Former
Speakers

William David Beazley
1854-1912
Speaker: 1903-1904
Legislative Assembly: 1889-1912

Although born in London, Beazley arrived in Melbourne with his parents when he was only a few months old. As a fourteen-year-old he was apprenticed to a saddler and harness maker, and he worked in that trade until be became an estate agent in Collingwood in 1886. He was also involved with several other Collingwood businesses and co-operative building societies and with local sporting activities, being one of the founders of the Collingwood Football Club in 1892. He was elected to the Collingwood Council in 1887 and he was Mayor several times.

In 1889 Beazley was elected as Member for Collingwood in the Legislative Assembly, where he was regarded as a radical and associated himself with the Melbourne Trades Hall Council.

In 1892 he stood as a Labor candidate and was successful (although the party was not) but stood as a Liberal in 1900 and then again as a Labor Member in 1902 when the Labor Party had established itself.

A protectionist with an interest in finance, Beazley was a member of the Committee of Public Accounts for some years and was a member of royal commissions into state banking (1894-95) and old age pensions (1897-98). He was Chairman of Committees in 1897-1903 , and Speaker for only a few months in 1903-04 after the death of Duncan Gillies (q.v.). In 1904 he stood for and won the new seat of Abbotsford, which he held until his death from pneumonia in 1912. He never married.