John Cain

John Cain (19 January 1882 – 4 August 1957) was an Australian politician, who became the 34th premier of Victoria, and was the first Labor Party leader to win a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He is the only premier of Victoria to date whose son has also served as premier. Early life Cain was born, oldest of 13 siblings, in Greendale, Victoria, near Bacchus Marsh. His father, Patrick Cane, was an Irish-born Roman Catholic who worked as a small farmer and contractor. His birth (number 3094 of 1882) was registered as John Caine, son of Patrick Caine and Julia Brannen at Greendale. His siblings were variously registered with the surnames Cane and Cain. (n.b. unusual mis-spelling of his mother's surname) John Caine changed the spelling of his surname and converted to Anglicanism. He left no personal papers and very little is known about his youth (so little, indeed, that reference works published during his lifetime, and shortly after his death, continued to give the year of his birth as 1887). He had little education, and worked from an early age as a farm labourer in the Goulburn Valley. By 1907 he had moved to Melbourne, where he worked as a fruiterer in Northcote. Political career Around 1910 Cain joined the Victorian Socialist Party (VSP), a Marxist party to the left of the Labor Party (although like most VSP members Cain was probably also an ALP member at the time). In 1915 he became an organiser with the Theatrical Employees' Union, and in 1916 he became a clerk in the Defence Department. He was sacked from this job because of his opposition to conscription for World War I, and became an organiser with the Clothing Trades Union. From 1915 to 1927 he was a Labor member of the Northcote City Council. In 1921 when many VSP members joined the new Communist Party of Australia, Cain broke his connections with the party and became a mainstream Labor politician.