Lionel Hill

Who was Lionel Hill?

Lionel Laughton Hill was the thirtieth Premier of South Australia.

Born in Adelaide, South Australia but raised on a farm near Maitland, Hill left school aged 12 to work on the South Australian government railways, where he first became involved in the labour movement. This led to his appointment as the secretary-treasurer of the Boilermakers' Assistants' Union in 1901, a position he held until 1914. Hill was also able to combine his work with a distinguished Australian rules footballing career, starring for Norwood Football Club in the South Australian National Football League in the first years of the twentieth century and representing South Australia.

After marrying in 1908, Hill further increased his stature in the labour movement in 1910 by becoming secretary of the South Australian branch of the Australian Tramway Employees' Association and its federal president in 1912. Hill then gained Australian Labor Party pre-selection for the South Australian House of Assembly Electoral district of East Torrens, which he duly won at the 1915 election.