Former
Speakers

Sir George Hodges Knox 1885-1960
Speaker: 1942-1947
Legislative Assembly: 1927-1960

George Knox was born in Prahran, the son of William Knox who was a member of the Legislative Council in 1897-1901 and the member for Kooyong in the 1901 House of Representatives. He worked first as an electrical engineer. After marrying Kathleen Purves MacPherson in 1909, he moved to Beaconsfield and became an orchardist.

Knox joined the army in 1909 and served in the Australian Imperial Force during World War 1. After 1918 he continued both his military career and his occupation as an orchardist. He was divorced in 1919, moved to a new property at Ferntree Gully in 1920, and married Ada Victoria Harris in 1921. In 1923 he was elected to the Ferntree Gully Shire Council.

In 1927 he won the Legislative Assembly seat of Upper Yarra for the Nationalists. One of his earliest acts in parliament was to move successfully a motion in 1928 that the Legislative Assembly open its sittings with the Lord's Prayer. In 1929 he was the secretary to the McPherson cabinet, and later in that year was briefly an honorary minister in the same ministry. In 1935 he was again an honorary minister, this time in the Argyle government.

Knox was Speaker between 1942 and 1947 when he also retired from the army. He was knighted in 1945. He firmly believed in the impartiality of the office, and in 1945 resisted pressure from the Liberal Party to stand down as Speaker and support a no-confidence motion against the Cain Labor government. From 1945 to 1960 he held the seat of Scoresby, and was still a member of parliament when he died at Ferntree Gully. He was survived by his wife, and by a son from each of his marriages. The city of Knox was named after him.