Stanley Bruce

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Rt Hon Stanley Bruce

8th Prime Minister of Australia
In office 9 February 1923 – 22 October 1929
Preceded by	Billy Hughes
Succeeded by	James Scullin

Born	15 April 1883 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died	25 August 1967
Political party	Nationalist

Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne CH MC FRS PC (15 April 1883–25 August 1967), Australian politician and diplomat, was the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was born in Melbourne, where his father was a prominent businessman of Scottish descent. He was educated at Glamorgan (now part of Geelong Grammar School), Melbourne Grammar School, and then at Cambridge University. After graduation he studied law in London and was called to the bar in 1907. He practised law in London, and also managed the London office of his father's importing business. When World War I broke out he joined the British Army. In 1917 he was severely wounded in France, winning the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre.

Bruce was invalided home to Melbourne, and soon became involved in recruiting campaigns for the Army. His public speaking attracted the attention of the Nationalist Party, and in 1918 he was elected to the House of Representatives as MP for Flinders, near Melbourne. His background in business led to his being appointed Treasurer (finance minister) in 1921. When the Nationalist Party lost its majority at the 1922 election, the Country Party demanded that Prime Minister Billy Hughes resign as the price of joining a coalition government, and Bruce found himself Prime Minister at the age of only 39.

Bruce's appointment marked an important turning point in Australian political history. He was the first Prime Minister who had not been involved in the movement for federation, had not been a member of a colonial Parliament, and had not been a member of the original 1901 federal Parliament. With his aristocratic manners and dress - he drove a Rolls Royce and wore white spats - he was the first genuinely "Tory" Australian Prime Minister.

He formed an effective partnership with the Country Party leader, Dr Earle Page, and exploited public fears of communism and militant trade unions to dominate Australian politics through the 1920s. Despite predictions that Australians would not accept such an aloof leader, he won a smashing victory over a demoralised Labor Party at the 1925 election. He pursued a policy of vigorous national development and, in foreign affairs, support for the British Empire and the League of Nations.

The Bruce-Page government won another term in 1928, but in 1929 Bruce, frustrated by a series of bitter industrial disputes, introduced legislation to dismantle the federal system of industrial arbitration. Hughes led a group of backbenchers who voted against the bill and brought the government down. At the subsequent election Labor won a landslide victory and Bruce lost his own seat - the only Australian Prime Minister to suffer such a fate.

In 1931 Bruce won his seat back and became a Minister without Portfolio in the government of Joseph Lyons. But Lyons wanted Bruce out of politics and in 1933 he was dispatched to London as High Commissioner. This post he held with great distinction for 12 years, playing a notable role in the Abdication Crisis triggered by Edward VIII, and representing Australia's interests in London during World War II. He was appointed a member of the Imperial War Cabinet and the Pacific War Cabinet. In 1947 he was created Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, of Westminster Gardens in the City of Westminster.

Bruce divided the rest of his life between London and Melbourne. He represented Australia on various United Nations bodies and sat on the boards of many companies. He died in London on 25 August 1967.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Stanley Melbourne Bruce - Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archives of Australia

Preceded by Sir Joseph Cook	Treasurer of Australia 1921–1923	Succeeded by Earle Page
Preceded by Neville Howse	Australian Minister for Health 1927–1928	Succeeded by Neville Howse
Preceded by Billy Hughes	Prime Minister of Australia 1922–1929	Succeeded by James Scullin

Preceded by New creation	Viscount Bruce of Melbourne 1947–1967	Succeeded by Extinct

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