By Greg Blood

ALFRED DEAKIN

PROTECTIONIST / LIBERAL PARTY

2^nd Prime Minister: 1903-1904, 1905-1908, 1909-1910

Alfred Deakin understood the importance of exercise and as prime minister was a regular cyclist. Through his published newspaper articles, he understood the importance of sport in the new nation through the lens of character development, physical fitness and links to Great Britain.. However, he believed that the proliferation of sporting news in newspapers led to sport being taken more seriously than politics.

Birth: 3 August 1856, Melbourne, Victoria – Death: 7 October 1919, Melbourne, Victoria

Political Appointments

• Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly: West Bourke 1 July 1879 – 1August 1879 (resigned); 1 July 1880 – 1 March 1889; 1 April 1889 – 1 October 1900
• Victorian Ministries:  Solicitor-General 13 November 1883 – 18 February 1886; Commissioner of Public Works 8 March 1883 – 18 February 1886; Commissioner of Water Supply 8 March 1883 – 23 April 1884; Solicitor-General 1 September 1890 – 5 November 1890; Minister of Health 29 January 1890 – 5 November 1890; Commissioner of Water Supply 18 February 1886 – 5 November 1890. 
• Federal Member for Ballarat: 30 March 1901 – 23 April 1913
• Federal Ministries: Attorney-General 1 January 1901 – 24 September 1903, Minister for External Affairs 24 September 1903 – 27 April 1904 5 July 1905 – 13 November 1908
• Federal Leader of the Protectionist Party: 24 September 1903 – 26 May 1909; Federal Leader of the Liberal Party: 26 May 1909 – 20 January 1913
• Federal Leader of the Opposition: 26 May 1909 – 2 June 1909; 1 July 1910 – 20 January 1913
• Prime Minister: 24 September 1903 – 27 April 1904; 5 July 1905 – 13 November 1908; 2 June 1909 – 29 April 1910

Background

Alfred Deakin was born 3 August 1856 in Fitzroy, Melbourne. His parents William and Sarah (nee Bill) were born in Wales and moved to Adelaide in 1850 and then to Melbourne following the Victorian goldrush. His first education was at a girls’ boarding school in Kyneton with his older sister. In 1864, he attended Melbourne Church of England Grammar School as a day student and completed his studies there after eight years.  Deakin admired headmaster Dr Bromley who led a spartan lifestyle and maintained an athletic body. But he was “poor at sport, did not make friends easily, read voraciously and he was by personality utterly different to his classmates.”[1] Newspaper report commented on his cricketing versus debating ability ““He could not swing a cricket bat with accuracy or power or bowl a ball nearer than two yards to leg and a full pitch at that, he was gawky on the football field, and with these shortcomings his silvery tongue was of no avail”[2]  In his youth, Deakin became interested in spiritualism but moved away from it somewhat in his later life.  

In 1871, he attended University of Melbourne after passing the matriculation exam. Whilst at university, he worked as a school teacher and tutor. Deakin did not complete his university degree but was admitted as barrister to the Victorian Bar in September 1877 due to his completion of university legal studies subjects. Deakin struggled to find work as barrister and in 1878, David Syme offered him work with The Age through writing articles on literature and politics. His involvement with Syme led him to having a protectionist political view. He married Elizabeth Martha Anne (Pattie) Browne in 1882 and together they had three daughters. 

From July 1879 to 1900, he was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly except for a brief period due to an electoral compliance issue. For ten years, Deakin held ministerial positions in the Victorian government. However, in 1890 he declined ministerial positions due to devoting his attention to the federation movement where he was the Victorian delegate to 1891 National Australasian Convention in Sydney and future conventions. It was through these conventions that Deakin developed a relationship with future prime ministers Edmund Barton, a protectionist and George Reid, a free trader.

Deakin was elected the member for Ballaarat (original spelling) to the first federal parliament under prime minister Barton and became Australia’s first attorney general. Deakin had three stints as prime minister – 1903 to 1904, 1905 to 1908 and 1909 to 1910. In 1903, he became prime minister after Barton retired to become a judge in the newly established High Court of Australia. In a 1904 speech as prime minister, Deakin used cricket to highlight the need for two dominant parties over the current three parties – Protectionist, Labor and Free Traders which led to unstable government. Deakin stated that “What kind of a game of cricket could you have, if you had three elevens in the field instead of two, and one sometimes played on one side, sometimes on the other, and sometimes for itself?”[3]

His second term as prime minister was after Reid resigned in 1905. In May 1909, Deakin’s followers merged with Joseph Cook’s free traders to form the Fusion Party, and they defeated Labor’s Andrew Fisher in parliament. Deakin went on to be defeated in the April 1910 federal election to Fisher. He remained as federal leader of the opposition to January 1913 and did not seek re-election at the 1913 federal election which led to Cook leading the Liberal party to victory.

