Bob Joshua

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Australian politician (1906–1970)

title: "Bob Joshua" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1906-births", "1970-deaths", "australian-labor-party-members-of-the-parliament-of-australia", "converts-to-anglicanism", "democratic-labour-party-members-of-the-parliament-of-australia", "members-of-the-australian-house-of-representatives-for-ballarat", "members-of-the-australian-house-of-representatives", "politicians-from-melbourne", "deaths-from-cancer-in-victoria-(state)", "australian-army-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "australian-colonels", "people-from-prahran,-victoria", "military-personnel-from-melbourne", "australian-mps-1951–1954", "australian-mps-1954–1955"] description: "Australian politician (1906–1970)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Joshua" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian politician (1906–1970) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Bob Joshua
honorific-suffix	MC
image	Bob_Joshua.png
office1	Leader of the Democratic Labor Party
term_start1	7 April 1955
term_end1	8 May 1956
predecessor1	party established
successor1	George Cole
constituency_MP2	Ballaarat
parliament2	Australian
predecessor2	Alan Pittard
successor2	Dudley Erwin
term_start2	28 April 1951
term_end2	10 December 1955
birth_date
birth_place	Prahran, Victoria, Australia
death_date
death_place	Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
nationality	Australian
spouse	Alma Agnes Watson (m. 1929); 6 children
party	Labor (1951–55)
Labor (A-C) (1955)
occupation	Motor mechanic, soldier
allegiance	Australia
branch	Citizens Military Force
Second Australian Imperial Force
serviceyears	1924–1930
1936–1946
rank	Lieutenant Colonel
commands	2/43rd Battalion (1943–44)
mawards	Military Cross
::

Second World War
- North African campaign
  - Siege of Tobruk
- New Guinea campaign
  - Salamaua–Lae campaign
  - Battle of Finschhafen | mawards = Military Cross

Robert Joshua, MC (6 June 1906 – 2 June 1970) was an Australian politician, and a key figure in the 1955 split in the Australian Labor Party which led to the formation of the Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) and, subsequently, the Democratic Labor Party.

Early life

Joshua was born on 6 June 1906 in Prahran, Victoria. He was the son of Mary Inglis () and Edward Cecil Joshua.

Joshua attended Caulfield State School and Wesley College, was briefly a motor mechanic, and became a teller at the Bank of Australasia. He married schoolteacher Alma Agnes Watson at Glen Iris on 27 November 1929.

Military service

Joshua served in the Citizens Military Force from 1924 to 1930 and from 1936 to 1940, rising to the rank of captain. Subsequently, he joined the Australian Imperial Force in 1940 and was posted to the Middle East. He led a successful raid during the defence of Tobruk in Libya, and was awarded the Military Cross. Promoted from major to lieutenant colonel in 1942, he commanded the 2/43rd Battalion, which fought around Lae and Finschafen in New Guinea. He was twice wounded in action.

Federal politics

Upon returning to civilian life, Joshua began to reshape his previously conservative political views. He became drawn to the Australian Labor Party, and became president of the Ballarat branch. In 1951, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Ballaarat. He was known as a fierce anti-communist.

In 1955, Joshua, together with six other federal parliamentarians, was expelled from the Labor Party. Together, they formed the Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist), later the Democratic Labor Party. Joshua cited his "distrust" and "sympathy with Communist ideas" of Labor leader H.V. Evatt as reasons for his disenchantment with the ALP. Joshua became the leader of the new party in the federal parliament. He would also become the first federal president of the DLP.

He was one of only two non-Catholic parliamentary members in the new party, the other being Jack Little, who became leader of the party in the Victorian Legislative Council. Joshua's religious affiliation had been described at school as being "theist", although his background and views were described as "resist[ing] easy classification"; he eventually became an Anglican. He denied any connection with B. A. Santamaria.

Together with all of the other Anti-Communist members, Joshua was defeated at the 1955 election, having declined an offer from Prime Minister Robert Menzies not to run a Liberal candidate in his seat. Following his defeat, he became an accountant and stockbroker at Ballarat and continued to contest Ballarat as a DLP candidate until 1969.

Death

Joshua died of cancer on 2 June 1970 at Ballarat, four days before his 64th birthday, survived by his wife, son and five daughters. He had continued working until a few days before his death, when he notified his doctors: "I'm dying – what are you going to do about it?"

References

"Saul Joshua (1842–1918)". Obituaries Australia.
Browne, Geoff. (1996). "Joshua, Robert (1906–1970)".
(1955). "Australian Political Chronicle, January–June 1955". Australian Journal of Politics and History.

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