John Clasby

John Clasby
Member of the Australian Parliament for East Sydney
In office 19 December 1931 – 15 January 1932
Preceded by	Eddie Ward
Succeeded by	Eddie Ward
Personal details
Born	1891 Warragul, Victoria
Died	15 January 1932 (aged 40–41)
Nationality	Australian
Political party	United Australia Party
Occupation	Lecturer

John Joseph Clasby (1891 – 15 January 1932) was an Australian politician.

Clasby was born in Warragul, Victoria. He served in World War I from 1914 with the Light Horse and later with the Artillery in Egypt and in France, but returned to Australia in September 1917 after being wounded and gassed. He became a commercial traveller and lecturer on his return, and was a prominent member of the Commercial Travellers' Club and vice-president of the Paddington-Woollahra branch of the Returned and Services League. In 1930, he had been a prominent opponent of the "no-license" campaign, which had attempted to prohibit alcohol sales in Victoria.

In 1931, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the United Australia Party member for East Sydney, defeating the sitting MP, Eddie Ward of the Lang Labor party. While this seat was ancestrally a Labor seat, vote-splitting between Ward and the official Labor candidate allowed Clasby to win when just over half of the official Labor candidate's preferences flowed to him. Clasby's health suffered from the strenuous election campaign, having never fully recovered from his war injuries, and he died just a month later, before he took his seat in the House, at the age of only 38. A by-election was held in February 1932, which Ward won. Clasby was buried at South Head Cemetery.

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