Frank Tudor

Frank Gwynne Tudor (27 January 1866 - 10 January 1922), Australian Labor politician, was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of working-class immigrants from Wales. He had a primary education before going to work in a sawmill, then worked in a hat factory. In the 1880s and 1890s he travelled and worked in Britain and the United States, before returning to Melbourne.

Tudor became secretary of the Hatters' Union, and President of the Melbourne Trades Hall, a federation of trade unions. He was also active in the local Labor Party. At the first federal elections in 1901 he was elected to the House of Representatives for a Melbourne electorate. He was Minister for Trade and Customs in the three governments led by Andrew Fisher, in 1908-09, 1910-13 and 1914-15. He held the same position when Billy Hughes became Labor leader in 1916.

Tudor was the leading opponent in Hughes's cabinet of the Prime Minister's determination to introduce conscription for the Australian Arny in World War I, and in September 1916 he resigned from the Cabinet. When Hughes was expelled from the Labor Party shortly afterwards, Tudor was elected as Leader to replace him. Although he was a competent minister, Tudor was not in Hughes's league as a political leader, and he and Labor suffered a heavy defeat at the 1917 elections which confirmed Hughes and his new Nationalist Party in power.

After 1917 the Labor Party began to look for a replacement for Tudor, and at the 1919 election, at which Labor was again defeated, the Premier of Queensland, Thomas Ryan, transferred to federal politics and became Tudor's deputy. Ryan would probably have replaced Tudor as leader had he not died suddenly in 1921. Tudor himself was in poor health, and he too died in January 1922, leaving Labor leaderless.

Preceded by: Billy Hughes

Leaders of the Australian Labor Party

Followed by: Mathew Charlton