Richard Linton (politician)

Sir Richard Linton (10 March 1879 – 21 September 1959) was a New Zealand-born Australian politician.

He was born in Palmerston North to land valuer James Linton and Ann Kibblewhite. He migrated to Australia around 1899 and became a dispatch clerk in Sydney. He moved to Melbourne in 1907 as manager of the Middows Brothers paper and machinery branch there; he would eventually become managing director of the company. On 31 March 1909 he married Ethel Isabel Bannister in Wellington, New Zealand.^[1] They had two sons.

In 1924 Linton established the Big Brother Movement, which gave assisted passage to British youths to work on Australian farms.^[1] In 1927 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the Nationalist member for Boroondara. He was briefly a minister without portfolio in December 1929, and served as cabinet secretary from 1932 to 1933. In 1933 he resigned from politics to become Agent-General for Victoria in London; he held this position until 1934 and was knighted in 1936. During World War II he was Officer in Charge of the services inquiry and advice bureau. Linton died in East Melbourne in 1959.^[2]

References

1. Browne, Geoff (1986). "Linton, Sir Richard (1879–1959)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
2. Parliament of Victoria (2001). "Linton, Sir Richard". re-member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851. Parliament of Victoria. Retrieved 10 January 2016.

Victorian Legislative Assembly
Preceded by Edmund Greenwood	Member for Boroondara 1927–1933	Succeeded by Trevor Oldham