Burford Sampson

Burford Sampson DSO (30 March 1882 – 5 June 1959) was an Australian politician and soldier. He was a Senator for Tasmania from 1925 to 1938 and from 1941 to 1947.

Sampson was born in Launceston, Tasmania. During the Boer War he served with the South African Constabulary and later worked in Rhodesia for several years with the British South Africa Police. Sampson joined the Australian Imperial Force on the outbreak of World War I and was wounded on the Gallipoli campaign. He later served on the Western Front, briefly commanding the 15th Battalion. Outside of his military service he worked variously as a labourer, farmer, miner, sawmill manager and public servant.

Sampson was first elected to the Senate as a Nationalist at the 1925 federal election, joining the United Australia Party in 1931. He was defeated at the 1937 election but was re-elected to a final term in 1940. He joined the new Liberal Party in 1945 and was defeated again at the 1946 election, unsuccessfully standing as an independent in 1949. Sampson was a backbencher but was active on various Senate committees. He was chairman of committees from 1935 to 1938.

Early life Sampson was born on 30 March 1882 in Launceston, Tasmania. He was the son of Emily Louisa (née Pollard) and Joseph Tasker Sampson, both of whom had moved to Tasmania as children from Yorkshire, England.

Sampson's father died when he was five years old and his widowed mother subsequently ran the family's grocery store in Launceston. He attended Launceston High School and the Commercial College, leaving in 1896. At the age of 15 he moved to Lower Barrington to work as a farm labourer.

In 1899, Sampson joined a colonial militia based in Launceston, subsequently transferring to the Tasmanian Infantry Regiment. During the Boer War, he was rejected for enlistment in an Australian regiment but worked his way to South Africa in 1900 as a stoker. He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal for his service. In 1903, Sampson moved to Rhodesia and joined the British South Africa Police. After being discharged in 1907 he worked at the Globe and Phoenix Mine mine for a period. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and oversaw the demobilisation of Australian troops from France prior to his own discharge from the AIF in March 1920. Under the constitutional provisions at the time, he took his seat in parliament immediately, replacing Grant to fill the remainder of Foster's original term. Sampson served on the Joint Select Committee on Commonwealth Electoral Law and Procedure (1926–1927), the Joint Statutory Committee on Public Works (1929–1931), the Senate Select Committee on the Central Reserve Bank Bill (1930), the Joint Committee for the Survey of Manpower and Resources (1941–1942), and the Joint Standing Committee on War Expenditure (1944–1946).

Political views Sampson's primary area of interest in the Senate was defence. He was a consistent advocate for compulsory military service and for employment preference to be given to returned servicemen.

Personal life In 1910, Sampson married Jane Cocker, with whom he had two sons. According to his son Richard his wife's death had a profound impact on him and he "virtually gave up living in the sense that he just didn't seem to care what happened to him".

In the period after his first Senate term, Sampson moved to Melbourne and became secretary of the Wine and Spirit Association of Victoria. He later served as a deputy director of recruiting from 1940 to 1941, attached to Headquarters Southern Command. In 1941 he remarried to Dorothy Jackson .

Sampson retired to Sydney in 1951. He died on 5 June 1959 in the suburb of Pennant Hills.