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Sir Henry Parkes, (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896)〔 was an Australian politician and businessman who served as a Premier of New South Wales. He has been referred to as the "Father of Federation", as he was one of the most influential advocates of the Federation of Australia.〔 (【引用サイトリンク】title=Federation. )〕 He served as Premier for five separate occasions from 1872 to 1891. Later in his career, he joined the Free Trade Party; there were no political parties in New South Wales until 1887. He was the primary instigator of a conference in 1890 and a Constitutional Convention in 1891, the first of a series of meetings that led to the federation of Australia. He died in 1896, five years before this process was completed. He was described during his lifetime by ''The Times'' as "the most commanding figure in Australian politics". Alfred Deakin described Parkes as having flaws but nonetheless being "a large-brained self-educated Titan whose natural field was found in Parliament". ==Early life== Parkes was born in Canley (now a suburb of Coventry), in Warwickshire, England, and christened in the nearby village of Stoneleigh. His father, Thomas Parkes, was a small-scale tenant farmer. Little is known about his mother, who died in 1842. He received little schooling, and at an early age was working on a ropewalk for 4 pence a day. His next work was in a brickyard, describing it as "breaking stones on the Queen's highway with hardly enough clothing to protect me from the cold". He was then apprenticed to John Holding, a bone and ivory turner at Birmingham, and around 1832 joined the Birmingham political union. Between then and 1838 he was associated with the political movements that were then endeavouring to better the conditions endured by the working classes. He was steadily educating himself, too, by reading assiduously, including the works of the British poets. In 1835, he addressed some verses, afterwards included in his first volume of poems, to Clarinda Varney, the daughter of a local butler. On 11 July 1836 he married Clarinda Varney and went to live in a single room. Parkes commenced business on his own account in Birmingham and had a bitter struggle to make ends meet.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Henry Parkes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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