Edward Millen

Edward Davis Millen (7 November 1860 – 14 September 1923) was an Australian journalist and politician who served as the first Minister for Repatriation.

Millen emigrated to Australia from England around 1880 and established himself as a journalist, subsequently serving in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1894 to 1898, during which time he fiercely opposed the proposed Federation despite supporting the principle. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1899 until his election to the Australian Senate as a Free Trader from New South Wales at the first federal election in 1901. Millen led the conservative parties in the Senate from 1907 until shortly before his death in 1923.

He served as Vice-President of the Executive Council (1909–10) and Minister for Defence (1913–14) in two short-lived Liberal governments before his appointment as the first Minister for Repatriation in 1917. He organised the new department and co-ordinated Australia's repatriation effort, and was briefly acting Prime Minister in 1919, when he settled a seamen's strike. Millen resigned from the ministry in February 1923 and died later that year, his illness attributed to his heavy workload in the post-war years.

Early life Millen was born in Deal, Kent in 1860 to John Bullock Millen, who was a pilot of the Cinque Ports, and Charlotte (née Davis). He migrated to New South Wales in 1880, having been educated in England and employed in the marine insurance business.

On 19 February 1883, he married Constance Evelyn Flanagan at Bourke; they settled as graziers in Brewarrina.

Millen, who had worked as a journalist in Bourke and Walgett and wrote for the Central Australian and Bourke Telegraph (of which he reputedly became part-owner), became editor of the Western Herald and Darling River Advocate around 1889, part-owning the business together with Philip Chapman until 1901. During this period he also worked as a land agent, acquiring an office in O'Connell Street in Sydney and a house in Burwood by 1902.

He became known as a strong advocate for land reform,

State politics Millen was a foundation member of the New South Wales Australasian Federation League in 1893, formed to campaign for the unification of the six Australian colonies into a single Commonwealth, and in 1896 was active at the Bathurst People's Federation Council.

Having overcome his opposition to Federation, he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council on 8 April 1899 as one of Premier George Reid's twelve appointments to guarantee the passage of legislation for the 1899 referendum. He resigned his Legislative Council seat in May of that year.

Millen introduced the Australian Soldiers Repatriation Bill, which provided for a paid repatriation commission and higher pensions for servicemen, into the Senate in March 1920. In response to the bill, and vigorous lobbying of Hughes by the veterans' movement, the bill faced difficulty in its passage and Senator Josiah Thomas successfully moved a resolution that a minister in one house might appear on the floor of the other. This bill would have allowed Millen to address the House of Representatives, where he was facing fierce criticism from the Country Party, although ultimately neither house acted on the resolution.