William Lennon

William Lennon (8 December 1849 – 5 May 1938) was a politician in Queensland, Australia. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly and a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Queensland.

Biography Lennon was born in Dublin, Ireland to parents William Lennon Snr and his wife Ann (née Martin).

In 1881 he was transferred to Townsville to open a branch of the bank there and later supervised its expansion to other centres in North Queensland and by 1885 he was working in Sydney as a sub-inspector. He died in Brisbane in May 1938 after several years of bad health. As per Lennon's personal wishes, his family declined the offer of a state funeral and his funeral at the Toowong Cemetery was attended by a few close relatives.

Public career Lennon started off his career by being a councilor on the Thuringowa Divisional Board. Then at the 1899 Queensland colonial election, representing the Labour Party, he unsuccessfully stood against his former employer, Robert Philp, for the seat of Townsville. In 1907, he stood for the seat of Herbert and narrowly defeated the sitting member, Alfred Cowley. He would go on to represent the electorate until his resignation on 1920 to take up the role of Lieutenant-Governor of Queensland. For the last four months he was the Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly and from 1915 until 1919 the Secretary for Agriculture and Stock.

Soon after the referendum, and apparently on the urging of the Labor government, the Queensland Governor, Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams appointed thirteen new members, all of whom whose political allegiance lay with Labor, to the Council. As the council continued to reject money bills, Ryan urged the Governor to appoint more members to the Council in 1918, but this request was refused. Goold-Adams' term as Governor of Queensland expired in 1920 and before he set sail back home to England, appointed Lennon to the role of Lieutenant-Governor of Queensland with a salary of £1000 per annum.

Once Lennon took the role of Lieutenant-Governor he immediately appointed another fifteen Labor men (known as the suicide squad) to the Council, much to the disgust of the "old Guard" members such as Arthur Hawthorn and Patrick Leahy.

When the President of the Legislative Council William Hamilton died in July 1920, Lennon claimed that he had to leave Queensland and travel to New South Wales which in turn made Pope Alexander Cooper the Administrator of the Government.

Cooper was presented with minutes from the Executive Council appointing Lennon to the Legislative Council and also appointing him as President of the Legislative Council. Cooper refused to sign the minutes stating the Council was already overburdened and the trick of sending Lennon out of state was a farce. Lennon returned to Queensland having recovered from the ill health he claimed to have and reassumed office as Lieutenant-Governor. Lennon then appointed himself, not only to be Hamilton's replacement in the Council, but to the role of President as well. In December 1920 Matthew Nathan became the State Governor and Lennon ceased acting as Administrator.

The next year the Council, now with an overwhelming Labor majority, voted itself out of existence with the Constitution Act Amendment Bill. The Council met for the last time on 27 October 1921 and the bill was given royal assent on 23 March 1922. Lennon remained the salaried Lieutenant-Governor until the Labor government lost power in 1929.