Randolph Bedford

Randolph Bedford
Member of the Queensland Legislative Council
In office 12 October 1917 – 21 February 1918
In office 27 May 1918 – 23 March 1922
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Warrego
In office 13 October 1923 – 8 September 1937
Preceded by	Harry Coyne
Succeeded by	Himself
In office 4 December 1937 – 7 July 1941
Preceded by	Himself
Succeeded by	Harry O'Shea
Personal details
Born	George Randolph Bedford (1868-06-27)27 June 1868 Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
Died	7 July 1941(1941-07-07) (aged 73) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Party	Labor
Spouse(s)	Mary Henrietta Arrowsmith (m. 1889; separated 1912), Ada Billings (partner 1915–41)
Occupation	Autobiographer, hospital owner, journalist and politician

Randolph Bedford (born George Randolph Bedford 27 June 1868 – 7 July 1941) was an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer and Queensland state politician.

Early life

Bedford was born in Camperdown, Sydney, the son of Alfred Bedford, who migrated from Yorkshire, England in 1859 and obtained work as a house painter.

He was educated at the Newtown state school. At the age of 14, he worked with a Sydney solicitors firm as an office-boy. At 16 years of age he worked in the western district of New South Wales, shooting rabbits. He carried copies of Carlyle's French Revolution, Shakespeare and the Bible. He worked for a year as a clerk in Hay and joined up with a repertory company run by Edmund Duggan, in Wagga Wagga.

Literary career

A comprehensive bibliography of Bedford's work was published in 1982.

With Australian authors Henry Lawson and Victor Daley et al., he was a member of the elite Dawn and Dusk Club.

Political career

In 1917, Bedford entered the Queensland Legislative Council, on a platform to secure its abolition (which occurred in 1922). In 1923, he was elected as Labor candidate to the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Warrego. In 1937, he unsuccessfully ran to represent the Division of Maranoa in the Australian House of Representatives.

He was an ardent Protectionist, and decried the way the wealth of Australia was exported to pay for shoddy goods which could have been produced locally.

Bedford died on 7 July 1941 and was cremated at Mount Thompson crematorium.

Bibliography

Plays

• White Australia (1909)
• Lady of the Pluck-Up (1911)
• The Boss Cockie (1920)

Novels

• True Eyes and the Whirlwind (1903)
• The Snare of Strength (1905)
• Sops of Wine (1909)
• Billy Pagan Mining Engineer (1911)
• The Mates of Torres (1911)
• The Lady of the Pickup (1911)
• The Silver Star (1917)
• Aladdin and the Boss Cockie (1919)

Short Story A Samaritan of the Riverine, in [Adventure Magazine, vol 1 No 4, 1911)

Non-fiction

• Explorations in Civilization (1914)

Autobiography

• Naught to Thirty-Three (1944)

References

Serle, Percival (1949). "Bedford, Randolph". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.

Additional sources listed by the Dictionary of Australian Biography:

The Courier-Mail, Brisbane, 8 July 1941; The Bulletin, 16 July 1941; The Worker, Brisbane, 8 July 1941; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature; Nettie Palmer, Modern Australian Literature; See also, Randolph Bedford, Naught to Thirty-three.

G. Blainey, Mines in the Spinifex (Syd, 1960); C. Lack (ed), Three Decades of Queensland Political History, 1929–1960 (Brisb, 1962); N. Lindsay, Bohemians of the Bulletin (Syd, 1965); L. A. Lindsay, Comedy of Life (Syd, 1967); R. Lindsay, Model Wife (Syd, 1967); Overland, no 26, 1963; Bulletin, 12 February 1894, 4 January 1912; Australasian (Melbourne), 30 October 1920; Sydney Morning Herald, 4 June 1924, 26 October 1929, 18 November 1933, 9 Feb 28 July 1934, 6 Feb 30, 31 May 1935; Bedford papers (State Library of Queensland); Alfred Deakin papers (National Library of Australia); A1 and A3 series lists (National Archives of Australia).