Sir James O'Grady, KCMG (6 May 1866 – 10 December 1934) was a trade unionist and Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was the first colonial governor appointed by the Labour Party from within its own ranks.
Early life
O'Grady was born in Bristol to Irish parents. His father was a labourer, and after leaving school at ten, O'Grady did various lowly jobs, before training as a cabinet-maker, and became active in the Amalgamated Union of Cabinetmakers.
Through his role in the Amalgamated Union of Cabinet Makers, he had been President of the Trades Union Congress in 1898, and he continued his union activities whilst an MP. After a variety of posts in unions related to the furniture trades,[1] he became general secretary of the National Federation of General Workers in 1918.
In 1924, Ramsay MacDonald's First Labour Government offered O'Grady the post of British Ambassador to the Soviet Union, and he accepted.[2] He was a logical choice because he had successfully negotiated an exchange of prisoners in 1919 and had been involved in international trade union-led efforts to relieve the Russian famine in 1921, but O'Grady did not in the end get the job, because the government postponed exchanging ambassadors.[2]
Instead O'Grady became Governor of Tasmania from 1924 to 1930. The first Labour politician to be appointed as a colonial governor by a Labour government. His appointment was resisted by the Australian Labor Party, which wanted the job to go to an Australian.
O'Grady was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George and moved to Tasmania, taking office on 23 December.[3] His governorship was marked by conflicts with the Legislative Council (which urged to do more to promote economic development), and his governor's reports were outspoken, but he appears to have parted on good terms.
O'Grady's next appointment was in 1931, as Governor of the Falkland Islands, but he retired in 1934 due to ill-health. He died later that year, aged 68.
Notes
^There were many mergers of unions in that period, and craft- and area-based unions merged to form national, industry-based unions, and the union names listed in the available sources do not entirely correspond to the list of furniture unions at http://www.wcml.org.uk/tu/furnish.htmArchived 13 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN0-900178-06-X.