Famous Orcadians - Politics
Politics in Orkney has taken a prominent part in the islands history from the early Earls to the political move of presenting Orkney and Shetland to Scotland in 1468.
William Spence (1846-1926)
William Spence was born in Eday in 1846 and went on to become a Labour and
Trade Union Leader in Australia. His family immigrated to Victoria, Australia
in 1852. In Australia he started off as a Shepard, then moved to the goldfields
where he held Mineral Rights at the age of 14. He went on to follow the
gold rushes to Ballarat where he organised the Miners' Union in
1874. During 1878 he took 600 members of the Miners' Union into the Amalgamated
Miners Association of Victoria. In 1882 he was elected Secretary of the
Association, which eventually comprised Tasmania, Queensland and New Zealand.
The association continued to grow until it became the Amalgamated Miners
of Australia with over 25,000 members in 1884.
Two years later he had exchanged miners for sheepshearers and became Foundation President of the Amalgamated Shearers Union of Australia. In 1898 he sat for Labour in New South Wales Legislative Assembly, where he lobbied for the Federation of Australian States, which eventually occurred in 1901 with the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia.