William Brownbill, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetWilliam Brownbill
Australian politician
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Newtown, Victoria, Australia
About William Brownbill
- William Brownbill (19 January 1864 – 29 April 1938) was an Australian politician.
- He was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly on two occasions from 1920 to 1932, then from 1935 until his death in 1938.
- He represented the electoral district of Geelong for the Labor Party.
- Upon his death, he was succeeded as member for Geelong by his second wife, Fanny.Brownbill was born in Newtown, a suburb of Geelong in 1864.
- His parents were William Brownbill, an English emigrant shopkeeper, and Margaret Tattersall from the Isle of Man.
- Brownbill worked initially in his brother's jewellery shop, but became a baker's apprentice and by around 1895 was a master baker.
- His first wife was Margaret Murray whom he married in 1887 and with whom he had three sons and a daughter.
- Margaret died in 1913, and in 1920 he married his housekeeper, Fanny Alford, with whom he had a son and a daughter.In 1896, Brownbill was elected to the Geelong City Council, and served as Mayor of Geelong from 1914 to 1915.
- In 1920, he ran for election to state parliament, winning the seat of Geelong for the Labor Party.
- In 1932, he was defeated in the election by Edward Austin, but re-contested and regained the seat in 1935.
- Brownbill died in 1938, and the ensuing by-election saw his widow, Fanny Brownbill, elected as his replacement—the first woman representing the Labor Party elected to a parliamentary seat in Victoria.
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