Joseph Alexander Lawson (27 July 1893 – 14 August 1973) was an Australian politician, elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
He left school one or two years later (aged about 9), to work on the family farm, but he was an avid reader, with a great love of the Australian poets, Dickens, Burns and many other writers.
In his early twenties, he bought a mixed farming property, Oakwood, about 6 miles south of Deniliquin.
He volunteered for the First AIF in 1915, but despite his fitness he was not accepted, because he had flat feet and two fingers on his left hand joined by a piece of skin.
[1] The big issues in the 1930s were the plight of farmers in the Great Depression, particularly soldier-settlers, and the need for development of farming land, in particular through irrigation.
The House listened with intense interest to this man from the land as he related from personal knowledge and with much feeling, the plight of the farmers".
[4] In 1967, he lost the Country Party pre-selection in questionable circumstances, but ran as an Independent, winning the seat at the 1968 and 1971 elections.