Charles Howroyd

Charles Richard Howroyd (25 February 1867 – 10 May 1917) was an Australian politician. Born in Yorkshire, England, where he was educated, he migrated to Australia in 1887, becoming an agent and stockbroker. A founding member of the Australian Labor Party, he was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly in 1906 for North Launceston, transferring to Bass in 1909. In 1916, he was one of the many ALP members who left the party in the split over conscription, forming the Nationalist Party with the opposition Commonwealth Liberal Party. In 1917, he resigned from the Tasmanian Parliament in order to contest the seat of Darwin in the federal election for the Nationalists. He won the seat, defeating long-serving Labor member King O'Malley, but died five days after polling day, making him the shortest-serving member of the Australian House of Representatives in history. The by-election held to replace him was won by fellow Labor defector William Spence, who had been defeated in an attempt to retain the New South Wales Labor seat of Darling for the Nationalists.