predecessor parliament successor birth_place constituency_mp death_date death_place nationality party birth_date term_start spouse image article_title term_end name occupation
philip fysh australian david o'keefe westbury , tasmania denison 21 october 1942 burnie , tasmania australian labor -- 22 -rrb- -lrb- 1910 -- 17 -rrb- nationalist -lrb- 1917 15 september 1869 13 april 1910 mabel ellen russell william laird smith.jpg william laird smith
 16 december 1922 william laird smith electrician
william laird smith

william henry laird smith -lrb- 15 september 1869 -- 21 october 1942 -rrb- , australian politician and minister for the navy .
smith was born in westbury , tasmania and educated in state schools in victoria and tasmania .
he became an electrician in devonport and later an official in the amalgamated engineers ' union .
smith was elected as the australian labor party member for the australian house of representatives seat of denison at the 1910 election .
in december 1915 , he married mabel ellen russell -- they had no children .
he was an assistant minister during the second hughes ministry from 14 november 1916 to 17 february 1917 .
he was a strong supporter of prime minister billy hughes and campaigned for conscription at the october 1916 plebiscite .
smith left the labor party with hughes and joined the nationalist party when it was established .
in the fifth hughes ministry he was an honorary minister from 4 february 1920 until he was made minister for the navy on 28 july 1920 .
he was minister for the navy until 21 december 1921 .
he was obliged to carry out a significant reduction in the capacity of the royal australian navy , placing more of australia 's defence in the hands of the -lrb- british -rrb- royal navy .
in december 1921 , hughes repaid smith 's loyalty by abolishing the position of naval minister .
at the 1922 election , he was opposed by labor and two other independent nationalist candidates and lost to labor 's david o'keefe .
smith moved to burnie and married his second wife hermione elsie boldt in 1922 .
he eventually became a farmer .
at the 1934 election , he ran against prime minister joseph lyons as a supporter of social credit .
in 1938 he successfully applied for re-entry to the labor party .
while officiating at an address by a labor minister in burnie in 1942 he suddenly died , survived by his wife and their adopted son .
