Mainwaring Chitty was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agar Wynne</span> Australian politician

Agar Wynne was an Australian lawyer and politician. He began his career in the Victorian Legislative Council and served two terms as Solicitor-General of Victoria. In 1906, he transferred to the federal House of Representatives. He was Postmaster-General of Australia in the Cook Government from 1913 to 1914, but retired from federal politics at the 1914 election. He re-entered Victorian politics and briefly served as Attorney-General of Victoria (1917–1918).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Murray Football Netball League</span>

The Upper Murray Football Netball League(UMFNL) is an Australian Rules Football and Netball competition based in the rural town of Corryong, Victoria, Australia. The league contains four clubs from around the townships & farming districts of the greater Upper Murray area, including the three founding clubs from 1893.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Chitty</span> Australian rules footballer

Leslie Allan "Peter" Chitty BEM was an Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He was a prisoner of war held at Changi prison during the Second World War. Chitty won the only "Changi Brownlow" medal to be awarded as part of the Changi Australian rules football competition. In 2024, it was reported in the Corryong Courier that an Australian red ensign bearing the words "Changi '41 '42" and "Chitty flag" had been discovered, which may have flown over the game where Chitty was awarded the Changi Brownlow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solicitor-General of Victoria</span> Second law officer for the state of Victoria, Australia

The Solicitor-General of Victoria, known informally as the Solicitor-General, is the state's Second Law Officer and the deputy of the Attorney-General. The Solicitor-General acts alongside the Crown Advocate and Crown Solicitor, and serves as one of the legal and constitutional advisers of the Crown and its government in the Australian state of Victoria.

Sir George Oswald Reid, was an Australian politician.

Brigadier Raymond Walter Tovell & Bar, ED was an Australian soldier and politician.

Reginald Ernest Roy Schilling was an Australian politician.

James Roy Paton was an Australian politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Greg</span> Town in New South Wales, Australia

Greg Greg is a rural locality in the Snowy Valleys Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Costar, B J. "Mitchell, Thomas Walter (Tom) (1906–1984)". Australian Dictionary of Biography . Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN   978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN   1833-7538. OCLC   70677943.
  2. "Thomas Walter Mitchell". Re-Member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851. Parliament of Victoria. Archived from the original on 23 April 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  3. Appleby, G (28 September 2012). "The Constitutional Role of the Solicitor-General" (PDF). Retrieved 21 January 2019.

 

Victorian Legislative Assembly
Preceded by Member for Benambra
1947–1976
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Solicitor-General of Victoria
June 1950 December 1951
Succeeded by
Attorney-General of Victoria
June 1950 27 October 1951
Succeeded by
Preceded by Attorney-General of Victoria
31 October 1951 December 1952
Succeeded by