John Lemmon

John Lemmon (15 July 1875 – 28 October 1955) was an Australian politician. He served as the Victorian Minister of Education four times. He also served the longest ever term as a member of the Victorian Parliament, being an MLA for over fifty years. This also makes him the longest-serving elected state-level politician in Australian history.

Early years

Lemmon was born in Carlton in the Caretakers Cottage of the Trades Hall Council to English wood turner Samuel Lemmon and his Irish wife Matilda Thompson, Samuel and his wife had the Care Takers role for 50 years between them. Lemmon attended Rathdowne St Primary School, the Trades Hall School and then Working Men's College. He was a carpenter's apprentice for five years joining the Timber Workers' Union at the age of fifteen. Doing the same task on sash windows all the time, he realised that the apprenticeship scheme needed to improve. He changed trades to become a tailors cutter. He opened his own business, “Our Boys” Taylors in about 1901 in Footscray. He closed the business when he was elected to parliament.

On 25 April 1905 he married Edith Ruddock, at Dromana Wesley Church, with whom he had three children.

Unions

Lemmon joined his first union at the age of 15 years. He was vice-president of the Cutters and Trimmers' Union in 1899 when it reorganised in 1899. He became the secretary and in 1905 was elected president of the Victorian Clothing Operatives' Union. From 1900–07 he was a delegate to the Trades Hall Council and from March 1900 he was secretary of the Trades Hall Organising Committee.

Lemmon served as a Royal Commissioner on the enquiry into Murray Waters 1910–11. He also served on the Inquiry into marketing and transportation of grain in 1911 and as a Royal Commissioner in the subsequent inquiry in 1912–13.

He achieved the passage of an Apprenticeship Bill in 1927 that set up an Apprenticeship authority to oversight apprentice training. Until this date apprentice training effectively remained optional for employers. Some did it well and others ignored it.

Lemmon's long term in parliament are attributed to his eye for detail, a strong focus on his parliamentary duties, his deep knowledge of parliamentary standing orders, the support of his wife and the recognition she received for her charitable work. and a trustee of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Later years He died of cancer later that year at Hawthorn, His wife, two daughters and a son. His son, Nelson Lemmon, was a minister in the federal Chifley Labor government.