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Holman ministry (1913–1916)

First New South Wales government ministry led by William Holman

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 14, 2025
Entity authorityQ17006900 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Holman ministry (1913 – 1916), first Holman ministry or Holman Labor ministry was the 35th ministry of the New South Wales Government, and was led by the 19th Premier, William Holman.

Holman was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1898, serving until 1920, before being elected to the Australian House of Representatives. Holman, as Deputy Leader, had been acting premier from 15 March to 4 September 1911 while Premier James McGowen was overseas. Holman had been absent from the State from 27 December 1912 until 6 June 1913. When Holman returned, McGowen resigned due to his health and misjudgment in attempting to settle a gasworkers strike. Holman was elected leader of the Labor Party and was commissioned to form government by Sir Gerald Strickland, Governor of New South Wales.

At the Easter 1916 NSW Labor Conference, the Holman government was censured "for refusing to endeavour to carry out and give effect to the first plank of the Labour platform - abolition of the Upper

House". Holman resigned the Labor leadership but not the premiership or his seat. John Storey was elected leader, however on the same day a motion of confidence in the Holman government was passed and Holman restored as leader.

The ministry covers the period from 30 June 1913 until 15 November 1916.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Holman ministry (1913–1916)” is first New South Wales government ministry led by William Holman. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Holman, ministry and First, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful synthesis for locating the documentary relationships between formal authority, participants and affected communities. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1913, 1916, 1898, 1920—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1913-06-30. For this dossier, Holman, ministry and First is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “first New South Wales government ministry led by William Holman” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q17006900. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1916, 1898 and 1920.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Holman ministry (1913–1916)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Holman ministry (1913–1916) primary sources, Holman ministry (1913–1916) archive and Holman research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Holman ministry (1913–1916)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.