{{Short description|Australian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2014}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2014}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Ken Hoad | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | caption = | constituency_MP = Cootamundra | parliament = New South Wales | majority = | term_start = 30 May 1925 | term_end = 18 May 1932 | predecessor = James McGirr | successor = Bill Ross | alongside = Peter Loughlin (1925-1927)<br />Hugh Main (1925-1927) | prior_term = | birth_date = {{birth date|1897|11|13|df=y}} | birth_place = Junee, New South Wales | death_date = {{death date and age|1944|06|07|1897|11|13|df=y}} | death_place = Junee, New South Wales | resting_place = Junee Cemetery | resting_place_coordinates = | birth_name = Kenneth Oswald Hoad | citizenship = | party = Labor Party | other_party = | spouse = Ida Kathleen Berger | partner = | relations = | occupation = Railway Porter }}
'''Kenneth Oswald Hoad''' (13 November 1897 – 7 June 1944) was an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1925 to 1932, representing the electorate of Cootamundra.
Hoad was born in Junee, the son of James Hoad, a member of the Legislative Council. He was educated at Junee Public School, and joined the Railway Department in 1913. He was a porter at Junee from 1913 to 1917 and at Narrabri from 1917 to 1920, and then an operator at Junee from 1920 until his election to parliament in 1925. He was an alderman of the Junee Shire Council from 1919 until 1922, and from 1925 to 1928. He was also the branch secretary of the Railway and Tramway Professional Officers Association until 1925.
Hoad first attempted to enter state politics at the 1922 election, but was unsuccessful in winning one of the three seats in the Cootamundra electorate. In 1925, however, incumbent Labor MLA and future Premier James McGirr lost party endorsement, and Hoad, heavily supported by the railway unions, was elected to his seat.<ref name=hagan>{{cite book |title=People and Politics in Regional New South Wales: 1856 to the 1950s |last=Hagan |first=Jim |year=2006 |publisher=Federation Press |isbn=1-86287-570-7 |page=244}}</ref> Cootamundra reverted to being a single-member electorate in 1928, and Hoad, as the Labor candidate, held off a challenge from the Country Party by 86 votes. He was re-elected with a much larger margin in 1930, but was defeated in 1932 by Country Party candidate Bill Ross. He again contested Cootamundra in 1935 and 1938, but was narrowly defeated by Ross on both occasions.
Later in life, Hoad owned property in Junee and a grazing property at Ulandera. He died at Junee in 1944, and was buried in Junee Cemetery.<ref name="Ken Hoad NSW Parl">{{Cite NSW Parliament |id=1596 |name=Mr Kenneth Oswald Hoad |former=Yes |access-date=4 May 2019}}</ref><ref name=elections>{{Cite NSW election |title=Elections for Cootamundra |year=DistrictIndexes |district=Cootamundra |accessdate=21 July 2020}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}} {{S-start}} {{s-par|au-nsw-la}} {{Succession box | title=Member for Cootamundra | before= James McGirr | after= Bill Ross | alongside= Loughlin/none, Main/none |years=1925{{ndash}}1932}} {{S-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoad, Ken}} Category:1897 births Category:1944 deaths Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Category:People from Junee Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Category:20th-century Australian politicians