Researching Herbert Swan

The son of Herbert Swan, he was educated in Demaine, at the Saskatoon Technical Institute and Success Business College. Swan was a farmer and operated a grain seed business. In 1949, he married Anita Syroishka. Swan served on the local school board and was president of the Saskatchewan School Trustees' Association from 1976 to 1978. He served in the provincial cabinet as Minister of the Environment from 1986 to 1987 and as Minister of the Environment and Public Safety from 1987 to 1989. Swan retired from politics in 1991. He was later a resident of Beechy, Saskatchewan, and died in Saskatoon in 2013.

Swan was born in Dapto, New South Wales (near Wollongong), to Elizabeth (née Graham) and William Henry Swan. He came to Western Australia in 1896 and found work as an engineer for Western Australian Government Railways, having previously worked in a similar position in New South Wales. He was a founder of a local railway trade union, the Amalgamated Railway Employees' Association, and served as its president from 1905 to 1908. Swan entered parliament at the 1908 state election, defeating James Brebber. He was re-elected at the 1911 election, but at the 1914 election was defeated by James MacCallum Smith, the Liberal Party's candidate (and a well-known newspaper proprietor). Swan attempted to reclaim his seat from Smith at the 1921 election, but was unsuccessful. He died in Perth in June 1949, aged 79. He had married twice, to Mary Ann Cowless in 1897. He was married for a second time to Minnie Waugh in 1913 in Narrogin WA. Minnie and Herbert had three children, Jessie Eleanor, Sheila Bernadette, Raymond Herbert Graham Swan. Minnie died in Narrogin in 1919 from pneumonic influenza.