William McKell

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The Rt Hon Sir William McKell, GCMG
12th Governor General of Australia
In office 11 March 1947 – 8 May 1953
Preceded by	The Duke of Gloucester
Succeeded by	Sir William Slim
Born	26 September 1891 Pambula, New South Wales
Died	11 January 1985 Sydney

Sir William John McKell GCMG (26 September 1891 - 11 January 1985), Australian politician, was Premier of New South Wales from 1939 to 1947, and was the twelfth Governor-General of Australia.

McKell was born in Pambula, New South Wales, the son of a butcher. He was educated in Sydney and became a boilermaker, and was state secretary of the Boilermakers' Union from 1915. He was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as a Labor member in 1917. In 1920 he married Mary Pye. While in Parliament he studied law, and became a barrister in 1925. In Jack Lang's Labor governments of 1925-27 and 1930-32 he was Minister for Justice, and was also Minister for Local Government in 1931-32.

During the 1930s McKell became a leader of the opposition within the Labor Party to what was felt to be Lang's dictatorial rule and his electoral failures. In 1939 he displaced Lang as Labor leader and Leader of the Opposition. In 1941 he became Premier when he led Labor to a convincing victory in the state elections, mainly by concentrating on country seats.

During World War II he became a close collaborator of Labor Prime Ministers John Curtin and Ben Chifley, being a particularly close friend of the latter. In February 1947 Chifley appointed him Governor-General. At the time the appointment was announced, McKell was still Premier of New South Wales, although he had already decided to retire from active politics.

Chifley was determined that the Governor-General who succeeded the Duke of Gloucester should be an Australian, and he seems to have deliberately chosen a Labor man with a working-class background to make a political point. There was an outcry from the Liberal opposition and the conservative press: Robert Menzies called the appointment "shocking and humiliating." There was some resistance in London; but the days when the King could question an Australian Prime Minister on this matter had passed. McKell kept a dignified silence on the matter of his appointment, rather than conducting a public defence of it. Nevertheless Chifley publicly argued that any suitable Australian should be capable of being chosen as governor-general.

Once McKell took office, however, the continuing respect for the Crown and its representative meant that there was no further criticism. McKell carried out the usual round of his formal duties with dignity, and succeeded in winning over all but the most inflexible Anglophiles. When Menzies succeeded Chifley as Prime Minister in December 1949, his relations with McKell were cordial, if not exactly friendly.

The most controversial moment in McKell's career came in March 1951, when Menzies asked him for a double dissolution election. Labor had retained control of the Senate after the 1949 election, and the Senate had referred the government's banking bill to a committee. Menzies argued that this constituted "failure to pass" in terms of Section 57 of the Australian Constitution.

Many in the Labor Party, though not Chifley, thought that McKell should and would refuse Menzies a double dissolution, but the Governor-General agreed (with little hesitation) to provide one. McKell took the view that it was for the voters, not the Governor-General, to determine whether the Senate or Menzies was right: he saw it as his duty to act on the advice of his Prime Minister.

Also in 1951, McKell accepted a knighthood from King George VI. This caused considerable controversy in the Labor Party, as it was Labor policy to have nothing to do with knighthoods (a policy confirmed by the case of Queensland union leader Jack Egerton a generation afterwards); but there was nothing Labor could do about it, since McKell had severed all connections with the party on assuming office. Also it was unprecedented, and was still considered somewhat inappropriate, for a governor-general not to be a peer — or at least a knight — so the public accepted the honour. McKell was the first and only Australian governor-general to be knighted during his term. He could use the title "Sir" once gazetted in 1951, but he was not formally bestowed the honour until 1953, when he was able to travel to Britain to see the monarch. By that time, the King had died, and Queen Elizabeth II performed the ceremony.

McKell retired in May 1953 and lived in Sydney for another 30 years, becoming one of the grand old men of the New South Wales Labor Party. He died in Sydney in 1985.

Political offices
Preceded by Alexander Mair	Premier of New South Wales 1941–1947	Succeeded by James McGirr
Government offices
Preceded by The Duke of Gloucester	Governor-General of Australia 1947–1953	Succeeded by Sir William Slim

[edit] References

Governors-General of Australia
Hopetoun | Tennyson | Northcote | Dudley | Denman | Munro-Ferguson | Forster | Stonehaven | Isaacs | Gowrie | Gloucester | McKell | Slim | Dunrossil | De L'Isle | Casey | Hasluck | Kerr | Cowen | Stephen | Hayden | Deane | Hollingworth | Jeffery

Premiers of New South Wales
Donaldson | Cowper | Parker | Forster | Robertson | Martin | Parkes | Farnell | Stuart | Dibbs | Jennings | Reid | Lyne | See | Waddell | Carruthers | Wade | McGowen | Holman | Storey | Dooley | Fuller | Lang | Bavin | Stevens | Mair | McKell | McGirr | Cahill | Heffron | Renshaw | Askin | Lewis | Willis | Wran | Unsworth | Greiner | Fahey | Carr | Iemma