Sir Edmund Barton was Australia's first prime minister. In 1865 he matriculated at the University of Sydney, graduated B.A. in 1868 and M. A. in 1870. He began working for solicitor Henry Bradley and then with barrister G. C. Davies, and in 1871 he was admitted to the Bar. In 1880 he was elected member for Wellington, won East Sydney in 1882 and was nominated to the Upper House in 1887.
He believed in Australia's destiny as a nation and strongly supported Federation. By March 1897 he had become 'the acknowledged leader of the federal movement', his prestige vastly increased by 'years of patient advocacy'. He was the first of forty-nine candidates elected to the Australasian Federal Convention, and on 22 March in Adelaide Barton was elected leader (and later chairman) of the drafting and constitutional committees. On 22 July 1898 Barton resigned from the council to stand against Reid in the general election. He was narrowly defeated, but in September won a by-election for the Hastings and Macleay assembly seat and was immediately elected leader of the Opposition.
On 29 June 1899 the draft constitution bill was approved. In August it seemed likely that Reid would be defeated in the House. Barton resigned as leader of the Opposition as, unacceptable to the Labor Party, he could not form a government. Barton resigned from parliament in February 1900, but in September he contacted the Colonial Office about details of the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia. It was widely believed that he would be first prime minister.
It came as a shock when on 19 December 1900 the governor-general asked Lyne to form the first Commonwealth ministry. Barton refused to serve as attorney-general and when, after frantic efforts by Deakin, Lyne failed to form a ministry, Barton was commissioned to do so. On Christmas Day he named his cabinet, with himself as Prime Minister and Minister of External Affairs. It was fitting that Australia's first Prime Minister was native-born. The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed on 1 January 1901. By 1903 parliament was proving difficult to manage. On 23 September 1903 Barton resigned and a few days later became senior puisne judge of the High Court.
In 1920, Barton died suddenly of heart failure and after a state funeral service at St Andrew's Cathedral, was buried in the Church of England section of South Head cemetery. He was survived by his wife, four sons and two daughters.
