member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
What position did Thomas Maltby take from Jul 1929 to Oct 1945?
Thomas Maltby Major Sir Thomas Karran Maltby ( 17 October 1890 – 2 June 1976 ) was a politician in Victoria , Australia . He was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for nearly 32 years from 1929 to 1961 , served in several ministries and was Speaker of the assembly from 1947 to 1950 . Early life . Matlby was born in Barnadown , a small town near Bendigo , Victoria , to Thomas Karran Maltby ( a shopkeeper from the Isle of Man ) and Ada Agnes Fascher . His father died in 1893 , and his mother remarried the following year . Maltby was educated at Camp Hill Central School , but left school aged 11 to work as a newsboy and shop messenger . He attended the Bendigo School of Mines at night , studying to receive an engineers certificate , while working as a battery boy and later trucker in the Bendigo gold mines . Around 1909 , Maltby moved to Melbourne where he worked as a labourer on the Melbourne Tramways . He later joined the sugar refinery CSR as an engine driver and clerk . In 1911 , he joined the Militia ( citizen army reserve ) and received a commission the next year . In 1913 , he married Eliza McDonald , a typist , at the Presbyterian Church in Yarraville . Military service . Already an officer of the citizens militia , Maltby was appointed as a lieutenant in the First Australian Imperial Force on 16 May 1915 . He embarked for Egypt in September that year , and by March 1916 was fighting on the Western Front with the Australian 5th Battalion . His 11-month-old daughter , Margaret , died of pneumonia on 30 March 1916 , while Maltby was serving overseas . Maltby was wounded twice during the war , once when a bolt from an exploding rifle entered his arm in April 1917 . He was mentioned in dispatches before returning to Australia in 1919 . During World War II , Maltby ( a serving politician at the time ) re-enlisted in the army where he served as quartermaster general from 1940 to 1943 , and was promoted to Major . Political career . After his discharge from the army , Maltby became a storekeeper in Drysdale , then a real estate agent in Geelong . He was active in community affairs , and was president of both the Geelong Returned Sailors , Soldiers and Airmens Imperial League and the East Geelong Progress Association ( which he had founded ) . His first attempt at a career in state politics was in 1924 , when he unsuccessfully contested the Victorian lower house seat of Geelong as a Nationalist candidate against sitting Labor member William Brownbill at the 1924 Victorian state election . Five years later , Maltby was elected to the legislative assembly when he won the state by-election for the seat of Barwon , following the death of the Nationalist member Edward Morley . Crossbencher . On two occasions in his political career , Maltby had a split with the United Australia/Liberal Party and sat in the assembly on the crossbenches . In 1941 , Maltby advocated for a UAP conference with the United Australia Organisation to discuss reform and reorganisation of the UAO . When the party passed a resolution refusing such a meeting , Maltby walked out of the party room meeting and moved his documents and personal effects to the Independents room at Parliament House . He did not resign from the UAP , but disassociated himself from his party colleagues and sat on the Opposition crossbenches for several months before returning . In September 1945 , Maltby was one of five Liberal Party members to cross the floor and vote with the Labor Party and the Independents to defeat an appropriation bill . The Country–Liberal coalition government of Albert Dunstan and Thomas Hollway collapsed , and the Governor of Victoria , Sir Winston Dugan commissioned Ian Macfarlan to form a stop-gap ministry with the sole purpose of passing supply . Maltby was appointed Deputy Premier , Chief Secretary and Minister for Electrical Undertakings in the short-lived ministry , which lasted from 2 October to 21 November 1945 . Maltby was expelled from the Liberal Party for his defection , but was re-admitted to the party in 1946 . Speaker of the Legislative Assembly . On 2 December 1947 , Maltby achieved what he called a boyhood ambition when he was elected Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly . Maltby was knighted in the Kings Birthday Honours on 9 June 1949 for his work as Speaker . Hollway Ministry . In May 1950 , Arthur Warner , the Minister of Electrical Undertakings , asked Premier Tom Hollway to relieve him of his duties due to a conflict of interest involving Warners association with several electrical companies . Hollway agreed , and Maltby was one of the front runners to replace Warner in the ensuing reshuffle , provided he was not renominated as Speaker . On 19 June , Maltby was sworn into the Electrical Undertakings portfolio , as well as the Mines portfolio previously held by Henry Bolte . However , Maltbys place in cabinet was to be once again short-lived : eight days later , the Hollway government collapsed when the Labor Party agreed to support a minority Country Party government led by John McDonald . Bolte Ministry . At the 1955 election , Maltbys electorate of Barwon was abolished , so he stood for and won the seat of Geelong , the seat he had contested over thirty years earlier . On 7 June , Maltby was made Commissioner of Public Works in the Bolte Ministry . He was also made Minister of Housing but was replaced the next day by Horace Petty . In 1959 , Maltby toured public buildings and studied road building and construction in the United States and Britain . He reported on his findings in the Report on his mission abroad , published in Melbourne in the same year . Death . Maltby died in Geelong , aged 85 , on 2 June 1976 .