death_date birth_date birthname term_end constituency death_place order term_start spouse image name otherparty caption predecessor birth_place party office successor religion article_title
1 june 1963 27 april 1874 walter henry lee 12 august 1922 25 october 1923 22 june 1934 wilmot westbury , tasmania , australia 24th 15 april 1916 14 august 1923 15 march 1934 margaret matilda barnes sir walter lee.jpg walter lee anti-socialist liberal portrait by jack cato john earle john hayes john mcphee longford , tasmania nationalist premier of tasmania john hayes joseph lyons albert ogilvie methodist walter lee -lrb- australian politician -rrb-

walter lee -lrb- australian politician -rrb-

sir walter henry lee kcmg -lrb- 27 april 18741 june 1963 -rrb- was an australian politician and member of the tasmanian house of assembly .
he was premier of tasmania on three occasions : from 15 april 1916 to 12 august 1922 ; from 14 august 1923 to 25 october 1923 ; and from 15 march 1934 to 22 june 1934 .
lee was born in longford in tasmania 's north-east , where he was educated to primary level at longford state school .
he joined his father 's business , and later went into business with his brother as a wheelwright with lee bros. .
lee was elected to the tasmanian house of assembly at the 1909 election , representing the rural seat of wilmot for the anti-socialist party .
in 1912 , the party became the commonwealth liberal party , and later became the nationalist party .
in 1915 , lee became leader of the opposition , and after the liberals won 15 out of 30 seats at the 1916 election , lee was sworn in as premier of tasmania -lrb- also serving as minister for education ; and chief secretary until 1922 -rrb- .
in spite of world war i , the first term of lee 's government was relatively smooth , and as the nationalist party , they retained government in the 1919 election with a one-seat majority .
at the 1922 election , the emergence of the country party split the anti-labor vote .
with the country party holding the balance of power , but openly antagonistic towards him , lee resigned as premier -lrb- after a record term -rrb- and handed over to john hayes , who was unanimously elected premier in a coalition government , with lee as treasurer .
unable to resolve tasmania 's financial crisis , hayes resigned after a year and lee became premier again , but only for ten weeks , until he was defeated by a labor no-confidence motion , and labor 's joseph lyons became premier .
lee became premier for a third time in 1934 , when as deputy premier he took over for john mcphee , who retired due to ill-health .
his term lasted for three months , when labor won the 1934 election , although he remained as leader of the opposition until july 1936 .
he lost his seat in the 1946 election , where he ran as an independent liberal after failing to secure endorsement from the new liberal party of australia .
he was knighted in the 1920 new year honours and appointed knight commander of the order of st michael and st george -lrb- kcmg -rrb- in the 1922 new year honours .
