Chris Watson

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Born John Christian Tanck (born John Christian Tanck, 1867-41), also known as Chris Watson, was an Australian politician who served as Australia's third Prime Minister.

He was Australia's first Prime Minister and headed the country's first Labour Party government, which was also the world's first socialist or social democratic government at a national level.

Watson, the first Australian Prime Minister not born in a Commonwealth country, was elected to the Parliament of Young from the 1894 colonial election, where the state Labour parties gained a total of 15.8% of the first election against the two most dominant parties.

Watson was elected by the Caucus as the inaugural parliamentary leader of the Caucus on May 8, 1901, just in time for the first sitting of parliament.

Watson led to a 51% vote at the 1903 federal election and 36.6% at the 1906 federal election, the latter of which saw Watson move from Bland to South Sydney, which was the result of Watson's removed seat.

Labour retained the balance of power since 1901 and most often gave the protectionist Party governments of Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin, who often supported their law in exchange for Labour policy implementation.

A handful of bills were passed by the Watson administration, but more importantly, it set the tone for a Labour Party Prime Minister.

In 1907 and 1910, he resigned as Labour leader and then in 1910.

Labor led by Andrew Fisher would win the 1910 federal election with over 51% of the vote, representing a number of firsts; the first Labor Party majority government in Australia; and after the 1904 Watson minority government, the country's second largest Labour Party government at a national level.

He came at the right time for his party, and nothing could have done it better than his sincerity, courtesy, and moderation, which he always displayed as a leader.

"The Labour section has a lot to be grateful to Mr Watson, the king whose tact and wisdom have allowed it to achieve a number of the Parliamentary's triumphs," Watson said of Watson.

Early life

Watson was born in Valpara, Chile, on April 9, 1867. Cristian Tanck was born Johan Tanck. He was the only child of Martha (née Minchin) and Johan Cristian Tanck, Sr. His father was born in Valparaso, a German Chilean who immigrated from Hanover, establishing an import-export company. He served as a merchant seaman, possibly a ship's carpenter, on trade routes around the Pacific. On December 24, 1865, he arrived in New Zealand aboard La Joven Julia, marrying Martha Minchin in Port Chalmers less than a month later. Their marriage was later confirmed in Valpara de la Matriz's Iglesia de la Matriz. Watson's mother was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, and she was 16 years old at the time of her first marriage. She joined Tanck on board the Julia, which later returned to Chile and docked in Valparado a few days before Watson's birth. The ship travelled between Valparaso and Chiloé Island on a regular basis months after his birth.

Watson and his mother immigrated to New Zealand in 1868, returning to her family on the South Island. No records of his father's death have been found, so the fate of his father is uncertain. His mother married George Thomas Watson at the registry office in Waipori on February 15, 1869, describing herself as a widow. Her second husband, a 30-year-old miner from Ballymoney, Ireland, had come to New Zealand after many years of being in Scotland. Watson had nine half-siblings from his mother's second marriage, born between 1869 and 1887. He was regarded as George Watson's biological son, adopting his step-father's surname; his given names were also anglicised.

Watson, an adult, gave inaccurate and conflicting information about his birth and the identities of his parents. He permitted some biographical journalists to publish him as born in New Zealand, while his second wife and daughter knew he was born in British waters outside of Valparaguso. George Watson was his biological father on legal records, but he gave an incorrect maiden name for his mother. Watson's biographers have speculated that he may have initially concealed his past for convenience, but then decided against it for political reasons, including questions over parliamentary recognition and potential xenophobia. Under section 44(i) of the constitution, a birth of a non-British father would make him an alien ineligible for election to federal parliament.

Watson did not attend the state school in Oamaru, North Otago, New Zealand, until he reached a ten-year-old age, when he moved to become a rail nipper. Then joined the family farm at thirteen years old, as a compositor at The North Otago Times, a newspaper run by prominent reformist politician William Steward, with the public affairs exposure increasing his minor formal education. Following the death of his mother and the loss of his career, he immigrated to Sydney in 1886 at the age of nineteen years old. He served for a month as a stablehand at Government House before moving to Sydney, Australia's Morning Herald, and The Australian Star. He pursued his education, aspired to books, and authors, and became active in the printing union due to his closeness to newspapers, books, and writers. On November 27, 1889, Ada Jane Low, a British-born seamstress, married at the Unitarian Church in Sydney's Melbourne Street.

Later life

Several Labor MPs were dismissed from the party after supporting World War I conscription in Australia during the 1916 Labor Party split. Watson sided with ex-Labor Prime Minister Billy Hughes and the Conscriptionists, losing his party membership as a result. Watson remained interested in the affairs of Hughes' Nationalist Party until 1922, but after that, he fell out of politics entirely.

He served as the president of Australia's Industry Protection League in 1931 and approved the Scullin Government's high-tariff policies.

Watson was recruited by a syndicate of Sydney businessmen in December 1910 to lead a gold-seeking expedition in South Africa. In Sutherland, he was involved in land speculation, but growth did not happen quickly enough. He was appointed as the director of Labor Papers Limited, the publisher of the AWU's national newspaper The Australian Worker.

Watson joined the National Roads Association (NRA) in March 1920 and was elected as the association's inaugural president in August. The NRA was intended to function as a peak body for New South Wales motorists, lobbying the state government to establish a Main Roads Board and borrow funds to upgrade local highways. With a budget of only £15 per week, it was first hampered by its small membership and a lack of financial funding. Watson was able to gain attention through the launching of a magazine and a fruitful campaign to raise speed limits. When the NRA was reorganized into the National Roads and Motorists' Union (NRMA), he was reelected president in 1923 and will keep the position for the remainder of his life. The group had grown from 550 to 5,000 employees by the end of the year. The company then expanded into car insurance and motor touring, purchasing a number of camping properties. Watson, as well as his role in the NRMA, served as the chairman of the state government's Traffic Advisory Committee and as a director. He was appointed as the inaugural chairman of Ampol in 1936.

Personal life

Ada Watson, Watson's first wife, died in 1921. Antonia Mary Gladys Dowlan's first marriage took place in the same church on October 30th. She was a 23-year-old waitress from Western Australia who had been waiting for her table at a Sydney club when she first met her. They had just one child, Jacqueline Dunn née Watson, in 1927.

In 1934, Watson and his second wife bought a house in Double Bay. In retirement, he became a keen bridge player and was also a regular attendee at Randwick Racecourse and the Sydney Cricket Grounds, as part of the SCG Trust. He visited the US for work reasons and then returned to New Zealand for a number of times in a private capacity. Watson died at his home in Double Bay on November 18, 1941, aged 74, following weeks of ill health. Joseph Cook, Albert Gardiner, John Curtin, and William McKell were among the pallbearers at St Andrew's Cathedral, where he was given a state funeral. At the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, his ashes were laid to rest.

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