John Cain (senior)
| John Cain | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 34th Premier of Victoria | |
|
In office 14 September 1943 – 18 September 1943 |
|
| Preceded by | Albert Dunstan |
| Succeeded by | Albert Dunstan |
|
In office 21 November 1945 – 20 November 1947 |
|
| Preceded by | Ian Macfarlan |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Hollway |
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In office 17 December 1952 – 7 June 1955 |
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| Preceded by | John McDonald |
| Succeeded by | Henry Bolte |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
John Kane 19 January 1882 Greendale, Victoria |
| Died | 4 August 1957 (aged 75) Townsville, Queensland, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Spouse(s) | Dorothea Vera Marie Grindrod |
| Religion | Anglican |
John Cain (19 January 1882 – 4 August 1957) was an Australian politician, who became the 34th premier of Victoria, and was the first Australian Labor Party leader to win a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He is the only premier of Victoria to date whose son has also served as premier.
Cain was born, one of 18 siblings, in Greendale, Victoria, near Bacchus Marsh. His father, Patrick Kane, was an Irish-born Roman Catholic who worked as a small farmer and contractor.
As a young man John Kane changed the spelling of his surname and converted to Anglicanism. He left no personal papers and very little is known about his youth (so little, indeed, that reference works published during his lifetime, and shortly after his death, continued to give the year of his birth as 1887). He had little education, and worked from an early age as a farm labourer. By 1907 he had moved to Melbourne, where he worked as a fruiterer in Northcote.
Around 1910 Cain joined the Victorian Socialist Party (VSP), a Marxist party to the left of the Australian Labor Party (although like most VSP members Cain was probably also an ALP member at the time). In 1915 he became an organiser with the Theatrical Employees' Union, and in 1916 he became a clerk in the Defence Department. He was sacked from this job because of his opposition to conscription for World War I, and became an organiser with the Clothing Trades Union. From 1915 to 1927 he was a Labor member of the Northcote City Council. In 1921 when many VSP members joined the new Communist Party of Australia, Cain broke his connections with the left and became a mainstream Labor politician.
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