George Henry Wise was an Australian politician and solicitor.

Wise was born in Melbourne and educated at Scotch College

Scotch College, Melbourne

Scotch College, Melbourne is an independent, Presbyterian, day and boarding school for boys, located in Hawthorn, an inner-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....

 from five years of age to he matriculated in 1868. He became an articled clerk and was admitted to the bar in September 1874 and set up his own practice in 1877 in Sale

Sale, Victoria

Sale is a city in the Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. It is the seat of the Shire of Wellington as well as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sale and the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland. It has a population of around 13,336, and is expected to reach a population of 14,000 soon...

. He was elected as a member of Sale Borough Council

City of Sale

The City of Sale was a Local Government Area located about east of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The City covered an area of , and existed from 1863 until 1994.-History:...

 from 1880 to 1904 and was mayor six times. He married Mary Thornton, née Smith in 1880. He established the Sale branch of the Australian Natives Association

Australian Natives Association

The Australian Natives' Association , a mutual society was founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. The Association played a leading role in the movement for Australian federation in the last 20 years of the 19th century. In 1900 it had a membership of 17,000, mainly in Victoria.The ANA...

 (ANA) in 1886 and became president of the Victorian branch of the ANA in 1891.

Political career

Wise was a strong supporter of the federation of Australia

Federation of Australia

The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...

 and stood unsuccessfully in 1892, 1894 and 1904 for election to the Victorian Legislative Assembly

Victorian Legislative Assembly

The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria in Australia. Together with the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house, it sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Melbourne.-History:...

. He also failed to be elected to the Australian Senate

Australian Senate

The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...

 in the 1901 elections  and 1903 elections, but won the House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 seat of Gippsland

Division of Gippsland

The Division of Gippsland is anAustralian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for the Gippsland region of eastern Victoria, which in turn is named for Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales...

 in 1906 elections by 97 votes from Allan McLean

Allan McLean (Australian politician)

Allan McLean was an Australian politician, the 19th Premier of Victoria.McLean was born in the highlands of Scotland and came to Australia as a child in 1842 with his family. He later said 'were practically frozen out of Scotland' by 'an exceptionally severe winter'...

 as a Protectionist

Protectionist Party

The Protectionist Party was an Australian political party, formally organised from 1889 until 1909, with policies centred on protectionism. It argued that Australia needed protective tariffs to allow Australian industry to grow and provide employment. It had its greatest strength in Victoria and in...

. He could not accept the creation of the Fusion

Commonwealth Liberal Party

The Commonwealth Liberal Party was a political movement active in Australia from 1909 to 1916, shortly after federation....

 in 1909 and stood as an independent in 1910

Australian federal election, 1910

Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 April 1910. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

 and gained 62 percent of the vote against the Commonwealth Liberal Party (Fusion) candidate. He subsequently often supported the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

, but did not join it. The Liberal Party candidate, James Bennett

James Bennett (Australian politician)

James Bennett was an Australian politician. He was the Commonwealth Liberal Party member for the House of Representatives seat of Gippsland from his defeat of George Wise at the 1913 election until his defeat by Wise at the 1914 election. He was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne.-Notes:...

 beat him at the 1913 elections

Australian federal election, 1913

Federal elections were held in Australia on 31 May 1913. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia Andrew Fisher was defeated by the opposition Commonwealth Liberal...

, but he won Gippsland back in 1914

Australian federal election, 1914

Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 September 1914. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 36 seats in the Senate were up for election in a double dissolution...

.

Wise won the 1917 election

Australian federal election, 1917

Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 May 1917. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

 easily as a Nationalist

Nationalist Party of Australia

The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

. Billy Hughes

Billy Hughes

William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....

 appointed him as an honorary minister, assisting the Minister for Defence

Minister for Defence (Australia)

The Minister for Defence of Australia administers his portfolio through the Australian Defence Organisation, which comprises the Department of Defence and the Australian Defence Force. Stephen Smith is the current Minister.-Ministers for Defence:...

 from March 1918 to February 1920. He was Postmaster-General from February 1920 in the fifth Hughes Ministry

Fifth Hughes Ministry

The Fifth Hughes Ministry was the sixteenth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 4 February 1920 to 9 February 1923.Nationalist Party of Australia*Rt Hon Billy Hughes, MP: Prime Minister...

, but lost his position in the reshuffle when Stanley Bruce

Stanley Bruce

Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH, MC, FRS, PC , was an Australian politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created...

 was brought into the ministry in December 1921. He was almost defeated by the Country Party

National Party of Australia

The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

 in 1919

Australian federal election, 1919

Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1919. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes defeated the opposition Australian...

 and he lost to its candidate, Thomas Paterson

Thomas Paterson

Thomas Paterson was an Australian farmer and politician.Paterson was born in Aston, near Birmingham, England and educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Ayr Grammar School. He became a shoe salesman in 1897 and later a branch manager, but resigned in 1908 to study farming...

 in 1922

Australian federal election, 1922

Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes lost its majority...

. He failed to win the seat back in 1925

Australian federal election, 1925

Federal elections were held in Australia on 14 November 1925. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 22 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

 and 1928

Australian federal election, 1928

Federal elections were held in Australia on 17 November 1928. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

.

Wise continued to practice as a solicitor until 1948 and died in Sale in 1950, survived by three daughters and a son.