Alfred Hindmarsh

Hindmarsh was born in Port Elliot, Australia, and was the grandson of Rear-Admiral John Hindmarsh, the first Governor of South Australia. His grandfather was recalled to England in 1838, but his father, also named John Hindmarsh, returned to South Australia and worked as a lawyer. Alfred Hindmarsh lost his mother when he was age ten and his father remarried. He was educated at St Peter's College in Adelaide.[1]

The family moved to Napier, New Zealand, in 1878. Hindmarsh trained as a lawyer in Dunedin, and was admitted to the bar in 1891, when he briefly worked in Christchurch at the Supreme Court (since renamed as High Court). He settled in Wellington living in Derwent Street, Island Bay.[2] While living there he married Winifred Taylor on 3 October 1892.[1]

Taylor was his Irish housekeeper and the decision raised eyebrows among his relatives, considering her "under his station". The two had a loving relationship and Hindmarsh regarded the decision as reaffirming the rejection of the class system was fighting against.[3]

Politically, Hindmarsh was left-wing (though contemporaries never described him as being a true socialist) and held a number of positions in the local labour movement.

Most notably, he headed the Wellington branch of the Seamen's Union during the internal disputes of the 1890s. In this role, he argued against the traditional alignment of unions with the governing Liberal Party, instead advocating an independent labour voice in Parliament.

In 1901, Hindmarsh himself stood for the Wellington City Council, but was unsuccessful, coming third to last with only 2,028 votes.[4]

However, in 1905, backed by the new Independent Political Labour League (IPLL) which he had helped found, he was elected. He remained a city councillor until 1915. Between 1906 and 1907 he served as the League's president.[1]

In 1911, he was first elected to the Wellington Harbour Board as a representative of the Wellington City constituency.[5]

In the 1905 general election, Hindmarsh stood as an IPLL candidate for Parliament in the Newtown electorate. Of the four candidates, he came a distant last.[6] In the 1911 general election, he was elected in Wellington South as a candidate for the original Labour Party in the second ballot.[7] Hindmarsh was one of four Labour candidates elected in 1911, he was assisted in his campaign in Wellington South by two future Labour MPs, Jim Thorn and Walter Nash who were delighted at the party's success.[8]

In the following year, 1912, the party was relaunched as the United Labour Party, with Hindmarsh still a member. In 1913, the United Labour Party itself agreed to merge with the Socialist Party to form the Social Democratic Party, but Hindmarsh believed that the resulting party would be too extreme. Hindmarsh chose became one of a group of United Labour loyalists who remained outside the Social Democrats, forming a loosely organised "remnant" faction.

In July 1915, when the Social Democrats and the United Labour remnant (along with a labour-aligned independent) agreed to form a united caucus, Hindmarsh was selected as the groups chairman.[9] One month later a national coalition government was established in response to the severity of World War I. The leader of the Liberal Party, Sir Joseph Ward, invited Hindmarsh to be a member of the cabinet (potentially as Minister of Justice) in the national ministry as the representative of the Labour Party. However, Hindmarsh declined the offer and the Labour caucus decided to maintain its independence by not joining the national ministry.[10] With Ward joining the national ministry as Minister of Finance and the Liberal Party being now part of the government this left Labour as the largest party not in government. Contrary to convention Hindmarsh was not officially recognised as the Leader of the Opposition with Ward still retaining the title, albeit in name only.[11]

In July 1916, most of the caucus agreed to establish the modern Labour Party — Hindmarsh was chosen to remain the new party's parliamentary leader during its period of establishment, a position he held until his death.[12] While occupying the position of chairman, Hindmarsh was noted to be a man of great personal attraction and was easily able to establish friendships, even when differing opinions were concerned.[13] This was of great benefit in his position as the recently formed Labour Party had many individuals with both differing personalities and clashing ideas. The addition of more radical Labour MPs like Harry Holland and Peter Fraser to the caucus (both via by-elections in 1918) Hindmarsh's ability to manage Labour's MPs became more difficult, admitting that he found the pair to be "wild-eyed". This led to speculation he may have fallen out with them as time went on.[14]

One of the largest policy disagreements he had with more radical Labour MPs was conscription. Hindmarsh differed from most of his party colleagues by not opposing conscription and two of his sons fought in the war. He clarified his stance by stating "I do not object to conscription... [but] the State has a duty to the individual".[15] When Labour MP Paddy Webb was arrested in May 1917 for sedition, by making an anti-conscription speech at a West Coast coal mine, there was speculation that the pro-conscription Hindmarsh might also be apprehended merely by association to Webb. Though this was not to be the case.[16]

Winifred Hindmarsh died in 1916.[1] Alfred Hindmarsh died in Wellington in office on 13 November 1918 in the influenza epidemic of 1918.[7] He was survived by four children.[1] His eight-year-old son Tom went to the Star of the Sea orphanage in Miramar, but on weekends he was cared for by his 14-year-old sister Sybil.[3]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alfred Hindmarsh.

• Bassett, Michael; King, Michael (2000). Tomorrow Comes the Song: A Life of Peter Fraser. Auckland: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-029793-5.
• Gustafson, Barry (1980). Labour's path to political independence: the origins and establishment of the NZ Labour Party 1900–1919. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press. ISBN 0-19-647986-X.
• Paul, J.T. (1946). Humanism in Politics: New Zealand Labour Party in Retrospect. Wellington, NZ: New Zealand Worker Printing and Publishing.
• Sinclair, Keith (1976). Walter Nash. Auckland, New Zealand: Oxford.