John Curtin

The Right Honourable John Curtin
Curtin in the early 1940s
14th Prime Minister of Australia
In office 7 October 1941 – 5 July 1945
Monarch	George VI
Governors‑General	Lord Gowrie The Duke of Gloucester
Deputy	Frank Forde
Preceded by	Arthur Fadden
Succeeded by	Frank Forde
Minister for Defence[a]
In office 7 October 1941 – 5 July 1945
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Robert Menzies
Succeeded by	Jack Beasley
Leader of the Opposition
In office 1 October 1935 – 7 October 1941
Prime Minister	Joseph Lyons Earle Page Robert Menzies Arthur Fadden
Deputy	Frank Forde
Preceded by	James Scullin
Succeeded by	Arthur Fadden
Leader of the Labor Party
In office 1 October 1935 – 5 July 1945
Deputy	Frank Forde
Preceded by	James Scullin
Succeeded by	Ben Chifley
Member of the Australian Parliament for Fremantle
In office 15 September 1934 – 5 July 1945
Preceded by	William Watson
Succeeded by	Kim Beazley Sr.
In office 17 November 1928 – 19 December 1931
Preceded by	William Watson
Succeeded by	William Watson
Personal details
Born	John Joseph Ambrose Curtin (1885-01-08)8 January 1885 Creswick, Colony of Victoria, Australia
Died	5 July 1945(1945-07-05) (aged 60) Canberra, ACT, Australia
Resting place	Karrakatta Cemetery
Political party	Labor
Other political affiliations	Victorian Socialist Party
Spouse	Elsie Needham ​ (m. 1917)​
Relations	Claude Curtin (nephew)
Children	2
Signature

This article is part of a series about John Curtin
Early life Early political career Victorian Socialist Party Member for Fremantle (1928–1931) Member for Fremantle (1934–1945) 1935 Labor leadership spill Prime Minister of Australia Term of government (1941–1945) Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 Department of Post-War Reconstruction Domestic policies WWII leadership Ministries First Second Elections 1937 1940 1943
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John Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945) was an Australian politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Australia from 1941 until his death in 1945. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), having been most notable for leading the country through the majority of World War II, including all but the last few weeks of the war in the Pacific. Curtin's leadership skills and personal character were acclaimed by his political contemporaries and he is frequently ranked as one of Australia's greatest prime ministers and political leaders.^[1][2][3][4]

Curtin left school at the age of 13 and became involved in the labour movement in Melbourne. He joined the Labor Party at a young age and was also involved with the Victorian Socialist Party. He became state secretary of the Timberworkers' Union in 1911 and federal president in 1914. Curtin was a leader of the "No" campaign during the 1916 referendum on overseas conscription, and was briefly jailed for refusing to attend a compulsory medical examination. He moved to Perth the following year to become the editor of the Westralian Worker, and later was state president of the Australian Journalists' Association.

After three unsuccessful attempts, Curtin was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1928 federal election, winning the Division of Fremantle. He is the only prime minister to have represented a constituency in Western Australia. He remained loyal to the Labor government during the party split of 1931. He lost his seat in Labor's landslide defeat at the 1931 election, but won it back in 1934. The following year, Curtin was elected party leader in place of James Scullin, defeating Frank Forde by a single vote. The party gained seats at the 1937 and 1940 elections, with the latter resulting in a hung parliament. The ALP eventually formed a minority government in October 1941, when the Fadden government lost a confidence motion.

The Japanese attacks on British Malaya and Pearl Harbour occurred two months after Curtin became prime minister, and Australia entered the war against Japan. Bombing raids on northern Australia soon followed. Curtin led the nation's war effort and made significant decisions about how the war was conducted. He placed Australian forces under the command of the American general Douglas MacArthur, with whom he formed a close relationship, and successfully negotiated the issue of overseas conscription that had split his party during World War I. The ALP won almost two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives at the 1943 election, which remains a party record. Curtin died in office in July 1945, after months of ill health attributed to the stresses of the war. Many of his post-war reconstruction plans were implemented by his successor Ben Chifley, who in 1946 led the ALP to consecutive victories for the first time.

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