Whilst in federal parliament, he wrote articles for London’s Morning Post under the name of ‘The Correspondent.  It was not until after his death, that Deakin was identified as the ‘The Correspondent’. Several of the articles provided insights on the role and value of sporting endeavours in the new nation. [4]

Exercise

Exercise as an important part of Deakin’s life and this may be traced back to his time at Melbourne Grammar School.  Brett noted that “Deakin liked to begin his day with something to open up the lungs and get the blood racing – chopping wood, skipping backwards, playing hockey with the children, if he was in the country cutting scrub or a bracing horse ride, if at the seaside he would bathe”.[5] At the age of twenty-two, Deakin would regularly walk the three miles from his parents’ house in Adam Street, South Yarra to Victorian Parliament House in Spring Street. 

There was cycling boom in Melbourne in the 1890s after bicycles with pneumatic tyres and chain drive were brought into Australia. In 1896, at the age of thirty nine, he had cycling six lessons. After these lessons, he would regularly cycle throughout Melbourne and surrounding areas including to Parliament House from his home ‘Llanarth’, Walsh Street, South Yarra.  Deakin took his bicycle to Adelaide when attending the second Federal Convention in March 1897. Brett stated “Deakin took his bicycle with him on the train. He was staying at the seaside resort of Largs Bay so he could begin each day with a sea bath and then cycle the nine miles into the SA Parliament where the convention was sitting”. [6] He encouraged his daughters to take up cycling and would frequently ride with them.

In 1905, he had two traffic infringements when cycling in Melbourne. In February, he was stopped by the police for riding on the wrong side of the road at the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets and in June for riding on a footpath along a section of Swan Street. Deakin’s letter to the court for the footpath infringement stated that he was not aware that he broke a traffic by-law. Court magistrate found that Deakin was not aware on breaking a by-law, but he was still fined 2 shillings and 6 pence and the same amount in costs. Deakin never owned a motor vehicle. [7]

Sport

Whilst Deakin had little interest in competitive sports in his youth, he did understand its role in the new nation but believed that that newspapers covered it excessively to the detriment to the discussion of political and economic issues. This is borne out by several articles he had published in London’s Morning Post.

The New Commonwealth – 1901 Article [8]

Those of their own affairs which stir Australians are rarely those of greatest importance, neither are they the issues which most interest our onlookers at home, where, naturally enough, there is quite another standpoint. For the past week sport has reigned supreme in Adelaide, where the English cricketers have commenced their tour, and in Melbourne, which for racing purposes is certainly the centre of the Commonwealth. All politics and all problems except those of the turf have been in the background in the Eastern States as usual for a delirious fortnight at the beginning of every November. Whatever new characteristics we develop on this side of the world, the inherited British passion for sport will remain undiminished in dominating popularity.

The New Commonwealth 1903 Article [9]

The strength of the sporting element in Australia can be gauged in many ways. It can be gauged by the perpetual discussion it provokes, the prominence given to its news all the year round, and by its culminations in outbursts of public interest at the time of its chief festivals. Every form of sport has its season and its throngs of votaries. Our daily newspapers are never free from the notes and comments intended to appeal to them, while there are special weeklies or monthlies of many degrees of reputation devoted to nothing but sporting. Speaking generally, it is safe to say that sport is much the most general topic of conversation among all classes all over the continent. Its jargon is, perhaps, more persistent in the country, but it is almost equally familiar in the town. No evidence of its power could be more striking than the extent to which horse racing, our most popular and expensive sport, monopolises attention at certain times. The performances and prospects of the competitors have been recorded without cessation from year to year by the experts and those personally interested, but these opinions become paramount as the day of trial approaches. The Spring Meeting in Melbourne is always an event of Australasian importance, attracting its thousands from the remotest parts of the continent. This year it has everywhere temporarily displaced in the minds of the people the general election about to decide the political fate of the Commonwealth. Candidates paused till the meeting should be over in order to obtain a hearing. The Press had too many of its columns occupied with accounts of the Cup to spare much space for political speeches. A “want of confidence” debate in our own Assembly was postponed in order that one Minister who owns racehorses might remain at Flemington to watch their fortunes. The fate of the Ministry was left in suspense and the ardours of the Opposition restrained until the crisis in the fever of the sporting community had been allowed to pass. The spirit of camaraderie among our legislators exhibited in this incident was excellent, but while such an interruption of Parliamentary proceedings is possible it cannot be said that we take our politics too seriously. At all events sport is sometimes taken more seriously.

