Edward Holden

Sir Edward Wheewall Holden (14 August 1885 – 17 June 1947) was an Australian industrialist who took his family carriage and saddlery business, Holden & Frost, into a partnership with General Motors to create Australia's first automobile manufacturer, General Motors-Holden's Ltd.

Early years Edward Holden was born at College Town (now St. Peters), the son of saddler and carriage-maker Henry James Holden (1859–1926) and his wife Mary Ann (née Wheewall). He was educated at Prince Alfred College and the University of Adelaide, where he graduated with a BSc in 1905 and joined the family firm Holden & Frost.

Career Edward saw the necessity for the firm to diversify into motor vehicles, initially maintaining and repairing (imported) automobile bodies then building motorcycle sidecars in a shed at the rear of the firm's Grenfell Street premises.

In 1917 the Australian Government introduced policies to restrict importation of fully manufactured motor cars to encourage the country's nascent automotive body building industry. Holden developed a relationship with America's General Motors (as Adelaide contemporary T. J. Richards did with Chrysler) to fit bodies to imported chassis. In 1919 Edward (as managing director) and his father founded a company Holden's Motor Body Builders with a factory at 400 King William Street In 1923, following the signing of an exclusive agreement in Detroit with General Motors by Edward Holden, a new factory was set up at 879–895 Port Road, Cheltenham, employing the latest in production line technology. Automated mass-production techniques increased productivity spectacularly. and the surplus of around £2,000,000 realised by the end of the war was distributed by the Australian Military Forces Special Benefits Committee to organisations whose membership was restricted to service personnel. Holden was sued for damages and taking bribes, but the case lapsed for lack of evidence. Australian Cotton Textile Industries Limited (ACTIL) The Bank of Adelaide Colton, Palmer and Preston Ltd. (including chairman of directors)

Politics He served for three years as councillor and alderman with the Adelaide City Council. In 1936 he was defeated in a bid to oust the sitting mayor, J. R. Cain.

In 1935 he was elected to the Central District No.2 seat in the Legislative Council of South Australia made vacant by the death of Labor's William Humphrey Harvey. Holden was a strong supporter of Premier Tom Playford's push to industrialize South Australia.

Death He died in North Adelaide of cerebro-vascular disease on 17 June 1947, aged 61, and was survived by his wife, Hilda May (née Lavis), a son and two daughters. One of those daughters was Senator Dame Nancy Buttfield, the first woman to represent South Australia in the Parliament of Australia.