John Gorton

The Right Honourable Sir John Gorton GCMG, AC, CH
19th Prime Minister of Australia Elections: 1969
In office 10 January 1968 – 10 March 1971
Deputy	John McEwen Doug Anthony
Preceded by	John McEwen
Succeeded by	William McMahon
Australian Senator for Victoria
In office 22 February 1950 – 1 February 1968
Succeeded by	Ivor Greenwood
Member of the Australian Parliament for Higgins
In office 24 February 1968 – 11 November 1975
Preceded by	Harold Holt
Succeeded by	Roger Shipton
Personal details
Born	(1911-09-09)9 September 1911 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died	19 May 2002(2002-05-19) (aged 90) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse	Bettina Gorton
Children	Joanna, Michael and Robin

Sir John Grey Gorton, GCMG, AC, CH (9 September 1911–19 May 2002), Australian politician, was the 19th Prime Minister of Australia.

Early life

Gorton with mother Alice as a child in 1915.

Sir John Grey Gorton was born in Melbourne, 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. They separated in Australia and John senior established a de facto relationship with Sinn, who died of tuberculosis in 1920. John junior then went to live with his father's estranged wife and his half-sister Ruth, in Sydney..

He was educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School (where he was a class mate of Errol Flynn) and Geelong Grammar School, and then travelled to England to attend Brasenose College, Oxford. While in England, Gorton also undertook flying lessons and was awarded a British pilots' licence in 1932. He studied history, politics and economics at Oxford and graduated with an upper second undergraduate degree.

During a holiday in Spain while he was at Oxford, Gorton met Bettina Brown of Bangor, Maine, USA. She was a language student at the Sorbonne. This meeting came about through Gorton's friend from Oxford, Arthur Brown, who was Bettina's brother. Arthur Brown was later revealed to be a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. In 1935, Gorton and Bettina Brown were married in Oxford and after his studies were finished, they settled in Australia, taking over his father's orchard, "Mystic Park", at Lake Kangaroo near Kerang. They had three children: Joanna, Michael and Robin.

War service

1940-42

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. He trained as a fighter pilot at Somers, Victoria and Wagga Wagga, before being sent to the UK. Gorton completed his training at RAF Heston and RAF Honiley, with No. 61 Operational Training Unit RAF, flying Supermarine Spitfires. He was disappointed when his first operational posting was No. 135 Squadron RAF, a Hawker Hurricane unit, as he considered the type greatly inferior to Spitfires.

John Gorton prior to leaving for war service in 1941.

During late 1941, Gorton and other members of his squadron became part of the cadre of a Hurricane wing being formed for service in the Middle East. They were sent by sea, with 50 Hurricanes in crates, travelling around Africa to reduce the risk of attack. In December, when the ship was at Durban, South Africa, it was diverted to Singapore, after Japan entered the war. As it approached its destination in mid-January, Japanese forces were advancing down the Malayan Peninsula. The ship was attacked on at least one occasion by Japanese aircraft, but arrived and unloaded safely after tropical storms made enemy air raids impossible. As the Hurricanes were assembled, the pilots were formed into a composite operational squadron, No. 232 Squadron RAF.

In late January 1942, the squadron became operational and joined the remnants of several others that had been in Malaya, operating out of RAF Seletar and RAF Kallang. During one of his first sorties, Gorton was involved in a brief dogfight over the South China Sea, after which he suffered engine failure and was forced to land on Bintan island, 40 km (25 mi) south east of Singapore. As he landed, one of the Hurricane's wheels hit an embankment and flipped over. Gorton was not properly strapped in and his face hit the gun sight and windscreen, mutilating his nose and breaking both cheekbones. He also suffered severe lacerations to both arms. He made his way out of the wreck and was rescued by members of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army, who provided some medical treatment. Gorton later claimed that his face was so badly cut and bruised, that a member of the RAF sent to collect him assumed he was near death, collected his personal effects and returned to Singapore without him. By chance, one week later, Sgt Matt O'Mara of No. 453 Squadron RAAF also crash landed on Bintan, and arranged for them to be collected.

