The Hon. Bill Grayden AM 1920-2026

After heroic campaigning in Syria, Kokoda and Borneo in WWII, Bill Grayden set a record for campaigning and Parliamentary service, playing a major role in the Liberal state and federal victories in 1947/49 and as a stalwart MLA for South Perth for a further 37 years. 

Bill Grayden was born on 5^th August 1920, son of a Gallipoli veteran and a grandson of Nat Harper, mine manager, leading businessman and a Liberal MLA 1910-14.  After living in Victoria with his mother and stepfather he returned to Perth in 1938, worked as a mechanical engineer and enlisted in the 2/16 battalion AIF in 1940 and soon graduated as a Lieutenant. 

The 2/16^th contributed to the defeat of the Vichy French in Syria in 1941-42 before returning home to be deployed on the Kokoda Track in three weeks of savage fighting in August 1942.  Bill was in the thick of combat, narrowly escaping death, was promoted to Captain in the Ramu-Markham Valley campaign in 1943-44 and fought at the Balikpapan landings in July 1945.  Responsible for repatriating Japanese prisoners from Celebes, he was not discharged until February 1946.

Back in Perth Bill Grayden worked as a freelance journalist, active in the newly formed Liberal Party.  At the September 1946 federal election, he ran a shoestring campaign as a liberal Independent in Swan, then a rural seat extending into the eastern suburbs.  He polled 23.2% with his preferences enabling the Country Party to unseat the Labor MHR.  Bill then became the endorsed Liberal for the state seat of Middle Swan, that included Bayswater, Greenmount and Belmont.  In the 1947 state election he captured the seat by 51 votes, the youngest WA MLA aged 27, securing the majority for the incoming McLarty Liberal-Country government.

By the 1949 federal election, Swan had been redistributed as a suburban seat reaching from South Perth to Midland and Bayswater, with a large notional Labor majority.  With his state term about to expire, Bill contested Swan, gaining a swing of 11.0% and a majority of 52.4% that was well above the corresponding Liberal Senate vote.  This made Bill a ’49-er’ in the new Menzies Government.  He held Swan with a further swing in 1951 but lost narrowly in 1954.

Bill Grayden turned his attention to the state seat of South Perth, whose Liberal MLA was set to retire at the 1956 election.  The selection had been sewn up for a mediocre branch secretary and Bill stood as an Independent Liberal, finishing ahead of the endorsed Liberal to defeat the ALP.  In 1959 he was re-elected as an Independent while strongly supporting the newly elected Brand Coalition government and was soon invited to rejoin the Liberal Party.

He comfortably retained South Perth in 10 further elections until his retirement in 1993.  On the election of Sir Charles Court’s government in 1974 he became Minister for Labour and Industry, Consumer Affairs and Immigration until 1978, overseeing the legislation abolishing compulsory unionism.  He was Minister for Education in 1980-82.  Forceful and passionate in debate, from 1986 until 1993 he was Father of the Legislative Assembly.  Altogether he fought and won 13 State elections and two of four very tough Federal elections.

In retirement Bill Grayden remained active in his local community and was an honoured and prominent WWII veteran, awarded the AM in 2014.  His 95^th birthday was celebrated by the Liberal Party in 2015 where he delivered an eloquent response.  In August 2020 his 100^th birthday was celebrated by a Parliamentary debate, after which he was invited onto the floor of the Legislative Assembly.  In 2023 he became a Life Member of the Liberal Party.

Bill had a deep and practical sympathy for Aboriginal people in an era when they were both neglected and harassed by government policy, championing them as constituents in his first speech and actively investigating the plight of remote communities in the mid-1950s.

Bill Grayden and Betsy Chadwick enjoyed a happy marriage from 1948 until her death in 2007, living with young children in a Canberra hotel for the length of federal parliamentary sessions in the early 1950s.  The marriage produced five sons and five daughters, 36 grandchildren and 50 great-grandchildren.  To them we express our condolences and thanks for an exemplary life dedicated to service: to our nation, to wartime comrades, to the State and Federal Parliaments, and to the Liberal Party – always a loyal Liberal, even when unendorsed.

Thank you Bill!