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Speaker, 28 February 1923 to 3 October 1925
Liberal Party (Commonwealth), 1914 to 1917
Nationalist Party, 1917 to 1922
Liberal Party (Union), 1922 to 1925
Nationalist Party, 1925 to 1929

A renowned orator and at one point reputedly the youngest cabinet minister in the British Empire, William Watt (1871-1946) was Premier of Victoria before entering federal politics. He was credited with an unrivalled grasp of public finance, serving as Treasurer in both state and federal parliaments.¹

Watt was born in Barfold, near Kyneton,in Victoria, the youngest of 11 children. His father died the following year and the family eventually settled in North Melbourne. Watt left school at 14 and worked in a variety of jobs, ultimately becoming a partner in a hay and corn store. He read voraciously and took evening classes. He was a vigorous campaigner for Federation and became a protégé of Alfred Deakin. In 1894 he married Florence Carrighan, who died two years later, and in 1907 he married Emily Seismann, with whom he had five children.

In 1897 Watt entered the Victorian Parliament. He was appointed Postmaster-General in 1899 but lost his seat in 1900. He returned in 1902 and in 1909 became Treasurer and Deputy Premier. He became Premier in 1912, resigning in 1914 to contest the federal seat of Balaclava, which he held comfortably until his retirement in 1929.

During World War I, when the Labor Government split over conscription, Watt was instrumental in the formation of the coalition Government in 1917, led by William Hughes. Watt served as Minister for Works and Railways until he was appointed Treasurer in March 1918. In April, Hughes and his deputy, Joseph Cook, sailed to London, leaving Watt as acting Prime Minister for the next 16 months. His acting prime ministership was marked by conflict with Hughes over Watt’s authority to make decisions.

Following further conflict with Hughes, Watt resigned as Treasurer in 1920. When Hughes was deposed in 1923, the new Prime Minister, Stanley Bruce, offered Watt the Speakership. His selection was initially greeted with anger from Labor members but he soon proved a capable and popular Speaker, regarded as having ‘a complete knowledge of all parliamentary forms and precedents, a ready and balanced mind, and a facility for promptness and decision’.²

Shortly before the 1925 election, Watt announced that he would not recontest the Speakership. He spent his final years in Parliament as a back bencher. After Parliament moved to Canberra in 1927 he attended fewer than half of the House’s sittings.

On medical advice, he resigned his seat in 1929. He pursued various business interests both while a member and following his resignation, holding several chairmanships and also serving as a director of Qantas. He suffered a disabling stroke in 1937 and died at his Toorak home in 1946. His wife and children survived him.

Sir John Campbell Longstaff
Born in Clunes, Victoria, John Longstaff (1861-1941) was an Australian portraitist, war artist and five-time winner of the Archibald Prize (1925–35). Longstaff studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School alongside Emanuel Phillips Fox, Tudor St George Tucker, Tom Humphrey, John Mather and Frederick McCubbin. Awarded the School’s first travelling scholarship in 1887, he travelled to Europe, settling in Paris and later Spain. Throughout the early 1890s he exhibited successfully and in 1893 moved to London where he worked as a fashionable portrait painter, regularly exhibiting at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. In 1918-20 Longstaff was an official war artist with the AIF. Returning to Australia in 1920, he later held several official positions including president of the Victorian Artists’ Society, the Australian Art Association, the Australian Academy of Art, and a trustee of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery, Victoria. In 1928 Longstaff became the first Australian artist to be knighted. His work is represented in major state and regional galleries across Australia.³

William Alexander Watt
by John Campbell Longstaff
1928
Oil on canvas
133 x 95.4 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection

References
1. Information in this biography has been taken from the following unless otherwise sourced: J Hawkins and J Anderson, ‘Watt, William Alexander (1871–1946)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2021, accessed 30 August 2021.
2. E Page, Truant Surgeon: The Inside Story of Forty Years of Australian Political Life, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1963, p. 58.
3. L Astbury, ‘Longstaff, Sir John Campbell (1861–1941)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986; K Robertson, ‘Sir John Longstaff b. 10 March 1861’, Design & Art Australia Online, 2011. Websites accessed 25 March 2021.