Henry Parkes example essay topic

Henry Parkes was a famous politician and journalist in his lifetime. He was born on the 27th of May 1815 in the village of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, England. His parents were Thomas and Martha Parkes. Henry Parkes was very poor as a child. Falling wheat prices didn't help his mother and father who worked as farmers. They were forced to move to Birmingham.

Henry Parkes never went to school; he educated himself by reading books. He also did a little study at a Mechanics Institute. In July 1836, when he was 21 years old he married his first wife Clarinda Varney. He tried to get work and start a business by becoming a craftsman who worked with bone and ivory but he had no success.

In his panic to find work he also lost 2 of his infant children thus influencing him to sail to Australia and leave their London home. They reached Sydney in July 1839. Sydney life for Parkes was no better than in England. Parkes struggled to find work but to no avail.

He worked in a job as an agricultural labourer for Sir John Jamison near Penrith. Six months later he returned to Sydney after losing his job. He then had no choice but to sell his belongings to survive. He found several small jobs and worked for low wages but they weren't enough to cover all his debts of about 48 500 pounds. (Approx.

$100 000) In 1844 Parkes became interested in politics. His strong opinions brought him in contact with some local democrats. Then four years later he was appointed as a secretary for an electoral campaign for Robert Lowe. In 1849 Henry Parkes led a campaign to stop convicts coming to Australia. First he stopped them arriving in Sydney, but they just sailed on to Queensland. Parkes knew that the fight to stop convicts still had a long way to go.

For the next few years Parkes made speeches to people, he collected signatures from people with the same belief and he wrote articles and letters for different newspapers. Many people agreed with him except for one man, William Charles Wentworth. Parkes had many conflicts with Wentworth. Wentworth was very rich and he was head of the wool industry. He believed that convicts were needed, to work in the wool industry because then they would help Australia become strong and rich. It took many years to settle this matter but finally in 1868 Parkes did it.

He was successful in stopping convicts coming to Australia. After two years he established his first successful newspaper 'The Empire'. Then had enough readers to become a daily paper. The Empire was so popular it even made it's way overseas where eager readers waited for its arrival. Henry Parkes was elected to parliament for the first time in May 1854.

During the next 40 years he was elected premier of New South Wales 5 times. Altogether.