Sir John Grey Gorton, Australian politician, was the 19th Prime-Minister of Australia.
Background
Sir John Grey Gorton was born in Melbourne, Victoria the illegitimate son of Alice Sinn, the daughter of a railway worker, and English orange orchardist John Rose Gorton. The older Gorton and his wife Kathleen had emigrated to Australia by way of South Africa, where they had prospered during the Boer War.
On 31 May 1940, following the outbreak of World War II, Gorton enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force Reserve. At the age of 29, he was considered too old for pilot training, but he re-applied in September after this rule was relaxed. Gorton was accepted and commissioned into the RAAF on 8 November 1940. Although Gorton had been a member of the Countru Party before the war, in 1949 he was elected to the Senate for the Liberal Party. Gorton retired to Canberra, where he kept out of the political limelight, although he quietly rejoined the Liberal Party.
Education
Geelong Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford.
Career
Served R.A.A.F. during Second World War, severely wounded. Councillor Kerang Shire 1947-1952, and President, of Shire. Senator for State of Victoria 1949-1968, Government Leader in Senate 1967-1968.
Minister for Navy 1958-1963. Minister Assisting Minister for External Affairs 1960-1963. Minister-in-Charge CSIRO 1962-1968.
Minister for Works and under-Prime Minister, Minister-in-Charge of Commonwealth Activities in Education and Research 1963-1966. Minister for Interior 1963-1964, for Works 1966-1967. Minister for Education and Science 1966-1968.
Prime Minister of Australia 1968-1971. Minister of Defence and Deputy Leader of Liberal Party MarchAug. 1971; Deputy Chair, of Jt.
Pari. Committee on Prices 1973-1974.
Membership
Pari. Liberal Party; House of Representatives 1968-1975.