The National Holiday – 1908 Article [10]

Our Midsummer is never too hot for picnics nor for sports, and this year the day was cool. An Interstate cricket match, a regatta in the harbour, and the indispensable race meeting were among the attractions of the crowd in Sydney, but there were also rifle matches and many other minor competitions within a short radius. The whole population was on pleasure bent and apparently succeeded in getting it. Working the shortest hours for the best pay obtainable under the same conditions anywhere our masses have always money to spend upon recreations. They do spend it, and those concerned in providing it thrive proportionally.

The Ties of Sport – 1908 Article [11]

One of the most satisfactory features of the year has been the comparatively frequent visits paid to Australia by representative teams and persons. Among the former the British Rifle Team ranks high, its tour having done much to popularise shooting, and its members having left the pleasantest impressions everywhere. The Cricket Eleven is still with us, and, like the riflemen, they have surpassed expectation. They have given a good account of themselves in each State, and but for Mr. Jones’s unfortunate illness would have done better still. The value of their trip is not to be measured by their successes or defeats as players, but by the manly way in which they have faced their luck whether successful or not. The spirit they are evincing re-establishes once more the reputation of Englishmen for qualities that have made them famous all the world over. The reproach often heard that we forget our national history so much that outside the schools very little is heard of it or remembered by the masses even when it is quoted is too true. But Australians, whatever their defects, are keen sportsmen, cherishing with ardour your sporting standards of fair play, your admiration for pluck and judgment, and your desire to see the best man win. Matches whether for shooting, for football, or for cricket remind many who read little that Britons today are still to be reckoned with in every field and in every game. Slight as the value of such experiences may appear at first sight it is a real factor in the perpetuation of patriotic sentiments and of 6 the warmth of relationship. In the absence of other ties and means of popular intercommunication those of sport have an importance that it would be easier to under-estimate than to overvalue. The Tennis Championship is held by a young Victorian. Our last team shot well at Bisley. Some Rhodes scholars are rowing at Oxford. Slight as these and similar facts appear if taken in themselves, they are almost the only representative meetings possible or at all events existent today. Not to name them among the events of the year would mean the omission of incidents which always have a distinctly Imperial character, although they have rarely been dignified by such a recognition except in the unchartered freedom of pavilion toasts.

Political Sport – 1908 Article [12]

Australia must appear to Englishmen to be principally moved by politics and sport. Perhaps having regard to the fact that the personal fortunes of our leaders in public affairs appeal to us more than any but the greatest of their measures it would be more accurate if we confessed that we are chiefly stirred by sport and politics. Even our industrial, financial, pastoral, and agricultural developments are far from devoid of “sporting” interest. Their vicissitudes, like those of mining, though less frequent, are more than sufficient to prolong the parallel. Our marvellous records of material progress read tamely enough except to those personally interested in their totals or patriotically zealous for the reputation of the Commonwealth; but the achievements of athletes of all types, horses or dogs of all breeds, or politicians of any colour, come home to our “masses” more steadily than other achievements. A polling day rivals a first-class cricket or football match over a far larger area. A Parliamentary crisis draws a smaller house, but arouses an immensely larger number outside. Just now political sport is at a height. In Queensland Mr. Kidston, joining hands with Mr. Philp, has launched a promising but hazardous Coalition that has successfully survived its first frontal attack. In Victoria Mr. Bent, after a series of rapid metamorphoses, both of policy and of the personnel of his Cabinet, unintelligible to critics outside that State, having been at last overthrown has obtained a dissolution. In Tasmania, where the Leader of the Opposition has been appointed to a judge-ship, a General Election is due in three months. In three of our six States the electors are being kindled into a condition of exceptional excitement at the present moment by appeals to their political sporting instincts.

