Researching George Black

In the 1911 federal election he was H.H. Stevens' campaign manager, and was rewarded by the government of Robert Laird Borden by being appointed to the position of Commissioner of the Yukon. As the commissioner from 1912 to 1915, he tried to bring in legislation to protect miners, loggers and others who worked for companies that went bankrupt.

During World War I, Black recruited a regiment from the Yukon to fight in the war. He became the company's Captain, and was later wounded in combat at the Battle of Amiens.

Following the war, he settled in British Columbia in 1919, and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

He first won a seat in Parliament in the 1921 election as a Conservative, representing Yukon. As a Member of Parliament (MP), he introduced legislation to give Yukoners the right to trial by jury and to protect mining titles.

After the Tories won the 1930 election, the new Prime Minister of Canada, R.B. Bennett, nominated Black to be Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada. As Speaker, he kept a .22 caliber pistol in his chambers which he used to shoot rabbits on Parliament Hill. Black's personal and financial life were strained during the Great Depression and he had a nervous breakdown. He was committed to the Westminster Veterans Hospital in London, Ontario for 6 months. Being unavailable to preside over the final session of the 17th Parliament, he resigned prior to its commencement in January 1935. Since Black was unfit to run in the 1935 election his wife, Martha Black, ran in his place as an "Independent Conservative". She held the seat, becoming the second woman elected to the House of Commons (the first being Agnes Macphail), and the first American-born woman to do so.

Black was released from hospital in July 1935, and moved to Vancouver to recuperate. Martha stepped aside, and allowed Black to run for the Yukon seat in the 1940 election. In the 1945 election the Liberal riding association was concerned that Communist union organizer Tom McEwen of the Labor-Progressive Party could win the election and opted not to run a candidate in Yukon riding and instead supported Black against the Communists and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. The local unions supported McEwen and the LPP's platform of support for collective bargaining, family allowance, old age pensions, workers’ compensation and equality for "Indians and Eskimos." Black campaigned on a more left wing platform, promising collective bargaining, minimum wages, maximum-hour and minimum-age laws, paid holidays, unemployment insurance and labour representation on government boards and defeated McEwan by a margin of 162 votes. He remained in Parliament until the 1949 election, which he did not contest. He attempted to recapture his seat in the 1953 election but was unsuccessful.

He was born in Edinburgh to messenger-at-arms George Stevenson Black and Isabella Muir. He was educated at Leith and attended the University of Edinburgh, studying arts and medicine but never graduating. He emigrated to Victoria in 1877, moving to New South Wales in 1878. From 1877 he lived with Georgina Duggan; they were never married but had twelve children. Black undertook a variety of jobs, eventually becoming a journalist with the Bulletin from 1889 to 1891 and editor of the Australian Workman from 1891 to 1892. In 1891 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for West Sydney, one of the first group of Labour MLAs. In 1894 he was elected to Sydney-Gipps as an independent Labour member, having fallen out with the party over the introduction of the pledge, but he had rejoined by 1895 after changes were made to the pledge. On 21 June 1894 he had married Rosielinn Clarkson. He was defeated in 1898 and returned to journalism, editing the Sydney Worker, the Radical and the Bathurst National Advocate. He returned to parliament in 1910 as the member for Namoi and was promoted to the front bench as Minister for Agriculture (February to March 1915), Colonial Secretary (1915–1916) and Minister for Public Health (1915–1916). Expelled from the Labor Party over conscription in 1916, he was defeated as an Independent Labor candidate in 1917. He was then appointed by the Nationalist Party to the New South Wales Legislative Council, where he served from 1917 to 1934.

He married Priscilla Verne Kelly on 11 April 1928; they had four children. Black died at Lidcombe in 1936.