Thomas Glassey

Thomas Glassey
Senator for Queensland
In office
30 March 1901 – 31 December 1903
Leader of the Opposition of Queensland
In office
30 August 1898 – 12 May 1899
Succeeded byAnderson Dawson
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Bundamba
In office
12 May 1888 – 13 May 1893
Preceded byJames Foote
Succeeded byLewis Thomas
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Burke
In office
16 June 1894 – 21 March 1896
Preceded byJohn Hoolan
Succeeded byJohn Hoolan
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Bundaberg
In office
21 March 1896 – 22 June 1901
Preceded byMichael Duffy
Succeeded byGeorge Barber
Personal details
Born(1844-02-26)26 February 1844
Markethill, Armagh, Ireland
Died28 September 1936(1936-09-28) (aged 92)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Resting placeToowong Cemetery
Political partyProtectionist Party
Other political
affiliations
Labour Party
SpouseMargaret Fergeson White (m.1864 d.1899)
OccupationMiner

Thomas Glassey (26 February 1844 – 28 September 1936) was an Irish-born Australian politician.

Born in Markethill, County Armagh, he received no formal education, working as a mill-worker and miner in Scotland and England. He migrated to Australia around 1885, when he became a miner at Bundamba, and was Secretary of the Bundamba Miners Association. He was a founding member of the Australian Labor Party in Queensland, and was the first Labor member of any Australian parliament when he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland in 1888 as the member for Bundamba.[1][2]

Defeated in 1893, he was subsequently member for Burke from 1894 to 1896 and Bundaberg from 1896 to 1900.[2] He left the Labor Party in 1899 over the party's socialist objective. In 1901, he was elected to the Australian Senate for Queensland,[3] unofficially as a Protectionist (though there was no protectionist organisation in Queensland at the time). In 1903, the National Liberal Union endorsed non-Labor candidates, and Glassey, as a Deakinite, did not receive endorsement. He contested the Senate as an independent protectionist and received 25.6% of the vote, but was not elected.[4]

Glassey died in 1936 and was buried in Toowong Cemetery.[5]

  1. ^ Lipke, Ian (1983). "Glassey, Thomas (1844–1936)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 9. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Former Members". Parliament of Queensland. 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  3. ^ Drinkwater, Derek (2000). "GLASSEY, Thomas (1844–1936)". The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  4. ^ Carr, Adam (2008). "Australian Election Archive". Psephos, Adam Carr's Election Archive. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
  5. ^ Glassey Thomas — Brisbane City Council Grave Location Search. Retrieved 10 August 2014.