Australian Football

Despite coming from Victoria, the birthplace of Australian football, Deakin’s involvement and passion appears to be limited. There are reports of Deakin attending matches and carnivals in Ballarat, his federal electorate. In 1908, at the ten day carnival to celebrate fifty years since the birth of Australian football, Deakin’s speech highlighted the importance of ‘Australia’s game’ in forging a national identity and its links with Great Britain through its link to Muscular Christianity.[13] Deakin said:

My days of football are past so many years that although the memories are not clouded, I have perfect recollection of the game as I played it. I venture to think that the spirit which animated us was of no discredit to this country and no bad training for the youths of this country. The games of football that I have played since then have been many and various, speaking symbolically, and they have been carried on in other fields, but I have yet to find the game that carries as much pleasure, as much harmless excitement, and as much stimulus as the Australasian game of football. The one qualification which perhaps led to my being selected to propose this toast is that officially at all events I am associated with the Parliament which represents the whole of Australia. The time when there was a Victorian game is not far distant. I well remember it, and it is a great gain to find it displaced, and replaced by the game played wherever the sea washes the shores of Australia and all the interior between. May I say the spirit that activates the true footballer is that which had been tersely expressed in a memorable poem by Newbolt, when he spoke of the true sporting spirit as that which puts the game above the prize. In that you have simply stated and as shortly as possible the very essence of British sport, the very leading principle which has made British sport what it is today – a powerful factor in national development. There was a time when these competitions were looked upon by the civilized world as purely insular, a kind of special development peculiar to the Anglo Saxon race because it had strong sinews, and a love of competition. But within the last thirty or forty years a most remarkable change has been noted over the whole of Europe. In every nation there has been a rebirth of sport in consequence of their recognition of the part it plays in a healthy national life. A stricter discipline that you will find, in the training of a football team, you will rarely find in after life. You are laying the foundations of physique, a stamina and capacity that is not only exercised in sport, but which will in the hour of need respond to the nation’s call. The game is Australian in its origins, Australian in its principle, and I venture to say, essentially of Australian development. It and every expression of the sporting spirit go to make the manhood which is competent for the nation’s tasks. Those who have tumbled on the football field will be prepared to tumble on the political arena. And when the tocsin sounds the call to arms, not the last, but the first to ac-knowledge it will be those who have played, and played well, the Australasian game of football before that played the Australian game of nation making and nation preserving to stand by the old land.[14]

Fitness and Defence of the Nation

In his youth, Deakin enrolled in the Southern Rifles, a volunteer militia group and after federation was in proponent of the introduction of military training. Deakin believed that sport provided appropriate physical training that would be important in the future defence of the nation. [15] His government in 1909 passed the Defence Act which introduced compulsory physical training for male youth and adults during peace time. This inclusion military training for youths, “would instil the ‘maximum of good citizenship’ and foster a ‘sense of national unity’ and a ‘national spirit”. [16]The legislation had the full support of the Labor opposition and was implemented by the Fisher government in 1910.  

Defence Act 1909[17]

PART XII.—UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION IN RESPECT OF NAVAL OR MILITARY TRAINING.

Persons who are liable to be trained.

“125.  All male inhabitants of Australia (excepting those who are exempted by this Act), who have resided therein for six months, and are British subjects, shall be liable to be trained, as prescribed, as follows:—

(a) From twelve years to fourteen years of age, in the Junior Cadets; and

(b) From fourteen to eighteen years of age, in the Senior Cadets; and

© From eighteen to twenty years of age, in the Citizen Forces; and

(d) From twenty to twenty-six years of age, in the Citizen Forces:

“Provided that, except in time of imminent danger of war, service under paragraph (d)shall be limited to one registration or one muster-parade in each year.

Training years.

“126.—(1.) The training in the Junior Cadets shall begin on the first day of July in the year in which the persons liable reach the age of twelve years, and shall continue for two years:

“Provided that, in the case of persons who reach the age of thirteen years in the year in which this Part commences, the training shall begin on the first day of July in that year, and continue for one year.

“(2.)   The training in the Senior Cadets shall begin on the first day of July in the year in which the persons liable reach the age of fourteen years, and shall continue for four years:

“Provided that, in the case of persons who reach the age of fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen years in the year in which this Part commences, the training shall begin on the first day of July in that year, and continue for three years, two years, or one year respectively.

“(3.)   The training in the Citizen Forces shall begin on the first day of July in the year in which the persons liable reach the age of eighteen years, and shall continue for two years.

Duration of training.

“127.  The prescribed training shall be, in each year ending the thirtieth day of June, of the following duration:—

(a) In the Junior Cadets not exceeding one hundred and twenty hours; and

(b) In the Senior Cadets four whole-day drills, twelve half-day drills, and twenty-four night drills; and

© In the Citizen Forces sixteen whole-day drills or their equivalent:

“Provided that, in the case of those allotted to the Naval Forces and to the Artillery and Engineers in the Military Forces, the training shall be twenty-five whole-day drills or their equivalent.

“Provided also that the duration of a whole-day drill shall be not less than six hours, of a half-day drill not less than three hours, and of a night drill not less than one hour and a half.

