The Honourable Arthur Abbott |
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Attorney-General of Western Australia | |
In office 5 January 1948 – 23 February 1953 |
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Preceded by | Ross McDonald |
Succeeded by | Emil Nulsen |
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia |
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In office 18 March 1939 – 25 March 1950 |
|
Preceded by | James MacCallum Smith |
Succeeded by | Ted Needham |
Constituency | North Perth |
In office 25 March 1950 – 7 April 1956 |
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Preceded by | None (new creation) |
Succeeded by | Edward Oldfield |
Constituency | Mount Lawley |
Personal details | |
Born |
Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia |
14 February 1892
Died | 10 October 1975 Perth, Western Australia, Australia |
(aged 83)
Political party |
Nationalist (to 1945) Liberal (from 1945) |
Arthur Valentine Rutherford Abbott (14 February 1892 – 10 October 1975) was an Australian lawyer and politician who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1939 to 1956. He was a minister in the government of Sir Ross McLarty, including as attorney-general from 1948 to 1953.
Abbott was born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, but raised in Perth, where he attended Hale School. He completed his secondary education at Melbourne Grammar School, as a boarder. Abbott enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in May 1916, and served with the Australian Field Artillery and the Australian Flying Corps, reaching the rank of lieutenant by the war's end. In 1919, he briefly studied at the Council of Legal Education in London, completing his articles of clerkship the following year.
Abbott first stood for parliament at the 1936 state election, when he unsuccessfully ran for the Nationalist Party in the seat of Mount Hawthorn. He was defeated by the sitting Labor member, Harry Millington. At the 1939 state election, Abbott won the seat of North Perth, defeating a sitting member from his own party, James MacCallum Smith. He joined the Liberal Party upon its formation in 1945, and after its victory at the 1947 election was made Chief Secretary and Minister for Fisheries in the new ministry formed by Ross McLarty.