David Storey (politician)

Storey was born and educated in County Monaghan, Ireland, the son of farmer Robert Storey and Margaret Colvin. After completing his education, he worked for softgoods merchant James Hartley in County Cavan and then as a representative of the firm of Lindsay Brothers Ltd. in north-western Ireland.

Storey emigrated to Sydney in 1879, working as a departmental manager for the firm of Ross, Morgan and Robertson. In 1881, he formed an importing firm in partnership with James C. Lindsay, a principal of his old firm in Ireland, and continued on the business as David Storey & Co. after dissolving the partnership in 1883. He became chairman of the Commercial Travellers Association of New South Wales in 1893, was chairman of the board of the Insurance Office of Australia, president of the Ulster Association of New South Wales, was a director of the Society for the Relief of Destitute Children from 1903 and was foundation president of the Bronte Surf Bathing Association in 1907. Storey was actively involved in the free trade movement, serving as secretary of the Freetrade and Land Reformist League in the 1890s.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239659785 |title=Mr. David Storey |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=30 January 1920 |access-date=15 July 2021 |page=4 |via=Trove}}

In 1894, he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Free Trade member for Randwick,{{cite NSW election |title=Elections for the District of Randwick |year=DistrictIndexes |district=Randwick |access-date=2020-10-21}} defeating future Prime Minister of Australia Edmund Barton. He joined the Liberal Reform Party in 1901. He led a group of 7 rebels who objected to Premier Charles Wade's autocratic leadership and his tactics at the 1910 election. He attempted to form a new political party, the Democratic Party, however that collapsed in October 1911 when the party refused to support a candidate to contest the Maitland by-election.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115291305 |title=Scattered. |newspaper=The Evening News |date=31 October 1911 |access-date=9 October 2021 |page=6 |via=Trove}} Storey re-joined the Liberal Reform party before the 1913 election.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15462795 |title=Randwick: Mr Storey's campaign, Democratic Party history |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=4 November 1913 |access-date=9 October 2021 |page=7 |via=Trove}} In November 1916 Labor split over conscription, when Premier Holman and twenty of his supporters were expelled from the party.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15681060 |title=PLL expulsions |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=7 November 1916 |access-date=7 May 2020 |page=7 |via=Trove}} Storey helped to establish the grand coalition with Holman and his supporters and by 1917 this had coalesced into the Nationalist Party of Australia, which Storey claimed to have named. He was a minister without portfolio in the Holman Nationalist ministry from 1916 to 1919, when he became Minister of Public Health. He had reportedly declined earlier offers of a ministry in the Carruthers ministry due to his business interests. He resigned from the ministry and from the Legislative Assembly in 1920 and was appointed to the Legislative Council four months later, serving until his death in 1924.{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=storey-sir-david-8685 |last=Rutledge |first=Martha |title=Storey, Sir David (1856–1924) |access-date=2021-07-14}}{{cite NSW Parliament |title=Sir David Storey (1856–1924) |id=1012 |former=Yes |access-date=21 May 2019}}

He married Rachel Agnes Doig in Sydney on 4 July 1883.

Storey was knighted in the 1923 New Year Honours.{{London Gazette |issue=32782 |date=29 December 1922 |page=2 |supp=y}} and died in Randwick, New South Wales from pneumonia on {{death date and age|27 July 1924|18 August 1856|df=y}} and was buried at South Head Cemetery.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31244234 |title=Sir David Storey |newspaper=The West Australian |date=28 July 1924 |access-date=15 July 2021 |page=7 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16171965 |title=Sir David Storey |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=28 July 1924 |access-date=15 July 2021 |page=8 |via=Trove}} He was survived by his wife Rachel, daughter and 4 sons.{{cite web |title=Storey, Theo W. (1891–1956) |website=Obituaries Australia |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |url=https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/storey-theo-w-943 |access-date=9 October 2021}}

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|escutcheon = Per fess Or and Azure a pale counterchanged three storks Sable beaked and membered Gules and as many garbs of the first banded of the last.

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|notes = Granted 28 March 1911 by Nevile Rodwell Wilkinson, Ulster King of Arms.{{cite web|url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000511733/StaffViewMARC#tabnav |title=Grants and Confirmations of Arms Vol. K |publisher=National Library of Ireland |accessdate=25 June 2022 |page=281}}}}

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{{s-ttl |title= Minister of Public Health| years =1916{{spaced ndash}}1919 }}

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{{s-ttl|title=Member for Randwick | years=1894–1920}}

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Category:1856 births

Category:1924 deaths

Category:Free Trade Party politicians

Category:Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales

Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council

Category:Australian Knights Bachelor

Category:British emigrants to the Colony of New South Wales