Edwin Corboy
Edwin Wilkie "Ted" Corboy (24 August 1896 – 6 August 1950) was an Australian politician. From 1918 to 2010, he held the record as the youngest ever Australian Member of Parliament. Early life Born in Victoria, he was educated in Western Australia at Perth Boys' School, and enlisted for military service in June 1915, after having previously been rejected. He served at Gallipoli and later in France, where he was wounded twice, first at Pozières and later at Flers, before being invalided to England because of injury to his eyes, the result of a gas attack. On his return to Western Australia in May 1917, he worked as a clerk in the records branch of the Western Australian Lands Department and was an active member of the Labour Party. Political career Federal politics At the age of 21, Corboy unsuccessfully contested the 1917 Subiaco by-election for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia. He was subsequently elected to the Australian House of Representatives in the 1918 by-election for the Division of Swan. He won the by-election in somewhat unusual circumstances, winning the safe Nationalist seat for the Labor Party. The conservative vote was split because two conservative parties,