Former
Speakers

Sir Thomas Karran Maltby
1890-1976
Speaker: 1947-1950
Legislative Assembly: 1929-1961

Thomas Maltby was born in Barnadown and educated in Bendigo. He left school at eleven and worked at a variety of jobs in Bendigo and Melbourne. In 1913 he married Eliza Margaret McDonald. He served in the Australian Imperial Force between 1915 and 1919, and on his return to Australia became a storekeeper at Drysdale. In 1922 Maltby established himself as an estate agent in Geelong, and continued in this business until 1941. He also became secretary of Geelong Markets Pty. Ltd. in 1929, and gained control of the company in the early 1940s.

In 1929 Maltby also entered parliament, winning the Legislative Assembly seat of Barwon for the Nationalists. In 1929-30 he was the Opposition Whip, and the 1920s and early 1940s held a variety of ministerial positions; all his periods as a minister were very brief, except for his time as a minister without portfolio in 1934-35.

He became Speaker in 1947, was knighted in 1949, and served in the position until 1950 when he was briefly minister of electrical undertakings and minister of mines. He remained the MLA for Barwon until 1955, when he became MLA for Geelong. Between 1955 and 1961, when he left parliament, he was minister of public works in the Bolte government. Maltby died at Geelong, and was survived by his wife and three children.