PASSPORT - BRITISH FOR ALBERT DRAWBRIDGE

Albert Drawbridge was born on the 23 April 1893 in the town of Tonbridge in the County of Kent, United Kingdom. By c1916 Albert had moved to Australia and was working for the Western Australian Government Railway. In 1925 he married Laura Vincent in the Collie area where they had a daughter in 1927. Albert worked his way up from Porter to Assistant Station Master between 1916 and 1920. He spent the nest 25 years working at either an assistant station master or station master at a number of rural stations including Gnowangerup, Mt Barker and Brunswick.
In 1948 he was appointed to the position of Station Master at Armadale, a position he held until his retirement in 1958. During his time living in Armadale Albert, unsuccessfully ran for council and was a member of the Armadale lodge for the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes who met at their hall on Forrest Road. Albert died in 1966 age 73. Laura had passed away three years earlier.
When the Australian colonies joined together to form the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, foreign relations was still handled by Britain, the 'Mother Country' and Australian citizens were considered British subjects, subjecting them to free travel through the British Empire, the States also retained the right to issue passports. Non British people though did need some documentation to enter the country. During world War One the Federal Government made moves, despite resistance from the States, to introduce a centralized Federal passport system, that included the use of photographic identification, for citizens as a way to control the movement of people in and out of the country.
In 1920 the Federal Government passed the Passport Act, a time when the newly formed League of Nations was discussing a variety of issues including boarder controls and passports. The new Passport Act though still classified Australian Citizens as British Subjects. In 1948 the Federal Government passed its first citizenship legislation which included restricting Australian Passports to Australian citizens. Legislation in Britain allowed for Commonwealth countries that established their own citizenship could also retain their shared Commonwealth citizenship. The legislation also allowed for the Australian Government to issue British passports to British subjects up to 1984.