Arthur Warner

Sir Arthur George Warner KBE (31 July 1899 – 3 April 1966) was an English-born Australian politician.

He was born in London to manager Arthur Warner and Emily Cheeseman. He attended Sir George Monoux Grammar School and worked as a telephone mechanic before studying science at the University of London. During World War I he served in the Royal Navy and the Royal Flying Corps, and following the war was a soldier settler sent to Scottsdale in Tasmania. He soon moved to Melbourne and, having qualified by correspondence, worked as an accountant. On 14 August 1920 he married Ethel Wakefield, with whom he had two sons. From 1926 he ran the Radio Corporation, which by 1934 was the largest radio manufacturing firm in the country. In 1934 he applied for the first Australian television licence, and in 1938 founded Electronic Industries Ltd. In 1946 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Higinbotham Province, representing the Liberal Party. He was a supporter of Henry Bolte as opposed to Thomas Hollway, and in 1947 became Minister of Housing and Materials. He added the State Development Portfolio from 1948 to 1949 and Electrical Undertakings from 1949 to 1950, when the Liberal government was defeated. From 1951 he led the Liberals in the Legislative Council, and he was Minister of Transport from 1955 until his resignation from the front bench in 1962. Created a Knight Bachelor in 1956, he was elevated to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1962. Warner retired from politics in 1964 and died at Seymour in 1966.^[1]

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