John Curtin
John Curtin 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, 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.
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 Harbor occurred two months after Curtin became prime minister, and Australia entered the war against Japan. The failure of the British army and navy against Japan and bombing raids on northern Australia created the fear of an imminent Japanese invasion. Curtin realized that only a dependence upon the United States could protect Australia. 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. On the home front he 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.
Early life and education
Birth and family background
Curtin was born in Creswick, Victoria, on 8 January 1885. He was christened "John Joseph Ambrose", although his middle names were not recorded on his birth certificate and he stopped using them in later life. Within his family he was known as "Jack". Curtin was the oldest of four children – his younger brother George was born in 1887, followed by his younger sisters Molly and Hannah in 1889 and 1891. His parents were both born in County Cork, Ireland. His father, John Curtin Sr., had arrived in South Australia in 1873, with two of his brothers. His brothers settled in Adelaide, but he moved on to Victoria and found work as a warder at Pentridge Prison. He later joined the Victoria Police, where in thirteen years he never rose above the rank of a constable; he received reprimands for indecent assault and using excessive force against children. In 1883, he married Catherine Agnes Bourke, who had arrived in Melbourne in 1875. She was the sister of one of his police colleagues.Childhood and education
Curtin was born with congenital strabismus of the left eye, which remained noticeable throughout his life. It was largely a cosmetic defect, but he was quite self-conscious about it. According to his biographer David Day, it had "a considerable psychological effect" on him, and likely exacerbated his natural shyness. Curtin lived in Creswick until 1890, when his father retired from the police. His father suffered from chronic rheumatoid arthritis and syphilis, and was assessed as medically unable to resume his police duties. He was offered a choice between an annual pension and a lump-sum pay-out, and opted for the latter. He subsequently moved his family to inner Melbourne, taking over the lease of a pub on Little Lonsdale Street and moving into rented accommodation in Brunswick.Curtin began his education at St Francis' Boys School, a Christian Brothers school attached to St Francis' Church. He later briefly attended St Bridget's School in Fitzroy. He also attended Macedon Primary School in Macedon. In 1894, Curtin and his family moved to Charlton, a small country town in north-west Victoria. His father had failed to prosper in Melbourne, which was in the middle of an economic downturn. In Charlton, he took over the lease of a pub owned by his brother-in-law, John Bourke. Curtin was enrolled in the local state school, as a Catholic school had not yet been established. He excelled academically, and was seen as a potential "scholarship boy". However, he and his family left Charlton in 1896. Struggling financially, they spent the following two years moving around country Victoria, as his father managed pubs in Dromana, Drouin, and Mount Macedon. Curtin attended the local state schools, ending his formal education in 1898 at the age of 13.
Early working life
In early 1899, Curtin began working as an office boy at a weekly magazine called The Rambler, earning five shillings per week. His employer was the artist and writer Norman Lindsay, who had also grown up in Creswick and knew his family. The magazine did not last long, and over the following years Curtin held down a series of short-term jobs, including as a copy boy at The Age, a potter's apprentice, and a houseboy at a gentlemen's club. These were interspersed with periods of unemployment. He did not secure a permanent job until he was 18, taking up a position as an estimates clerk with the Titan Manufacturing Company in South Melbourne in September 1903. By that time he was the family's primary breadwinner, as his father was a virtual invalid.As a youth, Curtin was a talented sportsman. Between 1903 and 1907, he played as a half-forward flanker for the Brunswick Football Club in the semi-professional Victorian Football Association. His teammates gave him the nickname "Bumble". His nephew Claude played for Fitzroy in the Victorian Football League. Curtin also played cricket for the Brunswick Cricket Club, where he had a reputation as a solid batsman. He remained involved in both sports throughout the remainder of his life, as an administrator and supporter. He was said to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of cricket statistics.
Political views
From a young age, Curtin was active in both the Australian Labor Party and the Victorian Socialist Party, which was a Marxist organisation. While a member of the Victorian Socialist Party Curtin held strong anti-imperialist and anti-militarist views, and in opposition to the mainstream of the Labor movement, opposed racism due to his belief that racial hatred was used as a tool of the "exploiting class". Labor historian Graeme Osborne describes Curtin's stance as "anticipating Lenin in the view that imperialism was capitalism in its last stage".He wrote for radical and socialist newspapers. From 1911 until 1915, Curtin was employed as state secretary of the Timberworkers' Union. He was elected federal president of the union in 1914. During World War I he was a militant anti-conscriptionist; he was briefly imprisoned in December 1916 for refusing to attend a compulsory medical examination, even though he knew he would fail the exam due to his very poor eyesight. He also stood as the Labor candidate for Balaclava in the 1914 federal election. The strain of this period led him to drink heavily and regularly, a vice which blighted his career for many years. He proposed to Elsie Needham on St Kilda Beach, and they were married on 21 April 1917 in the dining room of a private home in West Leederville.
Curtin moved to Perth, Western Australia, in 1917 to become an editor for the Westralian Worker, the official trade union newspaper. He settled in the suburb of Cottesloe where his residence is now heritage-listed as "John Curtin's House". He enjoyed the less pressured life of Western Australia and his political views gradually moderated. He joined the Australian Journalists' Association in 1917 and was elected its Western Australian President in 1920. He wore his AJA badge every day he was prime minister. In addition to his stance on labour rights, Curtin was also a strong advocate for the rights of women and children. In 1927, the Federal Government convened a Royal Commission on Child Endowment, and Curtin was appointed as a member of that commission.