Elections, 1913-1951

Component identifier:

Series 28

Content Summary:

During his long career in federal politics, Hughes stood successfully for four electorates, West Sydney (1901-1917), Bendigo (1917-1922), North Sydney (1922-1949), and Bradfield (1949-1952). The collection has a good deal of material on the elections held between 1913 and 1951, including a file on the 1930 New South Wales State election and some papers on some Federal and State by-elections. With a couple of exceptions all of this material is in Series 28. Papers on the 1929 House of Representatives election are in Series 33 and there is material on the 1930 New South Wales election and the 1946 Federal election in Series 48. Congratulatory letters and telegrams are in Series 3.

This series relates primarily to the campaigns Hughes conducted within his own electorate, although the material on some elections, in particular the 1943 Federal election when he was leader of the United Australia Party, does refer to the wider campaign. It consists of letters, memoranda, speakers notes, campaign literature, and some of Hughes' published speeches and broadcasts, and finally newscuttings on the election. Material on each election has been combined into files and these are arranged in date order. The coverage of the series is uneven, and only the 1931, 1940, 1943, and 1949 elections are well documented.

Apart from the 1943 election, mention should also be made of the 1949 election and the electoral boundaries redistribution in the previous year. The material consists of correspondence with the public relations firm Eric White and Associates, a McNair political survey of the new electorate of Bradfield, speeches, Liberal Party publications, and correspondence indicating Hughes' work for other Liberal candidates. Hughes' preselection battle with H. B. Turner and the electoral repercussions of the 1948 redistribution are also covered.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The W. M. Hughes Papers were presented to the National Library of Australia by Dame Mary Hughes in 1953. The collection was received in two consignments. One consisted of papers taken from the Perpetual Trustee Company comprising material from Hughes' Lindfield home and from his office rooms at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney; the other came directly from Lindfield. Lists of the contents of both consignments are held in the Library's Manuscript Branch. With the agreement of the executors and the Library, much of the collection, was for a time, held at the Australian National University by Fitzhardinge. He was permitted sole access to the collection while writing the biography Hughes commissioned in 1951. Fitzhardinge's own papers documenting the writing of the biography are also held by the Library (MS 5400). The papers transferred to the Library in 1953 are by no means the total collection of Hughes' personal papers, although it is impossible to say what proportion has survived. (see Fitzhardinge, p.936).

Names:

Hughes, W. M. (1862-1952)

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