PREMIER OF TASMANIA DEAD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 12 June 1939, Page 7

PREMIER OF TASMANIA DEAD

SUDDEN HEART ATTACK IN MELBOURNE U P A -By E|t*r-l|ic I flex ra pH riKhtl MELBOURNE, 11th June. After two heart attacks the Premier of Tasmania, Mr Albert George Ogilvie, K.C., who was passing through Melbourne at the week-end on his way to Canberra to attend a Loan Council meeting, died suddenly in Warburton, a tourist resort 50 miles from Melbourne last night. Mr Ogilvie intended leaving for Canberra to-day. He visited Warburton and played golf in the afternoon, when he complained of feeling unwell. At night he had another attack and died within a few minutes. Mr Ogilvie was a former political colleague of the Late Mr J. A. Lyons. The body will be sent by air to Tasmania to-day. MR GRAY SWORN IN AS PREMIER (Received 12th June, 10.50 a.m.) HOBART, This Day. A large gathering met the airliner carrying Mr Ogilvie’s body from Melbourne. Mr E. Dwyer Gray was sworn in as Premier. He will combine the duties of Premier and Treasurer until the State Parliamentary Labour party meets to elect a new leader.

M Ogilvie had been Premier of Tasmania since 1934. Born in 1891 at Hobart, he was educated in Victoria and at the University of Tasmania, where he took a law degree. He was called to the Bar in 1914 and subsequently became a King’s Counsel.

In 1919 he became member of the Tasmanian House of Representatives for Franklin, a seat which he continued to hold. He had the distinction of being the youngest member of the House. From 1923 to 1927 he was Attorney-General and Minister of Education, and at various periods held the portfolios of Forestry and Mines. From 1928 to 1934 he was Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Ogilvie visited Auckland in 1937 when on his way to attend the Empire Parliamentary Conference in London, and again in the same year when returning to Tasmania from London.