William Joseph DENNY MC

DENNY, William Joseph

Service Number: B6327
Enlisted: 17 August 1915, Adelaide, South Australia
Last Rank: Captain
Last Unit: 1st Division Headquarters
Born: Adelaide, South Australia, 6 December 1872
Home Town: Adelaide, South Australia
Schooling: Adelaide Christian Brothers College
Occupation: Lawyer and Politician
Died: Natural causes, Adelaide, South Australia, 2 May 1946, aged 73 years
Cemetery: West Terrace Cemetery (AIF Section)
Memorials: Adelaide Christian Brothers' College WW1 Roll of Honor, Adelaide Members of the Legal Profession & Students at Law WW1 Honour Board, Adelaide St Patrick's Parish Honor Board, Adelaide University of Adelaide WW1 Honour Roll
Show Relationships

World War 1 Service

17 Aug 1915: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, B6327, Adelaide, South Australia
18 Aug 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, B6327, 9th Light Horse Regiment,

NCO and Officer School.  Commissioned as an officer 16 January 1916.

17 Jan 1916: Promoted AIF WW1, Second Lieutenant, 9th Light Horse Regiment
16 Mar 1916: Involvement AIF WW1, Lieutenant, 9th Light Horse Regiment, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1,

embarkation_roll: roll_number: 2 embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Anchises embarkation_ship_number: A68 public_note:

16 Mar 1916: Embarked AIF WW1, Lieutenant, 9th Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Anchises, Adelaide
10 May 1917: Involvement AIF WW1, Headquarters Staff, Third Ypres
23 Sep 1918: Promoted AIF WW1, Captain
28 Apr 1919: Discharged AIF WW1, Captain, 1st Division Headquarters

Help us honour William Joseph Denny's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography

by Merrilyn Lincoln (adb.anu.edu.au)

This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography (adb.anu.edu.au), Volume 8, (MUP), 1981

William Joseph (Bill) Denny (1872-1946), solicitor, politician and soldier, was born on 6 December 1872 in Adelaide, son of Thomas Denny, publican, and his wife Annie, née Dwyer. Educated at the Christian Brothers' College, he was a clerk until 1896 when he became editor of the Catholic Southern Cross. On the Adelaide City Council from 1898, in 1899 he failed to win the West Adelaide seat in the House of Assembly. But he won it in 1900 and held it until 1933 (Adelaide from 1902).

Denny studied law from 1903 and was admitted to the Supreme Court in 1908. Before the 1905 election he had joined the United Labor Party and retained Adelaide for that party. As attorney-general and minister for the Northern Territory in the Verran (adb.anu.edu.au) government of 1910-12, he negotiated the transfer of the Territory to Commonwealth control. He secured important reforms. His 1911 Women Lawyers Act enabled women to practise law.

On 17 August 1915 Denny enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force as a trooper and in January 1916 was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 9th Light Horse Regiment. In Egypt he transferred to the 5th Divisional Artillery and was promoted lieutenant in June. In France he served with the 5th Divisional Ammunition Column and, from mid-1917, with the 1st Divisional Artillery. He was severely wounded at Ypres on 15 September while leading a convoy of bombs and ammunition into the forward area and was awarded the Military Cross. From January 1918 he was attached to the repatriation section at A.I.F. Administrative Headquarters, London, and was promoted captain in September. He resigned his commission in 1919 and published The Diggers.

On 15 January 1920 Denny married Winefride Mary Leahy, a pianist and singer, in Adelaide. He resumed his legal and parliamentary work: in 1924-27 he was attorney-general and minister for housing, irrigation and repatriation in the Gunn (adb.anu.edu.au)-Hill (adb.anu.edu.au) government, and carried several major legal reforms. He was attorney-general and minister for local government and railways in the Hill government of 1930-33 and in 1931, with the rest of that ministry, was expelled from the Labor Party for supporting the Premiers' Plan. The group formed the Parliamentary Labor Party but at the 1933 elections Denny lost his seat to a Lang (adb.anu.edu.au) Labor Party candidate. Despite rheumatoid arthritis, he practised law until his death, and wrote an autobiography, A Digger at Home and Abroad (1942). Survived by his wife, one son and three daughters, he died on 2 May 1946 and was buried in West Terrace cemetery after a state funeral.

Tall, with long spindly legs, Denny was a cartoonist's delight and was nicknamed 'Walking Willie'. His preferred reading was Shakespeare and the Bible and he quoted liberally from both. His integrity, versatility and wide knowledge were unquestioned, and he was proud of the democratic legislation he had sponsored.

Select Bibliography

  • H. T. Burgess (ed), Cyclopedia of South Australia, vol 1 (Adel, 1907)
  • T. H. Smeaton, The People in Politics (Adel, 1914)
  • Universal Publicity Co., The Official Civic Record of South Australia (Adel, 1936)
  • Parliamentary Papers (South Australia), 1940 (74)
  • Observer (Adelaide), 4 Feb 1889
  • Chronicle (Adelaide), 11 Dec 1930
  • Advertiser (Adelaide), 28-31 Mar, 13 Apr 1933, 3 May 1946
  • private information.

Citation details

Merrilyn Lincoln, 'Denny, William Joseph (Bill) (1872–1946)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/denny-william-joseph-bill-5958/text10165, accessed 3 December 2013.

This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 8, (MUP), 1981

 

Read more...