John Earle (Australian politician)

John Earle was born in Bridgewater, Tasmania in 1865, Earle became a blacksmith’s apprentice and later miner, assuming official positions within the local branch of the Amalgamated Miners’ Association. After an active career as an organiser for the union, Earle helped found the Tasmanian Workers’ Political League (forerunner to the Labor Party) in 1903, becoming the organisation’s first president. He entered the House of Assembly in 1906 and led the first Tasmanian Labor government into office in 1909, but it was a minority government which lasted only one week. He returned to office as Premier and Attorney-General in 1914 until he was defeated in 1916. He resigned from the labor Party over the conscription debate and was briefly a Senator in the Hughes government. He died in 1932.