Thomas Mutch

{{For|the American geologist and planetary scientist|Thomas A. Mutch}} {{Short description|Australian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2014}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2014}} '''Thomas Davies Mutch''' (17 October 1885 – 4 June 1958) was an Australian politician.

==Early life== Born in London to busdriver William Murdoch Mutch and Sarah Davies, he arrived in New South Wales in 1887 and was educated at Double Bay Public School. He was subsequently a shearer for four years and joined the Australian Workers' Union, becoming a staff worker in 1903 and helping to found the Australian Writers and Artists Union in 1910. On 23 September 1912, he married Edith Marjorie Hasenham; he remarried on 26 March 1928 Dorothy Anette Joyce at Melbourne, with whom he had two children. From 1915 to 1916, he was New South Wales president and federal vice-president of the Australian Journalists' Association and was convicted of incitement after the 1917 general strike.

==Politics== He was an alderman at Mascot from 1923 to 1930 and Randwick from 1931 to 1937. Having been a member of the Australian Labor Party's central executive from 1913 to 1917, he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1917 as the Labor member for Botany. He served as Minister of Public Instruction from 1921 to 1922 and Minister for Education from 1925 to 1927, when he was expelled from the New South Wales Labor Party as a leading opponent of Premier Jack Lang. Defeated as an Independent Labor candidate in 1927, he became a freelance journalist and in 1931 joined the fledgling United Australia Party. He returned to the Legislative Assembly in 1938 as the UAP member for Coogee but resigned from the UAP and was defeated in 1941. Mutch died at Coogee in 1958.<ref>{{Cite NSW Parliament |name=Mr Thomas Davies Mutch (1885-1958) |former=Yes |access-date=30 April 2019 |id=1422}}</ref>

His great-nephew Stephen Mutch was a state and federal Liberal MP.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F1996-05-20%2F0094%22|title=Maiden speech|date=20 May 1996|access-date=11 April 2021|work=Hansard|publisher=Parliament of Australia}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}} {{Wikiquote}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|au-nsw-la}} {{s-bef|before= Fred Page}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for Botany|years=1917{{spaced ndash}}1920}} {{s-non|reason=District abolished}} {{s-new|district|reason=MMP introduced}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for Botany|years=1920{{spaced ndash}}1927|alongside=Hickey/Ratcliffe, Burke, McKell, Lee}} {{s-non|reason=District abolished}} {{s-new|district|reason=MMP abolished}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for Botany|years=1927{{spaced ndash}}1930}} {{s-aft|after= Bob Heffron }} {{s-bef|before= John Dunningham}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for Coogee|years=1938{{spaced ndash}}1941}} {{s-aft|after= Lou Cunningham }} {{s-off}} {{s-bef |before= Augustus James }} {{s-ttl |title= Minister of Public Instruction | years = 1920{{spaced ndash}}1921 }} {{s-aft|after= Thomas Ley }} {{s-bef |before= John Daniel FitzGerald }} {{s-ttl |title= Minister for Local Government | years = 1920{{spaced ndash}}1921 }} {{s-aft|after= George Cann }} {{s-bef |before= Thomas Ley }} {{s-ttl |title= Minister of Public Instruction | years = 1921{{spaced ndash}}1922 }} {{s-aft|after= Albert Bruntnell }} {{s-bef |before= Albert Bruntnell|as=Minister of Public Instruction}} {{s-ttl |title= Minister for Education | years = 1925{{spaced ndash}}1927 }} {{s-aft|after= Billy Davies|as=Minister of Public Instruction}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mutch, Thomas}} Category:1885 births Category:1958 deaths Category:United Australia Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Category:Independent members of the Parliament of New South Wales Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Category:British emigrants to Australia Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Category:20th-century Australian journalists Category:20th-century Australian male journalists Category:Ministers for education (New South Wales)