He operated his own men's and boys' drapery store for many years, moving through several sites in Deloraine until converting the town's delicensed Railway Hotel into a new store in 1940.

He unsuccessfully stood for parliament three times - two state and one federal - prior to his eventual election.

[1][2][3][4][5][6] In 1939, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives in a by-election for the United Australia Party-held seat of Wilmot (caused by the death of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons); Spurr contested the seat for the Labor Party and defeated three UAP candidates (including former MPs Donald Charles Cameron and Allan Guy) to narrowly take the seat.

[1] The following year he was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly, and he served as Speaker from 1950 to 1955, retiring from politics in 1956.

This article about an Australian Labor Party member of the House of Representatives is a stub.