Harry Clayton (politician)


Ernest Henry Collet "Harry" Clayton was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

Biography

Clayton was born in Tinana, Queensland, the son of the Rev. John Edward Clayton and his wife Frances Elizabeth. He attended Maryborough Grammar School and upon leaving became a dairy farmer and grew sugarcane.
On 17 March 1915, Booker married Emily Cheyne and together had a son and a daughter. Emily died in 1927 and the next year he married her sister, Gladys Cheyne. He died in December 1946 after a long illness and was buried in the Maryborough Cemetery the same day.

Public life

Clayton started his career in politics by being a councillor on the Tinana Shire Council in 1910. He was also a member of the Burrum Shire Council and the Tiaro Shire Council in the 1910s.
He entered Queensland state politics by winning the seat of Wide Bay at the 1920 state elections, defeating the sitting member, Andrew Thompson. He held the seat for the next 26 years, dying in office in December 1946.