John Curtin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article is about the Australian Prime Minister. For the California politician, see John B. Curtin.
Rt Hon John Curtin
John Curtin
In office
7 October 1941 – 6 July 1945
Preceded by Arthur Fadden
Succeeded by Frank Forde
Born 8 January 1885
Australia Creswick, Victoria, Australia
Died 5 July 1945
Canberra, ACT
Political party Labor

John Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945), Australian politician and 14th Prime Minister of Australia, led Australia through the darkest period of its history: when the Australian mainland came under direct military threat during the Japanese advance in World War II. Many Australians regard him as the country's greatest political leader and greatest Prime Minister.

Contents

[edit] Militant youth

Curtin was born John Joseph Curtin in Creswick in central Victoria. (His name is sometimes shown as "John Joseph Ambrose Curtin". He chose the name "Ambrose" as a Catholic confirmation name at around age 14, but this was never part of his legal name. He left the Catholic faith as a young man, and also dropped the "Joseph" from his name.)

His father was a police officer of Irish descent. He had some primary education, but by the age of twelve he was working in a factory in Melbourne. He soon became active in both the Australian Labor Party and the Victorian Socialist Party, a Marxist group. He wrote for radical and socialist newspapers as "Jack Curtin".

John Curtin in 1914
Enlarge
John Curtin in 1914

In 1911 Curtin was employed as secretary of the Timberworkers' Union, and during World War I he was a militant anti-conscriptionist. He was the Labor candidate for Balaclava in 1914. He was briefly imprisoned for refusing to attend a compulsory medical examination, even though he knew he would fail the exam due to his very poor eyesight. The strain of this period led him to drink heavily, a vice which blighted his career for many years. In 1917 he married Elsie Needham, the sister of a Labor Senator.

[edit] Labor politician

Curtin moved to Perth in 1918 to become editor of the Westralian Worker, the official trade union newspaper. He enjoyed the less pressured life of Western Australia and his political views gradually moderated. He stood for Parliament several times before winning the federal seat of Fremantle in 1928. He expected to be chosen as a minister in James Scullin's Labor cabinet when it was formed in 1929, but disapproval of his drinking kept him on the backbench. He lost his seat in 1931, but won it back three years later.

When Scullin resigned as Labor leader in 1935, Curtin was unexpectedly elected (by just one vote) to succeed him. The left wing and trade union group in the Caucus backed him because his better known rival, Frank Forde, had supported the economic policies of the Scullin administration. This group also made him promise to give up drinking, which he did. He made little progress against Joseph Lyons' government (which was returned to office at the 1937 election by a comfortable margin); but after Lyons' death in 1939, Labor's position improved. Curtin fell only a few seats short of winning the 1940 election.

[edit] Wartime leader

Curtin with Douglas MacArthur
Enlarge
Curtin with Douglas MacArthur

Curtin refused Robert Menzies' offer to form a wartime "national government," partly because he feared it would split the Labor Party. In October 1941 the two independent MPs who had been keeping the conservatives (led first by Menzies, then by Sir Arthur Fadden) in power since 1940 switched their support to Labor, and Curtin became Prime Minister. In December the Pacific War broke out, and in February 1942 Singapore fell to the Japanese, who captured tens of thousands of Australian troops. The Japanese were soon bombing northern Australian towns. Invasion seemed a real threat.

Curtin took three crucial decisions. The first was to recall most of the Second Australian Imperial Force from North Africa, to the Asia-Pacific region, despite the furious objections of Winston Churchill. The second was to appeal publicly to the United States for assistance. Curtin therefore hailed MacArthur as Australia's savior and formed a close tie with the Allied Supreme Commander in the South West Pacific Area, General Douglas MacArthur. Curtin realized that Australia would be ignored unless it had a strong voice in Washington - he wanted that voice to be MacArthur's. He turned control of Australian forces over to MacArthur, directing Australian commanders to treat MacArthur's orders as coming straight from Curtin. By 1943, the threat of invasion had been averted. In August, Curtin led Labor to its greatest election victory up till that time.

The third step Curtin took was the introduction of conscription, which he judged vital for Australia's survival. This met furious opposition from most of Curtin's old friends on the left, and from many of his colleagues, led by Arthur Calwell. This was despite Curtin furiously opposing conscription during World War I. The reason Curtin introduced conscription successfully is because he adopted a minimal conscription policy, where only those South of the Equator were conscripted. The fact Curtin introduced conscription without splitting the Australian Labor Party, unlike Billy Hughes during World War I, showed Curtin was a tactically astute political leader.

The stress of this bitter battle inside his own party took a great toll on Curtin's health, never robust even at the best of times. He suffered all his life from stress-related illnesses, and he also smoked heavily. In 1944, when he travelled to London for meetings with Allied leaders, he already had heart disease, and in early 1945 his health deteriorated still more obviously. On 5 July 1945, at the age of 60, he died: the second Australian Prime Minister to die in office within six years. He was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth, Australia. MacArthur said that Curtin was "one of the greatest of the wartime statesmen" and that "the preservation of Australia from invasion will be his immemorial monument".

He was succeeded as Prime Minister by Frank Forde (briefly) then, after a party ballot, by Ben Chifley.

[edit] The Curtin legend

John Curtin's grave at Karrakatta Cemetery.
Enlarge
John Curtin's grave at Karrakatta Cemetery.
John Curtin statue at Fremantle Town Hall.
Enlarge
John Curtin statue at Fremantle Town Hall.

His early death and the sentiments it aroused have given Curtin a unique place in Australian political history. Successive Labor leaders, particularly his fellow Western Australians Bob Hawke and Kim Beazley, have sought to build on the Curtin tradition of "patriotic Laborism". Even some political conservatives pay at least formal homage to the Curtin legend.

Curtin is commemorated by Curtin University of Technology in Perth, John Curtin College of the Arts in Fremantle the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra and the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. On 14 August 2005, V-P Day, a bronze statue of Curtin was unveiled by Premier Geoff Gallop in front of Fremantle Town Hall.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Primary sources

  • D. Black, In His Own Words: John Curtin's Speeches and Writings, Paradigm Books, Curtin University, Perth 1995

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
James Scullin		 Leader of the Labor Party
1935–1945		 Succeeded by:
Ben Chifley
Leader of the Opposition
1935–1941		 Succeeded by:
Arthur Fadden
Preceded by:
Arthur Fadden		 Prime Minister of Australia
1941–1945		 Succeeded by:
Frank Forde
Prime Ministers of Australia
Barton | Deakin | Watson | Reid | Fisher | Cook | Hughes | Bruce | Scullin | Lyons | Page | Menzies | Fadden | Curtin | Forde | Chifley | Holt | McEwen | Gorton | McMahon | Whitlam | Fraser | Hawke | Keating | Howard
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../j/o/h/John_Curtin_664e.html"
In other languages