Henry Bailey (Australian politician)

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Henry Stephen Bailey (9 September 1876 – 26 July 1962) was an Australian politician in Victoria. Born in Ballarat East, he was the son of a stoker and trained as a law clerk. He served in the Second Boer War in 1902 as a lieutenant with the Australian Commonwealth Horse. After the war he moved to Port Fairy in 1903 to work in business.

In Port Fairy he became involved in local politics. He was a councillor from 1906 to 1915 and served as mayor in 1912–13. He married Blanche Mary Nicholson in 1902; she died in 1914 after giving birth to twins. He remarried Elizabeth Gibson in 1928 and had four more children.

Bailey joined the Australian Labor Party and was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1914 as the member for Port Fairy. When Port Fairy was abolished in 1927, he moved to the seat of Warrnambool. He served as Minister for Lands and Water Supply in 1924, 1927–28, and 1929–32.

During the 1931–32 Labor split, Bailey backed Premier Edmond Hogan and was expelled from the Labor Party in 1932. He ran as an independent Labor candidate in the 1932 election but was defeated. Afterward he joined the Country Party in 1934.

Bailey was re-elected for Warrnambool in 1935 and held several Victorian cabinet roles: Minister Without Portfolio (1935–36), Minister of Labour (1936), Chief Secretary (1936–43), and Attorney-General (1938–43) in the Dunstan government. He briefly pursued federal politics in 1948 but lost in 1950.

Later he served as a trustee of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He died in St Kilda in 1962 and was buried at St Kilda Cemetery.