John Barkell HOLMAN

   Research Notes:

"HOLMAN.— On February 23, at St. John of God Hospital, Perth, W.A., John Barkell, dearly beloved husband of Katherine and father of May, Maude, John, Winifred., Edward, William, Iris, Eileen and Sheila, brother of Joseph (Corrigin), Edward (Yarra. Junction, Vic.), Ernest (Apollo Bay, Vic.), William, and brother-in-law of Thomas Row. Aged 52 years. R.I.P. (Eastern States and New Zealand papers please copy.)"

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"Holman migrated to Western Australia in 1893. He became active in the Labour movement, leading a strike at Day Dawn in 1896, and becoming a workers' advocate before the State Arbitration Court for many unions. By 1901 he was working in the Murchison district as a journalist, and was an organiser for the Amalgamated Workers Union. He contested the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Mount Magnet in the election of April 1901, but was defeated by Frank Wallace.

On 10 December 1901 John Holman was elected to the Legislative Assembly seat of North Murchison in a ministerial by-election, defeating Frederick Moorhead. The following year he was elected general president of the Western Australian branches of the Australian Workers' Union. In 1904 the seat of North Murchison was abolished, and Holman contested and won the seat of Murchison. He would hold this seat for nearly 17 years. From 10 August 1904 to 7 June 1905 he was Minister for Railways and Labour in Henry Daglish's short-lived Labor ministry.

Holman was secretary of the Federated Timber Workers' Union from 1908 until his death in 1925. He was Chairman of Committees in the Legislative Assembly from 1 November 1911 to 22 March 1917, and later acted as secretary and whip for the Parliamentary Labor Party. He launched the Labor newspaper The Labor Vanguard, and became chairman of directors for the People's Printing Company.

Holman lost Labor preselection for his seat in the election of 12 March 1921, and instead unsuccessfully contested the seat of Swan. The following year he contested for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Swan, again without success. However on 8 December 1923, he won the Legislative Assembly seat of Forrest in a by-election occasioned by the death of Peter O'Loghlen. He would hold the seat until his death.

John Holman died at St John of God Hospital, Subiaco on 23 February 1925 from complications following an appendicectomy, and was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery. His daughter, May Holman, was elected to the Legislative Assembly in his seat, becoming only the second woman to enter an Australian parliament, and the first for the Labor party. One of his sons, Edward Holman, also became a Member of the Legislative Assembly." ⁶

   Marriage Information:

John married Mary Catherine ROW in 1893 in Broken Hill, N.S.W., Australia ¹. (Mary Catherine ROW was born about 1877 and died on 20 Mar 1935 in Perth, W.A., Australia ⁷.)