Edward Craigie

Edward John Craigie (5 September 1871 – 17 January 1966) was a Single Tax League member for the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Flinders from 1930 to 1941.

[1] Born and raised in Moonta, South Australia, the son of Scottish parents, Craigie left school aged 11, initially working as an office boy before stints as a baker and butcher in Adelaide.

Described as "a small, mild and rather insignificant man", Craigie spent his time in parliament advocating, to the exclusion of all other issues, single tax theory, was considered by many to be a colossal bore and his speeches, usually long, were generally very dull.

He had however been elected President of the International Union of Single Taxers in 1939 and continued in this role as well as League Secretary, until his retirement in 1948, thereafter remaining trustee of the Henry George Foundation (Australia).

As one commentator noted after his death "He would have been an influential contributor to William Ewart Gladstone's last ministry; he was out of time and place in South Australia."