Frederick William Piesse

Frederick Piesse
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Tasmania
In office
29 March 1901 – 6 March 1902
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byWilliam Hartnoll
Personal details
Born(1848-12-10)10 December 1848
Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land
Died6 March 1902(1902-03-06) (aged 53)
New Town, Tasmania, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Political partyFree Trade Party

Frederick William Piesse (10 December 1848 – 6 March 1902[1]) was a member of the first Australian federal parliament.[2]

Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Piesse worked in law, conveyancing, shipping and horticulture before being elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly as the Member for North Hobart in 1893. In April 1894, Piesse resigned from the House of Assembly as part of an arrangement to swap seats with Legislative Council member for Buckingham, Philip Fysh, to enable Fysh to take the role of Treasurer in Edward Braddon's ministry.[3] Piesse served as an Honorary Minister from 1899 to 1901.

Piesse was elected as a Free Trader to the first federal Australian Parliament as one of the five members for Tasmania. His tenure as a federal parliamentarian would be short lived, however, as he died less than a year after his election. He was the first serving Tasmanian Member of the House of Representatives to die.

Piesse died of septic pneumonia at his home in New Town on 6 March 1902, aged 53, having been ill for three months.[4]

  1. ^ "Piesse, Frederick William". Members of the Parliament of Tasmania. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  2. ^ Members since 1901 Archived 1 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Parliament of Australia
  3. ^ "POLITICAL". Launceston Examiner. Vol. LIV, no. 89. Tasmania, Australia. 14 April 1894. p. 5. Retrieved 9 April 2017 – via Trove.
  4. ^ "Obituary". The Mercury. Hobart. 7 March 1902.