Wallace Nelson
{{Short description|Australian politician}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix =
|name = Wallace Nelson
|honorific-suffix =
|image = Nelson-Wallace.jpg
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|constituency_AM = Hannans
|assembly = Western Australian Legislative
|term_start = 28 June 1904
|term_end = 27 October 1905
|predecessor = Thomas Bath
|successor = Francis Ware
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1856|4|29|df=y}}
|birth_place = Aberdeen, Scotland
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1943|5|5|1856|4|29|df=y}}
|death_place = Wollstonecraft, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
|restingplace =
|restingplacecoordinates =
|birthname = Wallace Alexander Nelson
|citizenship =
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|party = Labor Party
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Wallace Alexander Nelson (29 April 1856 – 5 May 1943) was a short term Western Australian politician. He represented the electoral district of Hannans from 1904 to 1905 in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. He was described as the wit and humorist of the Labor Party in those days, having much experience at oration and writing. He later moved on to editing newspapers, and writing books.
Biography
Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Nelson had been ordered to relocate to a warmer climate by his doctor in Sheffield, England the 1880s, and subsequently immigrated to Brisbane and then Rockhampton. While there, he unsuccessfully contested the Federal Seat of Capricornia in the 1901 Federal election, which was won by Alexander Paterson with a margin of 139 votes.{{cite journal|date=12 April 1901|title=Capricornia Returns Complete: Mr Paterson's Majority 139 |journal=Morning Bulletin |pages=5|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52731983}} He then moved to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
In Kalgoorlie, he was editor of the Westralian Worker until December 1902,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42945878 |title=Mr Wallace Nelson. |newspaper=Cairns Morning Post |date=3 May 1901 |accessdate=12 March 2013 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} having taken over from Thomas Bath, then the Kalgoorlie Sun and Figaro. After his stint in parliament he moved to Perth, where he edited the Perth Democrat, was leader writer for the Daily News and contributed to the literary journal Leeuwin. After two years in England, he moved to Sydney in 1916 where he edited the Australasian Manufacturer until a few months before his death in 1943.
Nelson was an official lecturer on the Great White Train tour of New South Wales country towns in 1925–26.{{cite book|author=Jill Roe |title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: Nelson, Wallace Alexander (1856–1943) |chapter=Nelson, Wallace Alexander (1856–1943) |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University | url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/nelson-wallace-alexander-7739/text13563 |year=1986 |access-date=13 December 2021}}
He was also the author of a number of books.{{Citation | author1=Nelson, Wallace | title=Foster Fraser's fallacies: and other Australian essays | publication-date=1910 | publisher=Gordon & Gotch | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/25762093 | accessdate=12 March 2013 }}{{Citation | author1=Nelson, Wallace | author2=Atkinson, Meredith, 1883-1929 | author3=Boote, Henry E. (Henry Ernest), 1868-1949 | title=Letters to John Workman and capital and labour at the bar of reason | publication-date=1919 | publisher=Manufacturer Publishing Co | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18114543 | accessdate=12 March 2013}}
Notes
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References
- {{cite book|title=Golden Days: being Memoirs & Reminiscences of the Goldfields of Western Australia|year=1996|author=Raeside J|publisher=Hesperian Press|isbn=0-85905-204-4}}
- {{cite book|title=Biographical Register of Members of Parliament of Western Australia, Vol. 1 1870-1930|year=1990|vauthors=Black D, Bolton G |publisher=Western Australian Parliamentary History Project|isbn=0-7316-9782-0}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|au-wa-la}}
{{s-bef|before=Thomas Bath }}
{{s-ttl|title=Member for Hannans |years=1904–1905}}
{{s-aft|after=Francis Thomas Ware }}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Wallace}}
Category:Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
Category:Australian newspaper editors
Category:Scottish emigrants to Australia
Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia