Frank Welsh (politician)

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Frank Robert Welsh (12 April 1871 – 28 December 1959) was an Australian politician from Western Australia. He served in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the Pilbara seat from 1933 to 1939, and then in the Legislative Council representing North Province from 1940 to 1954. He was a member of the Nationalist Party, which merged into the Liberal Party in 1945.

Welsh was born in Loganholme, Queensland, to William Charles Welsh, a sugar manufacturer and auctioneer, and Jane Porter. He moved to Western Australia in 1891. On 4 November 1903 he married Amy Hancock at Warralong Station near Marble Bar, where he had an financial interest and later became a managing partner. They had two sons and a daughter.

In the 1933 state election, he won the Labor-held Pilbara seat with a 12% swing, even though his party was a minor force in Parliament. He increased his margin in 1936 but was defeated in 1939 by Labor’s Bill Hegney. He then won a North Province seat in the Legislative Council in 1940 and held it for 14 years.

Welsh died on 28 December 1959 in Kalamunda and was buried in Karrakatta Cemetery.