Robert Best (Australian politician)

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Sir Robert Wallace Best KCMG (18 June 1856 – 27 March 1946) was an Australian politician.

Best was born in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood and educated at Templeton's school, Fitzroy. He left school at 13 and became a clerk in a printing office and then worked for a solicitor where he took articles and matriculated in 1875. He studied law at the University of Melbourne and was admitted as a solicitor in 1881. He married Jane Caroline the same year. He was elected as an alderman on Fitzroy City Council almost continuously from 1883 to 1897 and served as mayor in 1888 and 1889.^[1]

[edit] Political career

In April 1889, Best was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for Richmond and was offered, but turned down, a position in William Shiels' ministry in 1892. From September 1894 to December 1899 he was President of the Board of Land and Works, Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey and Commissioner of Trade and Customs. He was responsible for introducing tariff reform in 1896 and land reform in 1898 to promote closer settlement and acted twice as Premier.^[2][1]

Best was a strong supporter of the federation of Australia and resigned from the Legislative Assembly and was elected to the Australian Senate in the 1901 election. He was Vice-President of the Executive Council and leader of the Senate from February 1907 until November 1908 in the third Deakin Ministry and was responsible for tariff and excise bills. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1908. He was appointed Minister for Trade and Customs in Alfred Deakin's Fusion ministry from June 1909 to April 1910. He lost his seat in the landslide to Labor at the 1910 election, but was soon returned to Parliament at a by-election for the House of Representatives seat of Kooyong. He supported the introduction of conscription and he became a Nationalist in 1917. At the 1922 election, he was beaten narrowly on Labor preferences by John Latham, who ran as an independent on the slogan, "Get Rid of Hughes".^[1]

Best returned full time to his legal practice, which he had never abandoned. After the death of his first wife in 1901, he had married Maude Evelyn Crocker-Smith. He died in 1946 in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn survived by two sons and two daughters of his first marriage and four daughters of his second.^[1]

[edit] Notes

Political offices
Preceded by John Keating	Vice-President of the Executive Council 1905 – 1906	Succeeded by Gregor McGregor
Preceded by Frank Tudor	Minister for Trade and Customs 1909 – 1910	Succeeded by Frank Tudor
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by William Knox	Member for Kooyong 1910 – 1922	Succeeded by John Latham

Persondata
NAME	Best, Robert Wallace
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Australian politician
DATE OF BIRTH	18 June 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH	Collingwood, Victoria
DATE OF DEATH	27 March 1946
PLACE OF DEATH	Hawthorn, Victoria