Menzies, Robert ___ 1894-1978 ___ Australian ___ politician

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
One of five children, Menzies was born in Jeparit, Victoria, in a back room of his father's grocery store in 1894. While his father became a member of the Victoria Parliament, he also had an uncle who became a member of the federal House of Representatives. Menzies studied at Grenville and Wesley Colleges, then then did law at Melbourne University. In 1928, he was appointed to Parliament but resigned, in a protest against rural employment subsidies, and returned to the law. In 1932, he joined the United Australia Party (UAP) and when it won the Victoria state election, he took several political offices. In 1934, he won the federal seat of Kooyong and became deputy leader of the UAP. After the death of the serving Prime Minister (Joseph Lyons), Menzies succeeded Earl Page who had been appointed caretaker Prime Minister. When Britain declared War on Germany in 1939, he mobilised Australian troops to help. But then, the year after winning an election in 1940, he was forced to resign as leader of the party and Prime Minister. Menzies made a comeback in 1944 with a new Liberal Party which went on to win a general election in 1949. Menzies then remained as Prime Minister until 1966, winning a record seven consecutive elections. During his time in power, Menzies presided over rapid industrial expansion, improved foreign policy links with the US, Japan and nations in Southeast Asia, the building of eight universities, and the development of Canberra as the nation's capital. He was knighted in 1963. In 1993, the National Library of Australia published the diary he kept during a wartime visit to England in 1941.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Churchill grows on me

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1941 ___ military political historyeye

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
a bit about

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
National Library of Australia

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Dark and Hurrying Days: Menzies' 1941 Diary
 

May 2005, July 2008, April 2013
Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments, or if you've found the site useful. Thank you.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.