Olympic Games

Gordon stated that the Olympic Games from 1896 to 1904 were regarded as “individual rather than national affairs. People like Flack, Lane, Rowley and Gardner made their own decision to attend, sometimes with the backing of state governing bodies.”[18] Deakin was asked a question in federal parliament on 20 March 1908 regarding providing funds the Australasian team at the 1908 Olympic Games.[19] The question and answer were:

Question by William Maloney: It has, doubtless, been brought under the notice of the Prime Minister that subscriptions are being raised to enable representative Australians, to compete in the Marathon race in connexion, with the revival of the Olympian games. Since the representation of Australia at that carnival would do as much to advertise the Commonwealth as do the visits of Australian cricket teams to the Old Country, does the Prime Minister think it would be possible for the Commonwealth Government to subscribe, say, half the ‘ amount raised by the public for this purpose/

Response by prime minister Deakin:  Commencing with art avowal of innocence as to what a ” Marathon ” race may be, but of full confidence in the capacity of Australians to hold their own in that or any other form of competition, I doubt whether it comes within the power of the Commonwealth, strictly interpreting the Constitution, to interfere with the rights of the States ip ‘that matter. We shall consider that question.

This response indicated that Deakin believed according to the Constitution, the Commonwealth was not responsible for funding a sporting team and it did not fund the team. However, the Fisher government in 1912 made the decision to fund the team to 1916 Berlin Olympic Games but these Games were cancelled due to World War I.

Conclusion

Unlike other early Australian prime ministers Edmund Barton, Chris Watson and George Reid, Deakin had little interest in competitive sport as a participant or administrator. However, he understood the of importance of exercise and in later life was a regular cyclist. Deakin viewed competitive sport through the lens of British ideals of character building and physical fitness that would be important in the emerging nation.  These benefits of sport participation would be important for the defence of the nation. However, Deakin was concerned that excessive coverage of sport in newspapers was to the detriment of discussing political issues.

Images – Alfred Deakin is seen near the fence bouncing the footy[20]

References

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[1] Headon, David. Alfred Deakin (1856–1919) Australia’s second Prime Minister: The Lives, The Legacy, Canberra, Parliamentary Library, 2018, p. 19

[2] Alfred Deakin. The Richmond River Express and Casino Kyogle Advertiser (NSW)), 11 January 1910, p. 3.

[3] Judith Brett, The Enigmatic Mr Deakin. Melbourne, Text Publishing, 2017, p. 292.

[4] Online biographies – Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Archives of Australia, National Museum of Australia

[5]Brett, p. ?

[6] Deakin and His Bicycle, Museum of Australin Democracy,

[7] Brett 2017, p.333

[8] Alfred Deakin, The New Commonwealth. From Our Correspondent: Alfred Deakin’s letters to the London Morning Post Vol 1 1900-1901, Canberra, Parliamentary Library, 2020, p. 229

[9] Alfred Deakin, The New Commonwealth,  From Our Special Correspondent: Alfred Deakin’s letters to the London Morning Post Vol 3 1903, Canberra, Parliamentary Library, 2020, p. 210

[10]  Alfred Deakin, The National Holiday, From Our Special Correspondent: Alfred Deakin’s letters to the London Morning Post Vol6 1908, Canberra, Australian Parliamentary Library, 2021, p. 37

[11] Alfred Deakin, The Ties of Sport,  From Our Special Correspondent: Alfred Deakin’s letters to the London Morning Post Vol 8 1908, Canberra, Australian Parliamentary Library, 2021, p.5-6

[12]  Alfred Deakin, Political Sport, From Our Special Correspondent: Alfred Deakin’s letters to the London Morning Post Vol 8 1908, Canberra, Australian Parliamentary Library, 2021, p.166

[13] Barry Judd and Christopher Hallinan, Indigeneity and  the Disruption of  Anglo-Australian Nationalism in  Australian Football, Review of Nationalities, no.9 2019, p.101-100

[14] Jubilee Football,  Examiner (Launceston, Tas), 1 September 1908, p. 3

[15] Judd and Hallinan, p. 104

[16] R. Norris, ‘Deakin, Alfred (1856–1919)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1981

[17] Defence Act 1909, Parliament of Australia

[18] Harry Gordon, Australia and the Olympic Games, Brisbane, University of Queensland Press, 1994, p. 45

[19] Olympic Games Question, House of Representatives Hansard, 20 March 1909, p. 9388

[20] Football, The Herald (Melbourne, Vic), 27 August 1909, p. 2.

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