Robert Gordon Menzies was the Australian Prime Minister who was in office the longest. He was president twice, first from 1939 to 1941 and then from 1949 to 1966. He was Prime Minister for a total of more than 18 years. His second term, which lasted for 16 years, was the longest one that never ended. He was born into a normal family and grew up to be a good lawyer. In 1928, he was elected to the Victorian parliament. Six years later, he won a seat in the federal parliament and worked for Joseph Lyons as Attorney-General and Minister for Industry. He was Prime Minister when World War II started, and his party had to quit within two years. Then, he started the Liberal Party, and in 1946, he became the leader of the opposition. In 1949, Chifley’s Labour Party lost to him, and he became Prime Minister of Australia for the second time. The Liberal Party and the Country Party kept running the government for the next 22 years. During this time, Australia’s defense deal with the US was improved, troops were sent to Korea to help US troops, and ANZUS and SEATO were signed. In 1963, he was made a Knight, and in 1965, he was put in charge of Dover Castle and made Warden of the Cinque Ports.
Early years and childhood
Robert Menzies was born on December 20, 1894, in Jeparit, Victoria, Australia, to James Menzies and Kate Menzies. He was the fourth of his parents’ five children. James, his father, ran a general store and was a leader in the neighborhood. In 1911, James was chosen to be a member of the Victorian Parliament, so he moved his family to Melbourne.
Robert went to Humffray Street State School in Bakery Hill and then Grenville College in Ballarat for his education. In 1916, he got a First Class Honours in Law from the University of Melbourne.
When World War I broke out, he was in college and a member of the campus militia. But he quit while other people his age were trying very hard to join.
He did very well in school and won a number of prizes and scholarships. He took over as editor of the Melbourne University Magazine in 1916. (MUM).
Robert Menzies’s Career
In 1918, Robert Menzies was admitted to the Victorian Bar and the High Court of Australia. He became an expert in Constitutional law and became a member of both courts. In 1920, he helped the Amalgamated Society of Engineers win a very important case in the High Court. After that, he became a good lawyer, and in 1929, he was named a King’s Counsel.
In 1928, he joined the Victorian Legislative Council to represent East Yarra Province for the Nationalist Party of Australia. Soon, he joined a new minority government led by Prime Minister William McPherson as a minister without a portfolio. The next year, he became a member for Nunawading in the Legislative Assembly.
In 1929, he made the Young Nationalists, the youth branch of his party, and became its first president. He was the Deputy Premier of Victoria from May 1932 to July 1934. He was also Attorney-General and in charge of the railways.
In the 1934 Federal election, he switched to federal politics and ran for the United Australia Party (UAP). In Lyons’ government, he was given the jobs of Minister of Industry and Attorney-General.
In 1937, he was made a member of the Privy Council. As Australia’s top lawyer the following year, he went to Nazi Germany on official business. He really liked how the Chamberlain government in London tried to keep peace, and he was sure that war should be avoided no matter what. Still, he realized more and more that peace efforts were pointless and that war was inevitable.
At home, he and Sir Earle Page were getting angrier and angrier with each other. When Lyons got sick and Page took over as acting prime minister, things got even worse. Menzies went on to become the UAP’s deputy leader. Around this time, he got into a fight with workers on the water, which is how he got the nickname “Pig Iron Bob” from his enemies.
After Lyons died on April 7, 1939, Menzies was chosen as the leader of the UAP on April 18 and sworn in as Prime Minister on May 8. This caused a problem because Page refused to work for him.
So, Menzies put together a government with only a few seats. Within a few months, Page was removed as leader of the Country Party, and the Country Party joined his government as a full-fledged alliance.
On September 3, 1939, Britain and France went to war with Germany. This was the start of World War II. Right away, he told the world that Australia was also at war to help Britain. He did this in a national radio broadcast the same day.
Two days later, he called the parliament together and asked for help with everything because the government had a lot to do because of the war. Page and Curtin, who were in charge of their parties, said they would help. Menzies was worried about the military threat from Japan, so he kept pushing London for a policy of conciliation.
In the 1940 election, his coalition government didn’t get the most votes, so the parliament was split.
