Reginald Swartz

Reginald Swartz (1954)

Reginald Swartz (1962)

Reginald "Reg" William Colin Swartz , KBE (* 14. April 1911 in Brisbane , Queensland , † 2. February 2006 ) was an Australian politician of the Liberal Party of Australia (LP), among others 1949-1972 Member of the House of Representatives and was minister several times.

Life

Reginald "Reg" William Colin Swartz attended Toowoomba Grammar School and joined the Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) during World War II . Within the next period he was used in the 2 / 26th Battalion of the 8th Division ( 8th Division ) and served until the Japanese invasion of the Malay Peninsula . He then fell into Japanese captivity , which he spent in the Changi POW camp. He was later used as a slave labor in the construction of the Thailand-Burma Railway . After the capitulation of Japan , he returned to Australia after his release in September 1945. For his military services in World War II, he became a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

On December 10, 1949, Swartz was elected the Liberal Party of Australia (LP) for the first time as a member of the House of Representatives and represented the constituency of Darling Downs in this until 1972 . He was one of the so-called "Forty-niner" of the Liberal Party and the Countey Party , who won the nationwide election in 1949 and then formed a coalition government under Prime Minister Robert Menzies . In 1956 he became Parliamentary Secretary of State in the Ministry of Trade (Parliamentary Secretary for Trade) and as such headed a trade mission to India in 1956 and another trade delegation to Southeast Africa in 1958 . On 22 December 1961 he took over the government Menzies VII as Minister of Repatriation (Minister for Repatriation) his first minister and held this December 18 1963 to December 22, 1964 in the Government Menzies VIII held. As part of a reshuffle of Menzie's eighth cabinet, he was Minister for Health between November 21, 1964 and January 26, 1966 and, at the same time, Minister for Social Services for a short time from January 21 to February 22, 1965 .

In the following government, Holt I , he was appointed Minister for Civil Aviation on January 26, 1966 and remained in this ministerial office in the Holt II government (December 14, 1966 to December 19, 1967), im McEwen Cabinet (December 19, 1967 to January 10, 1968), in the Gorton I Government (January 10, 1968-February 28, 1968) and in the Gorton II Government (February 28, 1968-November 12, 1969). The Swartz Barracks at the Oakey Army Aviation Center , the training facility of the Australian Army Aviation founded in 1968, were named in his honor . He also acted between February 13 and November 12, 1969 as Assistant Minister in the Treasury (Minister assisting the Treasurer) . In the Gorton III government he took over the post of Minister for National Development (Minister for National Development) on November 12, 1969 and remained in this ministerial office between March 10, 1971 and December 5, 1972 in the McMahon government . He was also from March 10, 1971 to August 15, 1972 as Leader of the House and chairman of the government majority in the House of Representatives.

On June 3, 1972, Reg Swartz was beaten Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and has since been named "Sir". A few months later he left the House of Representatives on November 2, 1972 after almost 23 years in parliament. In 1988 he accompanied Prime Minister John Howard, together with former MPs and Ministers John Carrick and Tom Uren , who were also prisoners of war in Japan during World War II, on a trip to the opening of the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum in Thailand , which commemorates the 2,700 Australians who perished during the construction of the Thailand-Burma Railway .

Web links

• Parliamentary Handbook for the 45th Parliament. (PDF; 13.4 MB) Parliament of Australia, accessed on September 29, 2019 . 
• Entry in Prabook

Individual evidence

1. ↑ KNIGHTS AND DAMES. In: leighrayment.com. November 2, 2018, accessed September 30, 2019 .