John McEwen

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under John McEwen (disambiguation) .

John McEwen in the 1930s

Sir John McEwen GCMG , CH (born March 29, 1900 in Chiltern , Victoria , † November 20, 1980 in Melbourne , Victoria) was the 18th Prime Minister of Australia . His term of office lasted only 32 days from December 19, 1967 to January 10, 1968. He was never an opposition leader.

Youth and early career

John McEwen was the son of pharmacists David McEwen and Amy McEwen, b. Porter. He had a younger sister after whose birth the mother died in 1901. After his father died early in 1907, both children were raised by their grandmother in Wangaratta. There he also attended elementary school. In 1913 he had to leave school and start working in order to be able to support the family financially. A year later they moved to Melbourne , where he trained for the next two years in addition to working in evening school. At the age of 16 he was able to work as a clerk in the office of Frederick Whitlam, the father of Gough Whitlam , who later became Australia's 21st Prime Minister.

As soon as he turned 18, he volunteered for military service and was finally called up on August 9, 1918. He experienced the end of the First World War in a training camp, waiting for the intended shipment to France .

After his release he became a farmer and was able to successfully operate his farm and expand it considerably in the years to come. In 1924 he sold this original farm and acquired an even larger one, which he in turn only sold late in his life.

In 1919 he joined the Victorian Farmers Union , a union for farmers, which founded the Country Party (CP) the following year . At this time he began to get involved politically.

On September 21, 1921, he married his first wife, Anne McLeod. This marriage remained childless. She died on February 10, 1967, before he became Prime Minister.

In 1932 he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Country Party (CP) in the elections to the state parliament of Victoria. Just two years later, however, on September 15, 1934, he was able to win a constituency in the elections for the Australian House of Representatives. Since then, he has been a member of parliament for various constituencies until February 1, 1971. A few days later he retired.

Between 1937 and 1941 he headed various ministries under four different Prime Ministers: from 1937 to 1939 under Joseph Lyons , Earle Page and Robert Menzies he was Minister of the Interior, became Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1940 and moved to the Ministries of Civil Aviation and the Air Force in October 1940. There he stayed in the Menzies and Arthur Fadden cabinet until 1941 , before he had to go into the opposition like his party.

In 1940 John McEwen applied unsuccessfully for the chairmanship of the Country Party (CP) after the previous party leader Archie Cameron resigned as a consequence of the parliamentary elections on September 21, which were associated with high mandate losses for the party. Since the vote resulted in a stalemate with his opponent Earle Page , Arthur Fadden was ultimately chosen as a compromise candidate as chairman. After further parliamentary elections in August 1943, which were devastating for the Country Party (CP) , John McEwen was elected deputy party chairman. Not until 1958 did he finally take over the party chairmanship from Arthur Fadden on March 28th, which he held until February 5th, 1971.

After the parliamentary elections of December 10, 1949, the conservative parties in Australia were able to form a government again and so John McEwen headed various ministries since then, interrupted until he retired on February 5, 1971. Aside from his own, albeit brief, stint as prime minister, he served under three different prime ministers during that time.

prime minister

John McEwen owes his brief tenure as Prime Minister to the fact that his predecessor in office, Harold Holt , party leader of the larger ruling Liberal Party (LP) died without a designated successor in his office as party leader. Before he was sworn in, he promised that he would resign as soon as the coalition partner has appointed a new party leader. Accordingly, he resigned from office after the Liberal Party (LP) had elected John Gorton on January 10, 1968 as party leader.

Since his term of office also fell during the free time of parliament, John McEwen as Prime Minister could not influence Australian politics. His cabinet only had the task of preparing and carrying out the funeral ceremonies for his predecessor.

Later years

Under Prime Minister John Gorton, John McEwen was officially named Deputy Prime Minister. He also remained a minister in his cabinet. On July 26, 1968, he married his second wife, Mary Byrne, who was previously his personal secretary. This marriage also remained childless. In February 1971 he gave up his parliamentary seat, the party chairmanship of the Country Party (CP) and all other political offices and then retired. In the same year he was named Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in London by Queen Elizabeth II . In 1975 he sold his farm and moved permanently to Melbourne, where he died on November 20, 1980.

Web links

• Entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography (English)