Earle Page
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| Rt Hon Sir Earle Page | |
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| In office 7 April – 26 April 1939 |
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| Preceded by | Joseph Lyons |
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| Succeeded by | Robert Menzies |
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| Born | 8 August 1880 Grafton, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 20 December 1961 |
| Political party | Country |
Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page GCMG, CH (August 8, 1880–December 20, 1961), Australian politician, was the eleventh Prime Minister of Australia.
Born in Grafton, New South Wales, Page was educated at Sydney Boys High School and the University of Sydney, where he graduated in medicine at the top of his year in 1901. He practised in Sydney and Grafton before joining the Australian Army as a medical officer in the First World War, serving in Egypt. After the war he went into farming and was elected Mayor of Grafton.
In 1919 Page was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as MP for Cowper as a candidate of the Farmers and Settlers Association of New South Wales, which in 1920 became the Country Party. He became the party's leader in 1921. Dislike of the Hughes government's rural policies was one of the reasons the Country Party was formed, and when the party won the balance of power in the House at the 1922 elections, Page demanded and got Hughes's resignation as the price for supporting the Nationalist government.
Page then became Treasurer (finance minister) in the Bruce government, a position he held until 1929. He was a strong believer in orthodox finance and conservative policies, except where the welfare of farmers was concerned: then he was happy to see government money spent freely. He was also a "high protectionist": a supporter of high tariff barriers to protect Australian rural industries.
When the Bruce government was defeated by Labor in 1929, Page went into opposition. In 1931 Joseph Lyons was able to form a United Australia Party government without Country Party support. In 1934, however, the coalition was re-formed, and Page became Minister for Commerce. He was knighted in 1938. The title of Deputy Prime Minister did not then exist, but when Lyons died suddenly in 1939, it was Page whom the Governor-General called on to become caretaker Prime Minister. He held the office for three weeks while the UAP elected a new leader.
Page had been very close to Lyons, and he disliked Robert Menzies, Lyons's deputy, on the grounds that Menzies had been disloyal to Lyons. When Menzies was elected UAP leader, Page refused to serve under him, and made an extraordinary personal attack on him in the House, accusing him of cowardice for failing to enlist during World War One. His party soon rebelled, however, and Page was deposed as Country Party leader and replaced by Archie Cameron.
In 1940 Page and Menzies patched up their differences for the sake of the war effort, and Page returned to the Cabinet. However, Page's charges were not forgotten and were occasionally raised in parliament by Menzies' opponents (notably Eddie Ward). In 1941, however, the government fell and Page spent the eight years of the Curtin and Chifley Labor governments on the opposition backbench. In 1949 Menzies returned to office and Page was made Minister for Health. He held this post until 1956, when he was 76, then retired to the backbench.
Page refused to consider retirement from Parliament, even at the 1961 election, when he was 81, suffering from lung cancer and too sick to campaign. In one of the great electoral upsets of Australian history, he lost his seat, which he had held for 42 years — indeed only Billy Hughes served longer as a member of the Australian Parliament. He died a few days later, without knowing he had been defeated.
Page was the first Chancellor of the University of New England, Australia, which was established in 1954. Earle Page College was formed in his honour as a residential college on campus, and is the venue for the Earle Page Annual Politics Dinner, which has had numerous prominent national and international guest lecturers.
His grandson Donald Page is currently a National MP in the NSW Parliament and served as Deputy Leader of the NSW Nationals from 2003 to 2007.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Earle Page - Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archives of Australia
| Preceded by None |
Leader of the Country Party 1921–1939 |
Succeeded by Archie Cameron |
| Preceded by Stanley Bruce |
Treasurer of Australia 1923–1929 |
Succeeded by E G Theodore |
| Preceded by Joseph Lyons |
Prime Minister of Australia 1939 |
Succeeded by Robert Menzies |
| Preceded by Billy Hughes |
Minister for Health 1937–1938 |
Succeeded by Hattil Foll |
| Preceded by Nicholas McKenna |
Minister for Health 1949–1958 |
Succeeded by Donald Cameron |
| Preceded by Billy Hughes |
Longest serving member of the Australian House of Representatives 1952–1961 |
Succeeded by Eddie Ward |
| 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 | |
Categories: Prime Ministers of Australia | Treasurers of Australia | Members of the Cabinet of Australia | Members of the Australian House of Representatives | Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Cowper | National Party of Australia politicians | Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George | Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour | 1880 births | 1961 deaths
