Harry Davies (politician)

Harry Herbert Davies (9 June 1878 – 31 August 1957) was a Southern Rhodesian Labour politician and Leader of the Opposition in the territory's Legislative Assembly from 1929 to 1944.[1] Originally from Wales, he moved to Southern Rhodesia in 1920 and became an estate agent in Bulawayo.[2] He ran for the Southern Rhodesian Labour Party in Bulawayo District in the 1924 general election, but was not elected.[3] After standing successfully in Bulawayo South in the 1928 election, he sat in the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly for 20 years.[2] In 1929 he was elected leader of the Southern Rhodesian Labour Party, thereby becoming Leader of the Opposition, a post he held until 1944.[1]

Re-elected in Bulawayo South in the 1933 and 1934 elections, in 1939 Davies switched to the new Hillside constituency in southern Bulawayo, which he won, and held in 1946.[3] On the outbreak of the Second World War he accepted the Prime Minister Godfrey Huggins's offer to come into a national government with ministers from both sides of the House, and served as Minister of Internal Affairs from 1939 to 1943.[2] Davies's co-operation with Huggins infuriated many of his Labour contemporaries and caused an acrimonious split in the party. The two Labour factions reconciled in 1943 and briefly threatened Huggins's premiership, but a heated dispute over whether Labour should become multiracial led to the party's disintegration in 1944.[4] Davies's political career ended after his defeat in Hillside by Julian Greenfield of Huggins's United Party in the 1948 general election.[3] The former Labour leader died in Salisbury on 31 August 1957, at the age of 79.[1]

References
  1. "Obituary: Mr H H Davies". East Africa and Rhodesia. London: Africana. 34: 18. 1957.
  2. Roberts, R S (1972). Rhodesian History: The Journal of the Central African Historical Association. 8. Salisbury: Central Africa Historical Association. p. 59.
  3. Willson, F M G, ed. (1963). Source Book of Parliamentary Elections and Referenda in Southern Rhodesia, 1898–1962. Salisbury: Department of Government, University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. p. 225. OCLC 219295658.
  4. Blake, Robert (1977). A History of Rhodesia (First ed.). London: Eyre Methuen. pp. 235–237. ISBN 978-0-413-28350-4.
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