Shirley Jeffries

Sir Shirley Williams Jeffries (28 February 1886 – 13 September 1963) was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly in three stints over twenty five years and an Australian rules footballer in the South Australian Football League (SAFL).

Born in Crompton, Lancashire to William Jeffries, a Wesleyan minister, and his wife Mercy, née Wibmer, one of three sons and three daughters. The Jeffries family emigrated to Australia in 1890 and settled in South Australia in 1898 where William Jeffries served as President of the South Australian Methodist Conference.

Jeffries attended Prince Alfred College and the University of Adelaide where he graduated with a law degree in 1906, was admitted to the Bar in 1910 and practiced as a lawyer, firstly with Fisher, Jeffries, Brebner & Taylor and later with Fisher, Powers and Jeffries.

A leading athlete in his youth, and standing at 185 cm, Jeffries played Australian rules football for Norwood in 1907, and along with future Premier of South Australia Lionel Hill was a member of the Norwood side that defeated Victorian Football League (VFL) club Carlton to become Champions of Australia. He transferred to Sturt in 1908, where he was considered part of Sturt's "best combination". He was also a leading tennis player who represented the University of Adelaide in intervarsity tennis tournaments.

Jeffries was elected to the City of Mitcham Council and became involved in conservative politics in South Australia, serving as the President of the North Adelaide Men's Branch of the conservative Liberal Union. He gained pre-selection with the Liberal Federation (the successor of the Liberal Union) for the South Australian House of Assembly electorate of North Adelaide at the 1924 election. He was unsuccessful but again won Liberal Federation pre-selection for North Adelaide for the 1927 election, and won the seat for the party for the first time in seventeen years. Jeffries lost his seat at the 1930 election in the wake of the Great Depression but regained it at the subsequent 1933 election.

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