(1815 -1896)

Henry Parkes was born in England in 1815, to parents Martha and Thomas Parkes, the youngest of seven children. Thomas Parkes was forced off his land by debt, so the family moved to Birmingham in 1823 where Parkes was apprenticed to a bone and ivory turner. He tried to set up a business of his own, but it failed and Parkes went to London, leaving for Sydney in 1839 with his wife Clarinda.

Upon arrival in Sydney Parkes worked for a time as an agricultural labourer, before joining the Customs Department in 1840. Five years later he set up an ivory turning business on Hunter Street, while at the same time writing the occasional verse and article for the local press. His shop was soon a meeting place for the radicals of Sydney to meet, and soon Parkes himself became interested in politics.

In 1848 he was elected to an artisan's committee which ensured the election of Robert Lowe to the NSW Legislative Council. In 1850 he founded and ran The Empire, a newspaper for liberal ideology, until 1858. Parkes himself won a seat on the legislative council in 1854, and became a powerful and influential political figure in the responsible self government era that was to follow in the mid 1800s.

For most of the forty years of his life he was a member of the legislative council, achieved ministerial office in 1866, was elected premier in 1872 and served five times in that position for a total of 15 years.

During the 1860s he commenced reforms in the prison system, in hospitals and mental institutions, and he helped to establish the State's public education system with reforms passed in 1866 and 1880. During the 1880s he sponsored reforms of transport systems.

Parkes is often referred to as the "Father of Federation", and although he died long before Australia became a Commonwealth country the seeds for change were sown by him. He was appointed KCMG in 1877, and GCMG in 1888 before dying in 1896 in Sydney. He was buried in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains.

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