Thomas Maltby

Major Sir Thomas Karran Maltby (17 October 1890 – 2 June 1976) was a politician in Victoria, Australia. He was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for nearly 32 years from 1929 to 1961, served in several ministries and was Speaker of the assembly from 1947 to 1950.

Early life Matlby was born in Barnadown, a small town near Bendigo, Victoria, to Thomas Karran Maltby (a shopkeeper from the Isle of Man) and Ada Agnes Fascher. His father died in 1893, and his mother remarried the following year. Maltby was educated at Camp Hill Central School, but left school aged 11 to work as a newsboy and shop messenger. He attended the Bendigo School of Mines at night, studying to receive an engineer's certificate, while working as a battery boy and later trucker in the Bendigo gold mines.

Around 1909, Maltby moved to Melbourne where he worked as a labourer on the Melbourne Tramways. He later joined the sugar refinery CSR as an engine driver and clerk. In 1911, he joined the Militia (citizen army reserve) and received a commission the next year. In 1913, he married Eliza McDonald, a typist, at the Presbyterian Church in Yarraville.

Maltby was wounded twice during the war, once when a bolt from an exploding rifle entered his arm in April 1917. He was mentioned in dispatches before returning to Australia in 1919.

Five years later, Maltby was elected to the legislative assembly when he won the state by-election for the seat of Barwon, following the death of the Nationalist member Edward Morley. He did not resign from the UAP, but disassociated himself from his party colleagues and sat on the Opposition crossbenches for several months before returning.

In September 1945, Maltby was one of five Liberal Party members to cross the floor and vote with the Labor Party and the Independents to defeat an appropriation bill. The Country–Liberal coalition government of Albert Dunstan and Thomas Hollway collapsed, and the Governor of Victoria, Sir Winston Dugan commissioned Ian Macfarlan to form a "stop-gap ministry" with the sole purpose of passing supply. Maltby was appointed Deputy Premier, Chief Secretary and Minister for Electrical Undertakings in the short-lived ministry, which lasted from 2 October to 21 November 1945. Maltby was expelled from the Liberal Party for his defection, but was re-admitted to the party in 1946.

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly On 2 December 1947, Maltby achieved what he called "a boyhood ambition" when he was elected Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

Maltby was knighted in the King's Birthday Honours on 9 June 1949 for his work as Speaker.

Hollway Ministry In May 1950, Arthur Warner, the Minister of Electrical Undertakings, asked Premier Tom Hollway to relieve him of his duties due to a conflict of interest involving Warner's association with several electrical companies. Hollway agreed, and Maltby was one of the front runners to replace Warner in the ensuing reshuffle, provided he was not renominated as Speaker. On 19 June, Maltby was sworn into the Electrical Undertakings portfolio, as well as the Mines portfolio previously held by Henry Bolte. However, Maltby's place in cabinet was to be once again short-lived: eight days later, the Hollway government collapsed when the Labor Party agreed to support a minority Country Party government led by John McDonald. but was replaced the next day by Horace Petty. In 1959, Maltby toured public buildings and studied road building and construction in the United States and Britain. He reported on his findings in the Report on his mission abroad, published in Melbourne in the same year.

Death Maltby died in Geelong, aged 85, on 2 June 1976.