Hon George Throssell CMG commemoration, Trenorden
Author: Max Trenorden
Published on: 26-August-2010
On Sunday 29 August the shire president and councillors of the Shire of Northam will hold an official rededication and unveiling of Hon George Throssell’s Memorial on the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of his death.
George Throssell was born in Ireland in 1840 and moved to Western Australia at age 10. He was an active Anglican and the founding member and secretary of the Northam Mechanics’ Institute as well as of the local temperance movement and lodges. Among a long list of services, he was postmaster from 1864 to 1874, a member of the local School Board, chairman of the Road Board in 1874, a member of the Farmers’ Club and Settlers’ Association, director of the local flour mill, a founder of the Northam Municipal Council in 1879 and its chairman from 1883 to 1885.
Throssell had a distinguished political career beginning as mayor of Northam from 1887 to 1894. From 1890 he represented Northam in the State’s newly formed Legislative Assembly, holding the seat for 14 years. A strong supporter of the government of Sir John Forrest, Throssell was a key influencer in the 1892 decision to choose Northam as the starting point of the railway to the eastern goldfields. On 15 February 1901 he succeeded Sir John as premier of Western Australia. His government, in which he was also treasurer, was, however, short-lived. Although undoubtedly an intellectual and a competent administrator, he was not a strong political leader and deafness imposed limitations. As a result the factions supporting his party began to divide before he eventually lost his majority. At the election in April of that year many of his followers lost their own seats and on 27 May he resigned as leader and returned to the back bench.
Throssell was the father of 14 children, the most famous of whom was a son, Hugo, Western Australia’s first wartime recipient of the coveted Victoria Cross.
Throssell was a man amongst men. With plentiful silver hair befitting of a patriarch, Throssell was known as the ‘lion of Northam’, a title most appropriate to the man who was at the core of the town’s growth and one of the great pioneers of the region and our state.
The commemoration of the 100th anniversary of George Throssell’s death will take place at the Northam Cemetery, Katrine Rd, at 2pm and will be followed by an afternoon at the Lesser Town Hall, Wellington Street.
