Mat Reid
Early life
Reid was born on 30 September 1856 in Dalmellington, Scotland. He was raised by his unmarried mother Elizabeth Reid and the identity of his father is not known.
Few details of Reid's education and early life are known. He served an apprenticeship as a carpenter in Glasgow and later worked as a carpenter in London where he was a member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners. He was also active in the Social Democratic Federation. Reid immigrated to Australia in 1887, intending to take up a selection. He instead continued in his trade in Brisbane and became involved with the local labour movement.
Queensland politics
Reid was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly at the 1893 general election, winning the seat of Toowong. He was defeated after a single term at the 1896 election. In parliament, Reid advocated a parliamentary conciliation during the 1894 shearer's strike and "campaigned for the unemployed, conciliation boards, public access to agricultural land, and educational opportunity".
Reid was an influential figure in the organisational wing of the Labor Party. He was elected president of the central political executive in 1905 and in the same year's Labor-in-Politics Convention engineered the adoption of the socialist objective as a key plank of the party's platform. Reid led opposition within the party to the parliamentary leader William Kidston's attempts to secure a coalition with non-Labor MPs. The Kidstonites left the party in 1907, with Reid denouncing Kidston as a reactionary and in turn being labelled "the high priest of the extremist camp". According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Reid was known for his "powerful, perhaps ruthless, extra-parliamentary rule on Labor's political executive". The party split decreased his power and he resigned from the executive in 1909 in protest at its decision to endorse Joe Lesina as a parliamentary candidate.
Personal life
In 1879, Reid married Mary Smart. He died on 28 August 1947 at his home in Toowong, Queensland, aged 90. He was survived by two daughters and one son.
Reid was a prominent Theosophist. He joined the Theosophical Society in 1908 and remained a member for the rest of his life, leaving a bequest to the society's Brisbane branch. He gave public lectures on Theosophy and was influenced by Annie Besant, teaching a class on her Study in Consciousness and helping facilitate her entry into Australia in 1922.
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