Joseph Aloysius Lyons (1879 - 1939)

Born 15 Sep 1879 in Stanley, Tasmania (Australia)

Ancestors

Husband of Enid Muriel (Burnell) Lyons AD GBE — married 28 Apr 1915 in Wynyard, Tasmania, Australia

Descendants

Died 7 Apr 1939 at age 59 in Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Joseph Lyons is Notable.

Joe Lyons was the Premier of Tasmania before entering federal parliament. He was one of our longer-serving Prime Ministers^[1] and co-founded the original United Australia Party^[2], which held government from 1931 through to 1941. Lyons was popular, acquiring the nickname "Honest Joe", and was the first Australian Prime Minister to win three federal elections.^[3]

Joseph Aloysius Lyons was born in Stanley, Tasmania, on 15 September 1879.^[4] He was known as Joe. He was the fourth of eight children born to Irish-born parents Michael Henry Lyons and his wife Ellen, née Carroll. His early education was at St Joseph's Convent School, Ulverstone. Michael Lyons had little success as a hotelkeeper, farmer, butcher and baker. In 1887 he lost all of the family's money speculating on the Melbourne Cup. He suffered a breakdown and became unable to care for his wife and eight children. Although a mere 9 years of age, Joe helped to support the family by working as errand boy, farm labourer and printer's devil for the Coastal News at Ulverstone. He was saved from drudgery by two aunts, the Misses Carroll, who supported him when he returned to school at 12.

Joe attended a Catholic convent school in Ulverstone, but from the age of nine he had to help support his family by working variously as an errand boy, a printer's assistant and a farm labourer. When he was 12 he moved back to Stanley to live with his mother's sisters, Hetty and Mary Carroll, and to attend the local government school full time.

He became a pupil-teacher in 1895, finally qualifying as a teacher in 1901. He taught in small schools in the north west of Tasmania until 1907, when he won a studentship at Tasmania's first teachers' college in Hobart. After graduating he taught in Launceston and Hobart.

On 28th April 1915 he married Enid Burnell at St Bride's Church, Wynyard, Tasmania.^[5] They were to have twelve children together.

Lyons died on 7th April 1939 at St Vincent's Hospital,^[6] Darlinghurst, NSW,^[7][8] while still in office: the first Australian Prime Minister to do so. As well as having no precedent for the situation, matters were complicated by the fact that there was no official deputy leader of his party at the time. Earle Page, leader of the Country Party (which governed in coalition with the United Australia Party), was appointed interim Prime Minister until the UAP could elect a new leader.

Lyons' wife, Enid, subsequently entered federal politics herself. She was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and the first female member of a federal ministry.

DNA

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Sources

1. ↑ List of Prime Ministers of Australia by time in office
2. ↑ United Australia Party (1931-1945) was the major conservative party in Australia in the decade before and also during the Second World War.
3. ↑ Wikipedia - Joseph Lyons
4. ↑ Australia, Birth Index (1788-1922) for 1879, #1432, which was registered at Horton, Tasmania. This was a Registration District in North-Western Tasmania until 1890, when it was divided into the Districts of Stanley and Montagu. The entry gives his parents' names - Michael Henry Lyons and Ellen Carroll.
5. ↑ "WEDDING BELLS": Lyons—Burnell Daily Post (Hobart, Tas), Thu 29 Apr 1915, Page 4.
6. ↑ "Poignant Scenes at Hospital", The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 8 Apr 1939, Page 15.
7. ↑ NSW BDM Death Index Nbr: 6925/1939. Name=Joseph Aloysius Lyons, Father=Michael Joseph [sic], Mother=Ellen, Registration District=Sydney.
8. ↑ Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, Fri 7 Apr 1939 [Issue No.20, Page 601.]
   Admiralty House, Sydney, 7th April, 1939.
   WITH profound regret His Excellency the Governor-General directs it to be notified that the Right Honorable Joseph Aloysius Lyons, C.H., M.P., Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, died at Sydney at 10.40 a.m. on 7th April, 1939. By His Excellency's Command, L. S. BRACEGIRDLE, Captain, Royal Australian Navy, Military and Official Secretary to the Governor-General.

• Australian Dictionary of Biography - Joseph Aloysius Lyons
• Wikipedia: Joseph Lyons
• National Museum of Australia - Joseph Lyons
• Museum of Australian Democracy (Old Parliament House) - Joseph Lyons
• Find a Grave, database and images accessed 24 September 2022, memorial page for Joseph Aloysius Lyons (15 Sep 1879–7 Apr 1939), Find a Grave Memorial ID Find A Grave: Memorial #41998838, citing Mersey Vale Memorial Park, Quoiba, Devonport City, Tasmania, Australia; Maintained by woowoo (contributor 49949980) .
• Prominent Personalities J. A. LYONS from the Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic. : 1885 - 1939) of Thursday 7 July 1927, Page 14. first accessed on TROVE on the 24th of September, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146650463?

Research Notes

Alistair Orton comments:

(i) There is a disparity in recording the names of his father, between the official records of Joe Lyons birth and his death

(ii) In an index of Australian Wills and Probate records for Joseph Lyons, granted 16 September 1939, it records his death on 7 April 1939 at Canberra Tasmania. Canberra is clearly not in Tasmania, and in any event, other records show that he died in Sydney (NSW)