Graham Berry - Later Years

Later Years

In 1886 Berry resigned from Parliament and was appointed Victorian Agent-General in London, then an important and prestigious post. He was lionised as a liberal hero in London, and made a KCMG, becoming Sir Graham Berry. Although he was now 70, he was not yet done with politics. Returning to Melbourne in 1892, just as the great post Gold Rush economic boom was collapsing and the colony entering a severe depression, he was elected for East Bourke Boroughs at the May 1892 elections. He was Treasurer in William Shiels's Liberal government, but the days of reforming liberalism in Victoria were over for the time being and he resigned in January 1893. In October 1894 he was elected Speaker, a post he held until 1897, when he finally retired.

Berry was granted a pension by the Parliament, and devoted the remainder of his life to supporting the cause of Australian Federation. In 1897 he was elected a Victorian delegate to the Constitutional Convention which drafted the Australian Constitution, mainly because of the support of The Age. At 75, however, he was too frail to contribute much except his prestige as one of the country's liberal heroes. He retired to the seaside with his enormous family, and died at St Kilda in 1904. He was given a state funeral and eulogised by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin.

The Age editorialised on Berry's death: "Sir Graham Berry had ten years of such storms as might well have daunted one less resolute. But he lived to see the triumph of almost all the great reforms he had fought for." This was not strictly true, since the conservative domination of the Legislative Council lasted unbroken for nearly a century after his death, but Berry certainly deserved to be remembered as the most determined liberal politician in 19th century Victoria.