The Australian statesman Joseph Aloysius Lyons (1879-1939) was a Labour stalwart in Tasmania and later moved to the federal sphere just as the Depression took hold. As leader of the new United Australia party, he served as prime minister from 1932 to 1939.

The son of a farmer, Joseph Lyons was born in Stanley, Tasmania, on Sept. 15, 1879. At 17 he qualified as a teacher with the education department. He was an active advocate of educational reform, and in 1907 he resigned from his post to run for Tasmania's State Assembly as a Labour candidate dedicated to improvement of school facilities and the establishment of high schools.

In 1914 Lyons became minister for railways, minister for education, and state treasurer. Opposed to the raising of conscript forces for overseas service, he remained faithful to the Labour party when the state premier broke away to side with William Morris Hughes in 1915, and he moved up...