H. P. Colebatch
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The Honourable Sir Hal Colebatch CMG |
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| 12th Premier of Western Australia | |
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In office 17 April 1919 – 17 May 1919 |
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| Preceded by | Sir Henry Lefroy |
| Succeeded by | Sir James Mitchell |
| Constituency | East Province (Legislative Council) |
| Senator for Western Australia | |
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In office 1 July 1929 – 20 March 1933 |
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| Succeeded by | Herbert Collett |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
29 March 1872 Wolferlow, Herefordshire, England |
| Died | 12 February 1953 (aged 80) |
| Political party | Nationalist |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Maude Saunders (d. 1940) Marion Frances Gibson |
| Occupation | Journalist |
Sir Harry Pateshall Colebatch CMG (29 March 1872 – 12 February 1953), better known as Sir Hal Colebatch, was a long-serving and occasionally controversial figure in Western Australian politics. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council for nearly 20 years, the twelfth Premier of Western Australia for a month in 1919, agent-general in London for five years, and a federal senator for four years.
Hal Colebatch was born in Wolferlow in Herefordshire, England, on 29 March 1872. His family migrated to Australia in 1878, settling at Goolwa in South Australia. Colebatch left school in 1883 at the age of 11, because his father could not afford to continue his education. He then found work as an office boy and junior reporter for a local newspaper, the Norwood Free Press. When this paper collapsed, he worked for a series of short-lived papers on the South Australian goldfields. He worked for the Petersburg Times and the Laura Standard. In 1888, he moved to Broken Hill, New South Wales, where he worked for six years as reporter for the Silver Age. There, he reported on a number of strike meetings in 1892, and was subsequently summoned as a Crown witness in the prosecution of some strike leaders.
In 1894, Colebatch migrated to Western Australia to take up a position as reporter on the Coolgardie newspaper Golden Age. After the collapse of the Golden Age the following year, he moved to Kalgoorlie to report on the Kalgoorlie Miner. In 1896, he moved to Perth to join the Morning Herald as mining editor and chess editor. Colebatch was a keen chess player at this time and, in 1898, he won the state title, thereby becoming Western Australia's third chess champion. On 29 April 1896, Colebatch married Mary Maude Saunders in Perth.
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