{{Short description|Australian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}} {{Use Australian English|date=January 2016}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = John Prowse | honorific_suffix = | image = John_Prowse 1928 (cropped).jpg | constituency_MP1 = Swan | parliament1 = Australian | majority = | predecessor1 = Edwin Corboy | successor1 = Henry Gregory | term_start1 = 13 December 1919 | term_end1 = 16 December 1922 | constituency_MP2 = Forrest | parliament2 = Australian | predecessor2 = ''New seat'' | successor2 = Nelson Lemmon | term_start2 = 16 December 1922 | term_end2 = 21 August 1943 | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1871|6|16}} | birth_place = Adelong, New South Wales, Australia | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1944|5|20|1871|6|16}} | death_place = Donnybrook, Western Australia, Australia | spouse = {{marriage|Edith McNeilance|1896|1939|reason=died}}<br/>{{marriage|Jean Murdoch|1941}} | party = Country | relations = Edgar Prowse (nephew) | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = Insurance agent | profession = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''John Henry Prowse''' (16 June 1871 – 20 May 1944) was an Australian politician. Born in Adelong, New South Wales, he was educated at public schools and then at Kings College, Melbourne. He became an insurance agent and then a station owner in Western Australia, where he eventually became a Perth City Councillor, serving as Mayor 1913–1914. In 1919, Prowse was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the member for Swan, representing the Farmers' and Settlers' Association, which in 1920 solidified to become the Australian Country Party. Prowse transferred to the new seat of Forrest in 1922, allowing party colleague Henry Gregory (member for the abolished Dampier) to contest Swan. He served as chairman of committees from 1934 to 1943, the first member of his party to hold the position.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/Powers_practice_and_procedure/Practice7/HTML/Appendices/Appendix3|title=Appendix 3—Deputy Speakers|work=House of Representatives Practice|publisher=Parliament of Australia|edition=7th|access-date=15 February 2020}}</ref><ref name=adb>{{cite AuDB |first=Lenore |last=Layman |first2=Betty |last2=Carter |author-link= |title=Prowse, John Henry (Jack) (1871–1944) |year=2021|id2=prowse-john-henry-jack-8125 |access-date=20 October 2021}}</ref>
Prowse held Forrest until his defeat in 1943 by future Labor minister Nelson Lemmon.<ref name=Psephos>{{cite web|last=Carr |first=Adam |title=Australian Election Archive |work=Psephos, Adam Carr's Election Archive |url=http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia |year=2008 |accessdate=2008-07-28 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070717093439/http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/ |archivedate=17 July 2007 }}</ref> He died at his home in Donnybrook, Western Australia the following year.<ref name="dailynews">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78388363 |title=Mr J.H. Prowse Dies |newspaper=The Daily News |volume=LXII |issue=21,567 |location=Western Australia |date=20 May 1944 |accessdate=30 August 2017 |page=14 (FIRST EDITION) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==Early life== Prowse was born on 16 June 1871 in Adelong, New South Wales. He was the son of Mary Ann (née Wylie) and James Prowse. His mother was born in Ireland, while his father, born in England, was a miner and farmer.<ref name=adb/>
Prowse was educated at Adelong Public School and King's College in Melbourne. After leaving school he began working for the United Insurance Company. In 1889 was appointed manager of its branch in Townsville, Queensland. He relocated to Perth in 1903 after being appointed state manager for Western Australia. In 1914 he became one of the inaugural directors of the cooperative Westralian Farmers Ltd (now Wesfarmers).<ref name=adb/>
==Community work== Prowse was a lay preacher in the Methodist Church and was active in the temperance movement, serving as president of the West Australian Temperance Alliance from 1905 to 1911. He was also a grandmaster in the Orange Order and "busy in the early organisation of philanthropic causes in Perth, including the Blind and Deaf and Dumb Institutions, and the Children’s Protection Society".<ref name=adb/>
In 1919, Prowse was appointed by the state government to the board of the newly created Discharged Soldiers' Land Settlement Board, overseeing the soldier settlement scheme for World War I veterans.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27595855|title=Repatriation: Discharged Soldiers' Settlement|newspaper=The West Australian|date=19 February 1919}}</ref> He was subsequently elected as its inaugural chair.<ref name=obit>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/78388351|title=Mr J. H. Prowse Dies|newspaper=The Daily News|location=Perth|date=20 May 1944}}</ref>
==Politics==
===Local government=== thumb|upright|Prowse in 1913 as mayor of Perth Prowse served as mayor of the Municipality of Subiaco from 1904 to 1905. He was a supporter of the Greater Perth Movement and was elected to a one-year term as mayor of Perth in 1913. During his tenure the Municipality of Leederville and Municipality of North Perth were merged into the City of Perth.<ref name=adb/>
===Federal politics=== In 1913, Prowse was elected to the executive of the newly created Farmers' and Settlers' Association of Western Australia (FSA). He was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1919 federal election, standing as an FSA candidate and defeating the incumbent Australian Labor Party (ALP) member Edwin Corboy in the seat of Swan. He joined the new federal Country Party when parliament sat after the election.<ref name=adb/>
Prowse transferred to the new seat of Forrest at the 1922 election. He was an opponent of Prime Minister Billy Hughes and after the election supported making Hughes' removal as prime minister a condition of the Country Party entering into a coalition with Hughes' Nationalist Party. He was subsequently appointed as a government whip in the Bruce–Page government, but resigned in August 1924 in opposition to the electoral pact between the two parties.<ref name=adb/>
Following the 1934 election, Prowse was elected chairman of committees in the House of Representatives. He was re-elected after the 1937 election and, along with UAP speaker Walter Nairn, continued in the post after the Fadden government was defeated in 1941 and replaced by an ALP minority government led by John Curtin. Both Prowse and Nairn resigned in June 1943 to support a motion of no confidence in the Curtin government, but were themselves defeated in the ALP landslide victory at the 1943 election.<ref name=adb/>
==Personal life== Prowse married Edith McNeilance in 1896, with whom he had six children. He was widowed in 1939 and remarried in 1941 to Jean Murdoch, with his parliamentary colleague Harold Holt serving as best man.<ref name=adb/>
In 1910, Prowse went into partnership with his brother Albert and purchased Wallatin station, situated in the Wheatbelt north of Doodlakine.<ref name=adb/> Albert's son Edgar Prowse was elected to federal parliament in the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite Au Senate |Sen id=prowse-edgar-wylie |name=PROWSE, EDGAR WYLIE (1905–1977) |first=David |last=Black |year=2010 |access-date=8 January 2017}}</ref>
Prowse retired to his farming property Bangadang near Donnybrook, which he had purchased in 1929. He died suddenly at Bangadang on 20 May 1944, aged 72.<ref name=obit/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|au}} {{succession box | title=Member for Swan | before=Edwin Corboy| after=Henry Gregory| years=1919–1922}} {{succession box | title=Member for Forrest | before=New seat| after=Nelson Lemmon|years=1922–1943}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prowse, John}} Category:1871 births Category:1944 deaths Category:National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Swan Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Forrest Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives Category:Mayors and lord mayors of Perth, Western Australia Category:People from Adelong, New South Wales Category:Australian MPs 1919–1922 Category:Australian MPs 1922–1925 Category:Australian MPs 1925–1928 Category:Australian MPs 1928–1929 Category:Australian MPs 1929–1931 Category:Australian MPs 1931–1934 Category:Australian MPs 1934–1937 Category:Australian MPs 1937–1940 Category:Australian MPs 1940–1943 Category:Mayors of Subiaco Category:Perth City Councillors