Guide to the Papers of James Fowler, 1899-1940
Collection context
Summary
- Collection number:
- MS 2280
- Creator:
- FOWLER, J.M. (James Mackinnon), 1865-1940
- Extent:
- 0.48 metres and (3 boxes)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
- Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of James Fowler, National Library of Australia, MS 2280, [series/subseries number, item number]'.
- Availability:
- Available
- Access conditions:
- Available for reference. Not for loan.
Background
- Content Summary:
- The collection comprises correspondence, electoral material, papers on Royal Commissions and committees of inquiries, papers concerning Bert Thomas, literary papers, cuttings and printed material.
- Biographical Note:
-
James Mackinnon Fowler was born in Strathaven, Scotland, on 20th June 1865. The son of James Fowler and Mary Mackinnon, he was related on his mother's side to Lachlan Macquarie, the Governor of New South Wales. He was educated at the Free Church School in Strathaven, then at the Glasgow Athenaeum.
Before his emigration to Australia Fowler worked as a clerk in drapery warehouses in Glasgow and Manchester, and served with the 92nd Blackwatch Highlanders. Attracted to the goldfields, he arrived in Western Australia in 1891, where he spent several years mining and prospecting for gold. On leaving diggings he became a journalist. In 1898 he married Daisy Winifred Bastow.
Fowler's political involvement began when he became Honorary Organising Secretary and subsequently Honorary General Secretary to the Executive of the Federal League in Western Australia. He was elected Member of Perth in the first Federal Election of May 1901, and retained this seat in subsequent elections until his defeat in 1922, first as a Labor Party member until 1909, then as a Liberal and later as a Nationalist.
During his parliamentary career Fowler was a member of several committees and inquires. In 1901 he was a member of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives on Coinage, in 1904 a member of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives on Electoral Act Administration, and from 1904 to 1907 he was a member of the Royal Commission on the Commonwealth Tariff. He was Chairman of Committees from 1913 to the dissolution of Parliament in July 1914, and between 1914 and 1917 was a member of the Joint Committee on Public Accounts, becoming a member again and its chairman in 1920.
Concurrent with his participation in politics, but chiefly after he ceased to a Member of Parliament, Fowler wrote a number of novels, short stories, newspaper articles and a film synopsis. Occasionally these appeared under the authorship of Hamish Mackinnon and James Evandale. His novels were never published, but some of his short stories were accepted by newspapers, and three non-fiction works were published: Statesment or mountebank: an Australian war study (Melbourne, Australasian Authors Agency, 1919); Australia's perils, real and imaginary (Melbourne, Brown and Prior, 1926); False foundations of British history, published posthumously in Melbourne, 1943, under the editorship of his son, Richard Fowler.
James Fowler died in Melbourne on 3rd November 1940.
Bibliographic Reference(s)
- Commonwealth Parliamentary handbook, 1901-1920. Melbourne, Commonwealth Parliament. Library Committee 1921
- Australian Dictionary of biography, vol. 8, p. 564
- Who's who in the Commonwealth of Australia. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1922
- Obituary, The Age, 4th November 1940
- Immediate Source of Acquisition:
-
The collection was donated to the Library by Miss D. J. Fowler in 1969.
- Arrangement:
-
The papers have been arranged into four series. There is a name index to correspondence.
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The collection is available for reference.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
- Preferred citation:
- Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of James Fowler, National Library of Australia, MS 2280, [series/subseries number, item number]'.
- Location of this collection:
-
Parkes PlaceCanberra ACT 2600, Australia
- Contact: