BIO

The name Perry at Norwood is always associated with Charles Perry, winner of the the 1915 Magarey Medal, but his brother Frank also played, recording six games with Charles in 1909. Frank’s football career was brief but he was to become one of Australia’s leading industrialists and a South Australian politician. 

Sir Frank Tennyson Perry was born on 4 February 1887 at Gawler, South Australia, son of Rev. Isaiah Perry, a Wesleyan minister from England, and his South Australian-born wife Caroline Marie Paulina, née Roediger. Educated at public schools and at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide, Frank joined his uncle Samuel Perry's foundry business in 1903. Perry later became chairman and managing director of the firm which was registered as as Perry Engineering Co. Ltd in 1937. 

Perry was elected to the House of Assembly as a Liberal and Country League candidate in April 1933 and he represented East Torrens until February 1938.  

During the World War II at the invitation of another Norwood past player, Essington Lewis, Perry became honorary chairman (1940-45) of the Board of Area Management for South Australia devoting his time to wartime industrial production in the State.   

Perry Engineering with its range of mechanical and structural engineering activity, had expanded through wartime production and the acquisition of low-cost munitions factory areas to emerge as one of the largest firms in Australia.  

In 1951 he was appointed M.B.E. and was knighted in 1955. Elected to the Legislative Council in 1947,  he remained in that House until October 1965.  

Frank Perry died on 20 October 1965 at his Leabrook home.
 
Reference
Susan Marsden, 'Perry, Sir Frank Tennyson (1887–1965)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,  http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/perry-sir-frank-tennyson-11375/text20323, accessed 16 August 2013.

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