Percy Blesing

Albert Percy Blesing (9 September 1879 – 2 March 1949) was a farmer and politician from South Australia who served as Minister for Agriculture (1933–1944), for Local Government (1933–1938) and for Afforestation (1938–1944).[1] He was a founding member of the Country Party in South Australia and served in the governments of Richard Layton Butler and Thomas Playford IV.[2]

Percy Blesing was born in Hamilton, South Australia to Ernst Gotthilf Blesing and his wife Elizabeth (née Flower). Percy's grandparents had emigrated from Germany in 1841 and his family settled in the northern farming areas of South Australia. In 1893, Percy's family moved to Glenholme, a 1400ha mixed farm at Bangor in the lower Flinders Ranges. After several years working as a farmhand and shearer around Australia and in New Zealand, Percy married Eliza Muriel Annie Glasson and took over Glenholme. Percy and Annie had five children, Ida, Gwen, Lloyd, Ned, and Jabez. Jabez died of whooping cough at a young age.

  1. ^ "SA Agriculture Ministers since 1856" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2008.
  2. ^ "Blesing, Albert Percy (1879–1949)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 10 November 2022.