John Curtin: Difference between revisions

This article is about the Australian Prime Minister. For the California politician, see John B. Curtin.

Rt Hon John Curtin
In office 7 October, 1941–6 July, 1945
Personal details
Political party	Labor

John Curtin (8 January, 1885 – 5 July, 1945), Australian politician and 14th Prime Minister of Australia, led Australia through the darkest period of its history: when the Australian mainland came under direct military threat during the Japanese advance in World War II. Many Australians regard him as the country's greatest political leader and greatest Prime Minister.

Curtin was born John Joseph Curtin in Creswick in central Victoria. (His name is sometimes shown as "John Joseph Ambrose Curtin". He chose the name "Ambrose" as a Catholic confirmation name at around age 14, but this was never part of his legal name. He left the Catholic faith as a young man, and also dropped the "Joseph" from his name.)

His father was a police officer of Irish descent. He had some primary education, but by the age of twelve he was working in a factory in Melbourne. He soon became active in both the Australian Labor Party and the Victorian Socialist Party, a Marxist group. He wrote for radical and socialist newspapers as "Jack Curtin".

In 1911 Curtin was employed as secretary of the Timberworkers' Union, and during World War I he was a militant anti-conscriptionist. He was briefly imprisoned for refusing to attend a compulsory medical examination, even though he knew he would fail the exam due to his very poor eyesight. The strain of this period led him to drink heavily, a vice which blighted his career for many years. In 1917 he married Elsie Needham, the sister of a Labor Senator.

Curtin moved to Perth in 1918 to become editor of the Westralian Worker, the official trade union newspaper. He enjoyed the less pressured life of Western Australia and his political views gradually moderated. He stood for Parliament several times before winning the federal seat of Fremantle in 1928. He expected to be elected to the ministry in the Scullin Labor government in 1929, but disapproval of his drinking kept him on the backbench. He lost his seat in 1931, but won it back in 1934.

When Scullin resigned as Labor leader in 1935, Curtin was unexpectedly elected to succeed him. The left wing and trade union group in the Caucus backed him because his rival, Frank Forde, had supported the economic policies of the Scullin government. They also made him promise to give up drinking, which he did. He made little progress against the Lyons government, but after Lyons' death in 1939 Labor's position improved. Curtin fell only a few seats short of winning the 1940 election.

Curtin refused Robert Menzies' offer to form a wartime "national government," partly because he feared it would split the Labor Party. In October 1941 the two independent MPs who had been keeping the conservatives in power since 1940 switched their support to Labor, and Curtin became Prime Minister. In December the Pacific War broke out, and in February 1942 Singapore fell to the Japanese, who captured tens of thousands of Australian troops. The Japanese were soon bombing northern Australian towns. Invasion seemed a real threat.

Curtin took three crucial decisions. The first was to recall most of the Second Australian Imperial Force from North Africa, to the Asia-Pacific region, despite the furious objections of Winston Churchill. The second was to appeal publicly to the United States for assistance. Curtin therefore hailed MacArthur as Australia's savior and formed a close tie with the Allied Supreme Commander in the South West Pacific Area, General Douglas MacArthur. Curtin realized that Australia would be ignored unless it had a strong voice in Washington--he wanted that voice to be MacArthur's. He turned control of Australian forces over to MacArthur, directing Australian commanders to treat MacArthur's orders as coming straight from Curtin. By 1943, the threat of invasion had been averted. In August, Curtin led Labor to its greatest election victory up till that time.

The third step Curtin took was the introduction of conscription, which he judged vital for Australia's survival. This met furious opposition from most of Curtin's old friends on the left, and from many of his colleagues, led by Arthur Calwell. The stress of this bitter battle inside his own party took a toll on Curtin's health.

Curtin's health had never been robust, and he suffered all his life from stress-related illnesses. He also smoked heavily. In 1944, when he travelled to London for meetings with Allied leaders, he already had heart disease, and in 1945 his health deteriorated. He died in Canberra on 5 July 1945 at the age of 60, the second Australian Prime Minister to die in office in six years. He was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth, Australia. MacArthur said that Curtin was "one of the greatest of the wartime statesmen" and that "the preservation of Australia from invasion will be his immemorial monument".

He was succeeded as Prime Minister by his deputy Frank Forde (briefly) then, after a party ballot, by Ben Chifley.

His early death and the sentiments it aroused have given Curtin a unique place in Australian political history. Successive Labor leaders, particularly his fellow Western Australians Bob Hawke and Kim Beazley, have sought to build on the Curtin tradition of "patriotic Laborism". Even some political conservatives pay at least formal homage to the Curtin legend.

Curtin is commemorated by Curtin University of Technology in Perth, John Curtin State High School in Fremantle the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra and the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. On 14 August 2005, V-P Day, a bronze statue of Curtin was unveiled by Premier Geoff Gallop in front of Fremantle Town Hall.

• First Curtin Ministry
• Second Curtin Ministry

• S.J. Butlin and C.B. Schedvin, War Economy 1942–1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1997
• David Day, Curtin: A Life, Harper Collins, 1999
• John Edwards, Curtin's Gift: Reinterpreting Australia's Greatest Prime Minister, Allen & Unwin, 2005
• Bob Wurth, "Saving Australia: Curtin’s secret peace with Japan".

• D. Black, In His Own Words: John Curtin's Speeches and Writings, Paradigm Books, Curtin University, Perth 1995

• John Curtin - Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archives of Australia
• John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library / Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia

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