Robert Menzies

Robert Gordon Menzies

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies (born December 20, 1894 in Jeparit , Victoria , † May 15, 1978 in Melbourne ) was Prime Minister of Australia from 1939 to 1941 and from 1949 to 1966 .

Life

After studying law at the University of Melbourne in 1916, he worked from 1918 as a prosecutor at the High Court of Australia, from 1934 to 1939 as attorney general. As a leading member (chairmanship in 1943) of the United Australia Party (since 1949: Liberal Party, Liberal Party ) , he served as Prime Minister of Australia from 1939 to 1941. Before that, he had headed a number of ministries such as the Ministry of Railways since 1934 . It was he who encouraged Lady Millie Peacock, after the death of her husband Sir Alexander Peacock , to run for his seat in parliament and thus become the first woman to enter the parliament of Victoria.

From 1943 to 1949 Menzies was considered the leader of the liberal opposition . After that, the proponent of close cooperation with Great Britain and the US became prime minister again. In 1963 the British Queen Elizabeth II made him a Knight of the Thistle Order and thus a personal nobility. Since he came from the Scottish Menzies clan , he also fulfilled the rules of the order as an Australian citizen, which is usually reserved for Scots. He was the only Australian who was ever accepted into this Scottish Order.

After a term of office of 17 years, he was succeeded in 1966 by his designated successor Harold Holt , a pragmatic, liberal economic and financial politician who, after less than two years in office, disappeared while bathing under circumstances that were not entirely clear in the sea kelp belt . Menzies was no longer available for office, so that John Gorton was successful as a candidate. The British Queen made Menzies the first Australian ever to be named Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports . In 1976 he was made Knight of the Order of Australia .

According to him, which is Mount Menzies named in Antarctica.

Publications

• Afternoon light. Some Memories of Men and Events . Cassell Australia Ltd. 1967; as Penguin Book, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England 1969.

literature

• John Bunting: RG Menzies: A Portrait . Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1988

Web links

Commons : Robert Menzies  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/aasmemoirs/menzies.htm
• SIR ROBERT GORDON MENZIES ( Memento of August 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
• Newspaper article about Robert Menzies in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Menzies Virtual Museum 1963 ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 16, 2014