[1] Troy's father died when he was very young, and his mother subsequently moved her ten children to the nearby town of Wardell, where she ran a store.
[1] Troy quickly rose to become secretary of the Murchison district AWA branch, succeeding John Holman (who had entered parliament).
A resident of Cue at the time of his nomination, his only opponent was a mine manager from the Mount Magnet townsite, who was a Ministerialist (a supporter of the government of Walter James).
[5] When parliament first met after the election, in August, he was appointed assistant secretary to Frederick Gill for the Labor Party, a position which broadly entailed the duties of a whip.
[10][11] Labor, now under the leadership of John Scaddan, won majority government for the first time in 1911, and put forward Troy as their candidate for speaker, who was elected unanimously.
[12] The first speaker from the Labor Party,[a] Troy was only 34 when he assumed the speakership, making him, according to a later source, "the youngest member of any Australian parliament to hold that office".