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Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia

James Cunningham

Parliamentary Service

House

MLC MLA

Party

Labor 1919 Leederville Australian Labor Federation delegate to Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Division), 4th General Council (10th Labor Congress)

Date Elected

7 July 1916

Electorate

North-East

Service

State

Electorates

MLC North East Province, 7 July 1916 (by-election)–21 May 1922
MLA Kalgoorlie 13 January 1923 (by-election)–15 February 1936
Contested North East Province, 13 May 1922, Kalgoorlie 15 February 1936

Office

Minister without portfolio 17 April 1924–15 December 1927
Minister for Agriculture, Water Supply 15 December 1927–3 April 1930

Commonwealth

Senator for Western Australia, 1 July 1938 (elected 23 October 1937)–4 July 1943

Office

Deputy Leader Australian Labor Party in Senate 1940–1941
President of the Senate 1 July 1941–4 July 1943

Private Member's Bills

Year Retired/Resigned

1936

Personal Information

Birth date

28 December 1879

Place of birth

Warabraer, South Australia, Australia

Death date

4 July 1943

Cause of death

Place of death

Albury, New South Wales, Australia

Cemetery

Karrakatta Cemetery, Western Australia

Arrived in WA

Parents

James, stonemason and farmer, and Catherine Herrin (Hearn?), domestic servant

Marriage and Family

Married 29 October 1907, St Marys Church, Kalgoorlie to Alice Daly (died circa January 1964), daughter of Edward and Mary Moroney
Children: three sons and one daughter

Religion

Catholic

Education

Little formal education

Occupation

Miner and union secretary

Employment History

From 1899 prospecting and mining at Norseman
From 1905 at Boulder
1914–1916 full time secretary Kalgoorlie–Boulder branch Federated Miners’ Union in succession to G McLeod
1917 State Treasurer, Federated Mining Employees’ Association of Australia (Western Australia branch)
1936 to his farm at Mullewa

Local Government

Principal Honours

Background/Membership

References

D Black and G Bolton, eds, Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia: volume one 1870-1930, Parliamentary History Project, Perth, WA, 2001, p. 57.

Bibliography

Further Information

Ralph Pervan, 'Cunningham, James (1879–1943)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cunningham-james-5849/text9943, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed online 17 December 2015.