Percy Brereton Colquhuon 1866-1936

 

In tumultuous political times in NSW during the first two decades of the twentieth century, on the conservative side of politics, lawyers with established connections were seen as ideal managers of parliamentary business and as representatives of the people.

 

 

Australian political parties of the first decade of the new century, however, were fluid rather than exclusively tribal entities. Amalgamations, alliances, mergers, coalitions were all common. Changes of name and various iterations abounded.

 

 

Candidates for the conservative parties in NSW benefited from friendships, alliances and connections. Sporting ability was considered especially useful. Birth into well-connected families was a distinct advantage.

 

Charles Gregory (known as Greg) Wade (1863-1922) led the Liberal Reform Party for ten years after Joseph Carruthers’ resignation because of ill-health. Carruthers himself had been a useful cricketer and was associated with the Sydney University Cricket Club. A Gladstonian Liberal, Carruthers had revitalised the Liberals by adopting some of the ideas of the right wing Peoples’ Reform League. Wade became the seventeenth Premier of NSW 1907-10. David Clune, pre-eminent historian of NSW politics, describes Wade as “a man of poor judgement and inflexible temperament . . . which cost him dearly at the 1910 election.”

 

Before the 1913 election, Wade, now in Opposition, sponsored a distinguished sportsman who stood for and won the newly-created seat of Mosman.

 

Wade and his new parliamentary colleague shared a number of similarities. Both were lawyers before entering Parliament. Both were from the comfortable, ruling classes. Born three years after his leader, Percy Brereton Colquhuon (1866-1936) enjoyed established connections in Sydney society as the son of English-born George Colquhuon (1830-1901), NSW Crown Solicitor from 1894.

Colquhuon had been educated by a tutor at home in Maitland and then, when his family moved to Sydney, at St Paul’s Redfern, a school aligned with St Paul’s Church of England in the same suburb.  At Newington College Stanmore 1881-85 he captained both the 1st XI and 1st XV. In his early years he came under the influence of the Headmaster Joseph Coates (1844-1896) a towering figure of the Sydney University Cricket Club who had captained the NSW Sheffield Shield side, taking 76 extraordinarily cheap wickets in first class cricket. Coates’ ability as a sportsman endeared him to the boys at Newington and then at Sydney High School where he was also Headmaster.

 

 

Colquhuon played cricket and Rugby for Sydney University from 1885 but was not an undergraduate except for the two years he was enrolled in Arts I, 1885 and 1891 (when he was an evening student and also resident at St Paul’s College). Qualifications for the University sides were loose. Colquhuon took advantage of liberal interpretations while working by day for many of these years as an articled clerk to his father at Allen and Allen’s legal firm. He was admitted as a solicitor without taking a degree in 1891.

 

Although he had been a dominant cricketer at Newington, Colquhuon saw cricket as a mere pastime after school. He played irregularly in the University 1sts of 1885 and 1886 as a lower order batsman, before answering the call in February 1896 for one last and relatively successful appearance in 1st Grade against Cumberland when he scored 19 not out. This was his only game for the Club in the recently instituted ‘Electoral Competition’ and, thus, this was his only 1st Grade appearance. The team was short of numbers and Colquhuon happened to be in Sydney. Another Newington old boy, the former Test player, Tom Garrett, was captain. Colquhuon was available on the three Saturdays so he played  at the SCG, the ground on which he had won the 220 yards handicap race at the University sports in 1891.

University had been having a dismal season. Bowled out for 30 in Round 1 by Easts, the batting faltered in almost every game. In this game, University’s 151 owed much to Roley Pope, the former Test cricketer, who made 52. Colquhoun’s 19 was third highest score. But when Cumberland batted, Frank Iredale made 124 and his side won comfortably. Colquhuon was needed no more but things went from dismal to chaotic in the next game when three University players were ‘absent’ in the side’s 2nd innings.

 

 

In rugby Colquhuon excelled. He was an outside back in the formidable University Rugby sides especially in the 1880s. He represented NSW in 33 games including some as captain. Connections with the Wade family were established. One of Greg Wade’s brothers, Leslie (1864-1915), also played rugby for NSW in the same years as Colquhuon.

 

“In his day, Mr Colquhuon was probably the most notable all-round athlete in Australia,” observed the Newingtonian in September 1918.

 

He represented NSW 55 times in tennis. When his time in rugby and tennis concluded, he played for the State in lawn bowls and golf.

 

While playing tennis that he met Mabel Ann Shaw (1867-1914), a second cousin of George Bernard Shaw. (Mabel’s grandfather, John Shaw, was GBS’s great uncle.) Miss Shaw was Colquhuon’s doubles partner when they won the NSW Championships in 1896. They were married on 30 April 1897. In November 1909, Colquhuon, by then President of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australasia, refereed the first Davis Cup to be held in Sydney when Australasia defeated USA 5-0.

 

Percy Colquhuon won the Mosman seat for the Liberal Reform Party at the NSW election held on 6 December 1913 although he had lived in the electorate for only a short time. The  Labor Party under the leadership of William Holman was returned to government reasonably comfortably with 49 seats in the 90-seat Legislative Assembly.

 

Because of their ages, neither Wade nor Colquhuon served in the Great War (Wade was 51 at the beginning of the War and Colquhuon was 48), both had served as Senior NCOs in the Cadet Units at King’s and Newington and Colquhuon served as a Lieutenant in the part-time 1st NSW Infantry in the 1890s, another factor to give him credibility among the conservatives.

 

When the next NSW election was held on 24 March 1917, Colquhuon again stood for Mosman as a representative of the new party, Liberal Nationalist, which won in a landslide with 52 seats to the 33 held by “Honest John” Storey’s Labor Party. Colquhuon, back in government in the Holman administration, was Chairman of  Committees. In such an important role, his debating skills and knowledge of constitutional law were invaluable.

 

In 1920 with the introduction of proportional representation, individual constituencies were absorbed into an agglomeration of approximately five former seats. Mosman became part of the seat of Middle Harbour. Colquhuon left politics. Labor was back in power with a majority of one. Wade had returned to Australia and was a Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW until his death in 1922. Colquhuon, now a widower of seven years, concentrated on his legal practice until 1935, played tennis for Mosman, was a trustee of Taronga Zoo, surfed, grew flowers at his Mosman home where died in 1936.

 

The two party system threw up contrasts and conflicts, often based on backgrounds and formal education. Sport united briefly and occasionally but distinctions remained.

 

For all that, Percy Colquhuon remains one of the more multi-talented sportsmen ever to enter NSW politics.

And he played just one 1st Grade game in the competition that came to be known as ‘Grade Cricket’.

 

A version of this article appeared in the ‘Southern Highlands Newsletter’ in 2018 and I am grateful for the editor’s invaluable assistance.

 

James Rodgers