John Teasdale

Who was John Teasdale?

Sir John Smith Teasdale CBE was an Australian wheat farmer and administrator.

Teasdale was born at Alston, Cumbria, England to stonemason James Teasdale and Jane, née Maughan. He worked as a grain merchant before his migration to Western Australia in 1911, where he and a number of his brothers settled to farm in the Bruce Rock area. Although the Teasdales' initial efforts were devastated by a 1914 drought, John connected with the local farming community to canvass ways of improving drought resistance. Becoming more involved in the farming community, Teasdale was an executive member of the Farmers' and Settlers' Association in 1916 and in 1922 helped found the Wheat Pool of Western Australia, touring Great Britain and the United States to gather information on farming methods. He married Luita Christina Waldeck on 22 August 1929 in Perth.

Teasdale, a Country Party member, successfully lobbied for the 1930 Farmers' Debts Adjustment Act; from 1932 to 1940 he was President of the Primary Producers' Association of Western Australia.