In case you don't recognise the first bloke, he was our ninth Prime Minister. James Henry Scullin was born in Trawalla, Victoria to Irish immigrants. As a young man during the 1890s depression years, he worked at any job he could find in mines and on farms. At night and on weekends he studied at evening classes and in public libraries. Scullin joined the Labor Party in 1903. He was a devout Roman Catholic, a non-drinker and a non-smoker all his life.
In 1906 Scullin ran for federal parliament and was defeated. He was elected the member for Corangamite in 1910. After he losing his seat in 1913 Scullin edited the Labour Newspaper the Evening Echo for eight years. In 1922 he won a by-election for the safe Labor seat of Yarra in inner Melbourne, and in 1928 he was elected Labor leader following the resignation of Matthew Charlton.
The conservative government of Stanley Bruce introduced unpopular industrial relations bills. In the 1929 election Scullin campaigned as the defender of the industrial arbitration system and won a landslide victory. Bruce lost his seat in parliament. A week after Scullin was elected on 17 October 1929, the New York stock market crashed and Australia became caught up in the worldwide Great Depression.