Next, he put together a small government with the help of Arthur Coles and Alex Wilson. The leader of the Labour Party, John Curtin, didn’t want to form a war coalition, but he did agree to be on the Advisory War Council.
In 1941, he went to Britain to talk with Churchill and other leaders about how to win the war. He stopped by the Australian troops fighting in the North African Campaign on his way to the UK. At the same time, his position at home got worse.
After he got back, he had to give up his job on August 27, 1941. This meanness from his coworkers upset him, and he almost quit politics because of it. Arthur Fadden was chosen as the leader of the Coalition and Prime Minister at a joint UAP-Country Party conference, and Menzies was persuaded to become Minister for Defense Co-ordination.
Over time, he got a lot of support from what he called “the Forgotten People” through his many radios appeals to them. Starting in November 1941, these appeals were broadcast every week.
Fadden’s government fell in October 1941, and Curtin put together a Labour minority government. Menzies lost his position as leader of the opposition, and Fadden took his place. In the election of 1943, the Labour Party won.
Menzies took over as leader of the UAP and as leader of the opposition. 8 In 1944, he said that UAP would always get weaker. So, at the Canberra conference on October 13, 1944, fourteen parties decided to join together to form the Liberal Party of Australia, which was not a labor party. The next year, Curtin died, and Ben Chifley took his place.
In 1947, the middle class was very against Chifley’s plan to take over Australia’s private banks. Menzies took advantage of this chance well. During the 1949 election, he promised to fight for free enterprise, stop inflation, give more money to children, and end gasoline rationing.
The Liberal/Country Coalition won the election in 1949, and on December 19, 1949, Menzies took over as Prime Minister again. Over the next sixteen years, he won seven general elections and stayed in office. Australia’s economy grew very quickly during this time. He quit on his own on January 26, 1966, when he was 71 years old.
At the end of 1966, he moved to the University of Virginia to work as a scholar-in-residence. He gave talks that will be published as “Central Power in the Australian Commonwealth” next year. Later, he also wrote two books of his own memories.
In March 1967, he was chosen to be the thirteenth Chancellor of Melbourne University. He held this position for five years.
Works of note
In 1944, when the Liberal Party of Australia was being made, he was a very important part of it. In 1947, he stopped the Chifley government from taking over private banks and keeping wartime controls on rents and prices.
During his time as prime minister, the Australia-New Zealand-United States Treaty (ANZUS) of 1951 and the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) of 1954 were signed. In 1950, he sent troops to Korea and Malaya. In 1964 and 1965, he sent troops to Vietnam.
He built Canberra as the capital of the federal government and pushed for higher education to grow. In 1959, he made the Australian Universities Commission, gave universities more money, and set up new universities.
Awards & Achievements
In 1950, US President Harry S. Truman gave him the Legion of Merit (Chief Commander) for his service.
He was put on the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1951. (CH).
The University of Western Australia gave him an honorary degree as a Doctor of Letters, and the University of New South Wales gave him an honorary degree as a Doctor of Science.
He was made a Knight of the Order of the Thistle in 1963. (KT). He is the only Australian who has ever been given this title.
In 1973, he was given the Grand Cordon First Class of the Order of the Rising Sun by Japan.
He became the first Knight of the Order of Australia in 1976. (AK).
Personal History and Legacies
Robert Menzies married Pattie Leckie on 27 September 1920 in Melbourne. They bought a house on Howard Street in Kew, which they lived in for 25 years. They had two sons and a daughter who was still alive.
In 1971, he had a bad stroke that paralyzed one side of his body for good. In 1972, he had a second stroke.
On May 15, 1978, in Melbourne, he had a heart attack that killed him. On May 19, at Scots’ Church in Melbourne, Australia, he had the country’s biggest state funeral ever.
Estimated Net worth
Robert Menzies is one of the wealthiest and most well-known Former Prime Minister Of Australia. According to our research, Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider, Robert Menzies is worth about $3 million.
Trivia
People who didn’t like him called him “Pig Iron Bob” because he let pig iron be sent to Japan in 1938 and 1939, when the Waterside Workers Federation wouldn’t load it.