William Fry (Victorian politician)

Sir William Gordon Fry (12 June 1909 – 29 September 2000) was an Australian politician.

Sir William Fry
13th President of the Victorian Legislative Council
In office
29 June 1976  18 July 1979
Preceded bySir Raymond Garrett
Succeeded byFred Grimwade
Member of the Victorian Legislative Council for Higinbotham Province
In office
29 April 1967  4 May 1979
Serving with Murray Hamilton
Preceded byBaron Snider
Succeeded byRobert Lawson
Personal details
Born
William Gordon Fry

(1909-06-12)12 June 1909
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
Died29 September 2000(2000-09-29) (aged 91)
Richmond, Victoria, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Political partyLiberal
Spouse(s)
Lilian Gwendoline Macrae
(m. 1936)
Children4
Military service
AllegianceAustralia
Branch/serviceAustralian Army
Years of service1940–1946
RankLieutenant colonel
Commands47th Battalion

He was born in Ballarat to engineer Alfred Gordon Fry and Edith Elizabeth Andrews. He attended state schools at Ballarat before studying at Melbourne University and becoming a schoolteacher. On 19 September 1936 he married Lilian Gwendoline Macrae, with whom he had four sons.

From 1940 to 1945 he served in the Australian Imperial Force, commanding the 47th Battalion in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. He attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel and was mentioned in dispatches, and subsequently headed a commission investigating war crimes in the Pacific.

On his return he taught at Camperdown State School from 1946 to 1956, and was subsequently headmaster of Cheltenham, Windsor and Cheltenham Heights state schools.

He had joined the Liberal Party in 1947, and from 1963 to 1972 served on Moorabbin City Council; he was mayor from 1968 to 1969. In 1967 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Higinbotham Province. He was elected President of the Council in 1976, and retired from politics in 1979; he was knighted the following year.

Fry died at Richmond in 2000.[1]

References

  1. Parliament of Victoria (2001). "Fry, Sir William Gordon". re-member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851. Parliament of Victoria. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
Victorian Legislative Council
Preceded by
Sir Raymond Garrett
President of the Victorian Legislative Council
1976–1979
Succeeded by
Fred Grimwade
Preceded by
Baron Snider
Member for Higinbotham
1967–1979
Served alongside: Murray Hamilton
Succeeded by
Robert Lawson
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