John Latham (lawyer)

John Latham

Sir John Greig Latham KBE (born August 26, 1877 in Ascot Vale , Victoria , † July 25, 1964 in Melbourne ) was an Australian politician and, among other things, foreign minister of the country.

Early life

Latham was born in Ascot Vale , a suburb of Melbourne . His father was a celebrity in town and was very concerned about animal welfare. John Latham got a scholarship at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne , where he studied law and philosophy, among other things. He received the Supreme Court Judge's Prize . In November 1902, Latham became the first secretary of the Boobook Society - a group of academics and professionals that still exists today.

During the First World War he was an officer in the Royal Australian Navy with the rank of Lieutenant Commander . For Australia he took part in the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 . He was also beginning to dislike Prime Minister Billy Hughes .

Political career

He was inducted into the Victoria Bar Association in 1904 and became Crown Attorney in 1922 . In 1922, Latham was elected as an independent to the Australian House of Representatives. Although his political orientation was close to Billy Hughes ' Nationalist Party , it was clear to him that because of his experience with him in Europe, he would not serve under him. Latham won the seat of the Kooyong constituency in Victoria . Immediately after Hughes' resignation, he decided to join the Nationalist Party. From 1925 to 1929 he was Advocate General for the Commonwealth under Stanley Bruce and Earle Page . After Bruce lost his seat in parliament in 1929, Latham became the new leader of the Nationalist Party. After the future Prime Minister Joseph Lyons left the Labor Party together with a few other MPs, he resigned from the party leadership in his favor and left him as opposition leader. In 1931 he was again an Advocate General. This time for the United Australia Party in Lyons' government. At the same time he was Foreign Minister and unofficially Vice Prime Minister. He was able to hold this position until 1934, when he resigned from the Australian Parliament.

Latham was appointed chief judge at the Australian Supreme Court on October 11, 1935 . From 1940 to 1941 he took time off from the court and traveled to Tokyo to serve as Australia's first minister in Japan. In April 1952 he resigned from the High Court.

In 1964 he died in Richmond , a suburb of Melbourne . He was a great supporter of Australian literature. Latham had three children with his wife Ella, however both his wife and two of his children died before him. He is the namesake for Latham Peak , a mountain in the East Antarctic Enderbyland.

The Labor Party leader during the 2004 election, Mark Latham , is not related to him.

literature

• Zelman Cowan : Sir John Latham and Other Papers
• Latham, Sir John Greig (1877-1964) , Australian Dictionary of Biography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Frank Moorhouse On Researching The Novel ( English ) abc.net.au. Archived from the original on November 10, 2008. Retrieved on May 23, 2019.