Frederick Harold Stewart

Frederick Harold Stewart, 1940

Sir Frederick Harold Stewart (born August 14, 1884 in Newcastle , New South Wales , † June 30, 1961 in Sydney ) was an Australian politician and, among other things, foreign minister of the country.

Early life

Stewart was born in Newcastle in 1884 and attended public schools in Newcastle. He spent 20 years in the administration of New South Wales Government Railways . In 1908 he married Lottie May Glover, with whom he had six children. He was a prominent Lay Methodist preacher. In 1919 he developed Chullora, a suburb of the metropolis of Sydney, and owned the Metropolitan Omnibus Company , which was active in this area. He also had an early interest in flying and broadcasting rights. He founded the radio station 2CH and together with Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm the Australian National Airways .

Political career

Stewart missed the House of Representatives for the Nationalist Party of Australia in the 1929 federal election in the Martin constituency . The same fate befell him in the 1930 state election for the Concord district. In the federal elections in 1931 he achieved his political breakthrough with the success for the Parramatta constituency. In this election he joined the newly established successor party of the nationalists, for the United Australia Party . Until his resignation before the federal elections in 1946, he was always able to defend this seat. During the Great Depression, Stewart campaigned for a reduction in working hours and thus more employment, as well as an improvement in the Australian social system (national insurance, support for workers, etc.).

Stewart became Secretary of Commerce in October 1932. In November 1934 he had to give up his post as Secretary of Commerce to Earle Page in order for the Country Party to participate in government . Joseph Lyons then proposed to him to become "junior minister," but Stewart preferred to become vice-secretary general for labor. He gave up this position in February 1936 to work on his desired topic, the social system. In 1935 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor . After the 1937 federal elections, Prime Minister Lyons issued limited national insurance under pressure from Stewart, but Stewart refused to accept a position in the cabinet.

Stewart became Minister of Health and Social Affairs Minister of Health and Social Affairs in April 1939 during the first term of office of the new Prime Minister Robert Menzies , so he continued to exert pressure to introduce national insurance. With the outbreak of World War II , he was also given the post of Minister of the Navy. In January 1940 another office was added - that of Minister of Supply and Development. Now he had to provide military supplies. In March 1940, he lost the offices of Minister of Health and the Navy, but remained Minister of Supply and Social Affairs. He was sharply criticized for his policy as Minister of Supply. Among other things, he had 15,000 uniforms from the First World War redistributed to the army. In Menzies' third term in office in October 1940, he lost this office again, but got the post of foreign minister . He kept the post of Minister of Social Affairs and got that of Minister of Health back. He held these three ministries until the fall of Arthur Fadden's government in October 1941. In the opposition he was manager of the Joint Committee on Social Security in 1943 and 1944 .

His first wife died in 1943, so that in 1945 he married Hilda Marjorie Evelyn Dixon. He died in Sydney in 1961, leaving behind his second wife and three daughters and two sons from his first marriage. He was a respected philanthropist until his death .

Web links

• CJ Lloyd: Frederick Harold Stewart . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1966–2012 (English).