Menzies, Robert Gordon (1894-1978)

Australian conservative politician, leader of the United Australia (now Liberal) Party and prime minister 1939-41 and 1949-66.

A Melbourne lawyer, he entered politics in 1928 as a Nationalist in the Victoria parliament, was attorney general in the federal parliament 1934-39, and in 1939 succeeded Joseph Lyons as prime minister and leader of the United Australia Party, resigning in 1941 when colleagues were dissatisfied with his leadership of Australia's war effort. In 1949 he became prime minister of a Liberal-Country Party coalition government, and, exploiting divisions in a divided Labor Party oposition, was re-elected in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1958, 1961, and 1963; he followed the USA's lead in committing Australia to the Vietnam War and retired soon after, in 1966. A conservative and an ardent royalist, who unsuccessfully tried to ban the Communist Party in 1950, he was viewed by critics as a ‘frozen Edwardian’. They argued that he did not show enough interest in Asia, and supported the USA and white African regimes too uncritically. His defenders argued that he provided stability in domestic policy and national security. KT 1963.

Born in Victoria, the son of a Presbyterian storekeeper and conservative politician, he studied law at Melbourne University and became a successful barrister.