Richard Wood (Australian politician)

{{Short description|Australian politician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}

{{Use Australian English|date=November 2016}}

Richard Wood (13 March 1839 – 1 January 1923) was an Australian politician. He was the member for North Adelaide in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1893 to 1902. He was a Labor member from 1893 until he was expelled in 1897. He was re-elected in his own right in 1899, but was defeated in 1902.{{Cite SA-parl |pid=3963 |name=Mr Richard Wood |former=yes |access-date=23 August 2022}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35096839 |title=United Labor Party |newspaper=The Advertiser |date=12 November 1897 |access-date=28 June 2015 |page=5 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64307650 |title=Obituary |newspaper=The Register |date=18 July 1923 |access-date=28 June 2015 |page=8 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161779451 |title=The general elections |newspaper=Adelaide Observer |date=10 May 1902 |access-date=28 June 2015 |page=33 |via=Trove}}

Wood was born in Paddington in London, England and became a blacksmith, working in the Great Western Railway locomotive works, at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield and at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. He migrated to Australia in 1866 and worked in a number of ironworks, blacksmiths and foundries in Port Adelaide and Adelaide, interspersed with a decade-long stint at the South Australian Gas Company's Brompton Gasworks, and then at the Islington Railway Workshops from around 1883 until his election to parliament. He was vice-president of the South Australian Railway Association from 1890 to 1892 and president of the United Trades and Labour Council in 1892. He was also president and vice-president of the Adelaide Working Men's Patriotic Association and a Primitive Methodist preacher.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225013433 |title=North Adelaide |newspaper=The Pictorial Australian |date=1 April 1893 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=3 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166452917 |title=Character sketches |newspaper=Quiz and The Lantern |date=25 July 1895 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=4 |via=Trove}}

Wood was elected to the House of Assembly at the 1893 election, defeating MP and former Adelaide mayor Lewis Cohen to become one of the first Labor MPs in South Australia. Shortly after his election, he faced allegations of having engaged in bigamy when a son from a previous marriage in England arrived in South Australia.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39496984 |title=Supposed bigamy case |newspaper=Launceston Examiner |date=13 January 1894 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=5 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25670542 |title=Mr R. Wood, M.P |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |date=23 November 1893 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=5 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44129466 |title=Mr R. Wood, M.P |newspaper=Barrier Miner |date=23 November 1893 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=2 |via=Trove}} He was regarded as a political moderate, and supported free trade in defiance of the party platform. He was nonetheless re-elected for Labor in 1896, but was expelled from the party in 1897 following his support of Labor defector David Charleston in Charleston's independent candidacy at a by-election that year. He was re-elected in 1899 with the support of the Free Trade Association.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article54426130 |title=Free-Trade Association |newspaper=South Australian Register |date=3 February 1899 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=7 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146085766 |title=Intercolonial |newspaper=The Pilbarra Goldfield News |date=10 May 1899 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=3 |via=Trove}} Wood opposed the drinking of alcohol, and attempted on several occasions to abolish the bar in Parliament House.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4846211 |title=The federal "bar" |newspaper=The Advertiser |date=5 July 1901 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=6 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70827829 |title=The political labour movement in South Australia |newspaper=Worker |date=5 January 1901 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=9 |via=Trove}} Wood contested the inaugural 1901 federal election as a Free Trade Party candidate, but was comfortably defeated.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14363270 |title=South Australian nominations |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=5 March 1901 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=5 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52728631 |title=South Australia |newspaper=Morning Bulletin |date=4 April 1901 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=5 |via=Trove}} Adelaide magazine The Critic summarised Wood's 1901 federal platform as "revenue tariff on Freetrade lines, old age pensions, uniform franchise, white Australia".{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212147902 |title=The Federal contest on Saturday |newspaper=Critic |date=30 March 1901 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=5 |via=Trove}} He ran for re-election in his state seat in 1902, but was defeated.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56561111 |title=Declaration of the poll |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |date=6 May 1902 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=7 |via=Trove}} He subsequently unsuccessfully contested a Legislative Council by-election in 1903.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4994214 |title=Legislative Council election |newspaper=The Advertiser |date=4 September 1903 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=7 |via=Trove}}

He lived in Western Australia for the last eighteen years of his life, the last years spent at Dongarra, where he continued to preach in the Methodist church and was a frequent exhibitor at the Irwin Agricultural Show. He died at his daughter's home at Yalgoo in 1923 after a short illness and was buried at Dongara Cemetery.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article233300305 |title=Death of Mr. Richard Wood |newspaper=The Yalgoo Observer and Murchison Chronicle |date=19 July 1923 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=2 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66713810 |title=The late Mr. R. Wood |newspaper=Geraldton Guardian |date=21 July 1923 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=1 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66712490 |title=Local & general |newspaper=Geraldton Guardian |date=10 July 1923 |access-date=16 July 2022 |page=2 |via=Trove}}