Earle Page
Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page (born August 8, 1880 in Grafton , New South Wales , † December 20, 1961 in Sydney , New South Wales) was an Australian politician and the 11th Prime Minister of the country. His term of office lasted from April 7 to April 26, 1939, which he exercised as interim successor to the late Joseph Lyons . He is the third-longest member of the Australian Parliament with a total of 41 years and 361 days.
Life
Page was born in Grafton , New South Wales. As a student he attended the University of Sydney , where he graduated in 1901 as the best in medicine. He first worked as a doctor in Sydney and Grafton before joining the Australian Army as a doctor with officer status. During the First World War he served in Egypt and France. After the war, he had his own farm and was mayor ( Mayor ) of South Grafton.
Political career
During the 1919 elections he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as a candidate for the Farmers and Settlers Association of New South Wales , which in 1920 merged with various other rural parties to form the Country Party . Page became party leader in 1921, where he prevailed against William McWilliams . Rural politics was one of the reasons that gave rise to the Country Party . When the party won the 1922 election, Page demanded the resignation of Billy Hughes because of his support for the nationalists, who then resigned.
After that, Page became the Treasury Secretary of Australia under Stanley Bruce . Even if he was not officially Vice Prime Minister, he was put behind Bruce as such. The "Bruce Page" government formed the government until the 1929 elections. He was a deep believer in orthodox economics and conservative politics. He approved of it when farmers benefit from government funds after the Great Depression. He advocated high market prices to strengthen domestic agriculture.
prime minister
When he and Bruce lost the elections in 1929, Page was drawn into the opposition. In 1931, Joseph Lyons was still able to rule his United Australia Party without the Country Party. In 1934, however, the coalition was resumed and Page became consumer minister. He was honored as the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) on New Year's Day 1938. When Lyons died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1939, it was Page who took office. He held the post of prime minister for three weeks before the UAP appointed a new leader - Page was the first knight to become prime minister retrospectively.
Since Page Lyons was extremely connected, he did not like his designated successor Robert Menzies , as he was ultimately no longer loyal to Lyons. After Menzies became the new Prime Minister, Page attacked him unusually harshly, refusing to serve under him and accusing him of not participating in World War I. This caused a scandal and the Country Party removed Page as its chairman and replaced him with Archie Cameron .
After the war broke out, Page and Menzies put aside their disagreements over the outbreak of war and Page became Minister of Consumers. After the 1941 election defeat, Page spent eight years on the opposition side (in the government of Labor Party candidates John Curtin and Ben Chifley ). In June 1942 he was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honor (CH). When Menzies became prime minister again in 1949, Page served as health minister for another seven years, until 1956, when he stepped down from day-to-day politics at the age of 76.
Next life
Page was the first director of the University of New England , which was founded in 1954. The associated Earle Page College is named after him. There is also the Earle Page Annual Politics Dinner , which had numerous prominent national and international guest speakers.
Even at the age of 81 and suffering from severe lung cancer , he did not want to give up his seat in parliament, so he went to the polls. Before the election, however, he fell into a coma, did not wake up and died a few days later without ever having found out about his electoral defeat.
Page is the longest-running Australian MP to ever run for the same seat. Billy Hughes served longer in Parliament, but for four different groups in New South Wales and Victoria .
The suburb of the capital Canberra , Page is named after him. His grandson Donald Page is currently a member of the National Party of Australia in the New South Wales Parliament and was a government representative there from 2003 to 2007.
Individual evidence
- ^ Carl Bridge: Page, Sir Earle Christmas Grafton (1880–1961) . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Volume 11. Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1988, ISBN 0-522-84380-8 (English).
- ↑ It's an Honor - GCMG
- ↑ It's an Honor - CH
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Page, Earle |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Grafton Page, Sir Earle Christmas (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian politician and prime minister |
DATE OF BIRTH | August 8, 1880 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Grafton, New South Wales , New South Wales |
DATE OF DEATH | December 20, 1961 |
Place of death | Sydney , New South Wales |