Arnold Drury

Arnold Joseph Drury (23 July 1912 – 10 October 1995) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for South Australia from 1959 to 1975. He was a World War II veteran and had been a factory worker and trade unionist prior to his election to parliament.

Early life Drury was born in Adelaide on 23 July 1912. He was born into a working-class Catholic family, the sixth of eight children born to Mary and William Drury.

Drury received his early education at St Mary's Dominican Convent in Adelaide. He left school at the age of 14 and subsequently worked as a factory hand. He became a foreman at Julius Cohn & Co., a firm of leather merchants and manufacturing grocers with their plant in Torrensville. He was a member of the Manufacturing Grocers' Employees' Federation of Australia.

Politics

Drury was a member of the Thebarton branch of the ALP and served on the state executive from 1957 to 1959. Despite a relatively low profile in the party and union movement, he was known as a loyal party member and was placed on the ticket with the support of powerbroker Clyde Cameron, who believed a Catholic was needed to mitigate against the influence of the Catholic-dominated Democratic Labor Party (DLP). Following the ALP's victory at the 1972 election, he served as an adviser to repatriation minister Reg Bishop, a fellow South Australian. He welcomed the Whitlam government's withdrawal of the final Australian troops from Vietnam and supported the Defence Force Re-organization Act 1975 which reorganised the Department of Defence.

Personal life In 1938, Drury married Mona Elliott, with whom he had one son. He was active in the Knights of the Southern Cross and other Catholic charitable organisations, as well as volunteering for Meals on Wheels and the Returned and Services League. He died on 10 October 1995 in Lockleys, South Australia.