They arrived back in Singapore, on 11 February, three days after the island had been invaded. As the Allied air force units on Singapore had been destroyed or evacuated by this stage, Gorton was put on the Derrymore, an ammunition ship bound for Batavia (Jakarta). On 13 February, as it neared its destination, the ship was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-55 Kaidai class submarine and the Derrymore was abandoned. Gorton then spent almost a day on a crowded liferaft, in shark-infested waters, with little drinking water, until the raft was spotted by HMAS Ballarat, which picked up the passengers and took them to Batavia.

Two schoolfriends, who had also been evacuated from Singapore to Batavia, heard that Gorton was in hospital, arranged for them to be put on a ship for Fremantle, which left on 23 February and treated Gorton's wounds. When the ship arrived in Fremantle, on 3 March, one of Gorton's arm wounds had become septic and needed extensive treatment. However, he was more concerned about the effect that the sight of his mutilated face would have on his wife. It is reported that Betty Gorton, who had been running the farm in his absence, was relieved to see Gorton alive.

1942-44

After arriving in Australia he was posted to Darwin on 12 August 1942 with No. 77 Squadron RAAF (Kittyhawks), during this time he was involved in his second air accident. While flying P-40E A29-60 on 7 September 1942, he was forced to land due to an incorrectly set fuel cock. Both Gorton and his aircraft were recovered several days later after spending time in the bush. On 21 February 1943 the squadron was relocated to Milne Bay, New Guinea.

John Gorton's final air incident came on 18 March 1943. His A29-192 Kittyhawk's engine failed on take off, causing the aircraft to flip at the end of the strip. Gorton was unhurt. In March 1944, Gorton was sent back to Australia with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. His final posting was as a Flying Instructor with No. 2 Operational Training Unit at Mildura, Victoria. He was then discharged from the RAAF on 5 December 1944.

During late 1944 Gorton went to Heidelberg hospital for surgery which could not fully repair his facial injuries.

Political career

Gorton (middle) in 1951

Although Gorton had been a member of the Country Party before the war, in 1949 he was elected to the Senate for the Liberal Party. He served in various positions under Robert Menzies and Harold Holt, including Minister for the Navy from 1958–63, Minister for Works, Minister for the Interior and Minister for Education as well as Leader of the Government in the Senate. Gorton was an energetic and capable minister, and began to be considered leadership material once he moderated his early extremely right-wing views.

Prime minister

Harold Holt disappeared while swimming on 17 December 1967 and was declared presumed drowned two days later. His presumed successor was Liberal deputy leader William McMahon. However, on 18 December, the Country Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen announced that the Country Party would not continue to serve in the coalition if McMahon were to be the new Liberal leader. His reasons were never stated publicly, but in a private meeting with McMahon, he said "I will not serve under you because I do not trust you". McEwen's shock declaration triggered a leadership crisis within the Liberal Party; even more significantly, it raised the threat of a possible breaking of the Coalition, which would spell electoral disaster for the Liberals—they were only able to win and hold power with Country Party support, and the Liberal Party had never won sufficient seats in any federal election to be able to govern in its own right.

The Governor-General Lord Casey swore McEwen in as Prime Minister, on an interim basis pending the Liberal Party electing its new leader. McEwen agreed to accept an interim appointment provided there was no formal statement of time limit. This appointment was in keeping with previous occasions when a coalition conservative government had been deprived of its leader. Casey also concurred in the view put to him by McEwen that to commission a Liberal temporarily as Prime Minister would give that person an unfair advantage in the forthcoming party room ballot for the permanent leader.

In the subsequent leadership struggle, Gorton was championed by Army Minister Malcolm Fraser and Liberal Party Whip Dudley Erwin, and with their support he was able to defeat his main rival, the Minister for External Affairs Paul Hasluck, to become Liberal leader even though he was a member of the Senate. He was elected party leader on 9 January 1968, and appointed Prime Minister on 10 January, replacing McEwen. He was the only Senator in Australia's history to be Prime Minister. He remained a Senator until, in accordance with the Westminister tradition that the Prime Minister is a member of the lower house of parliament, he resigned on 1 February 1968 in order to contest the House of Representatives by-election for the electorate of Higgins (necessitated by Holt's death). That by-election was held on 24 February; there were three other candidates, but Gorton achieved a massive 68% of the formal vote. He visited all the polling booths during the day, but was unable to vote for himself as he was still enrolled in the western Victorian seat of Mallee. Between 2 and 23 February (both dates inclusive) he was a member of neither house of parliament.

Gorton was initially a very popular Prime Minister. He carved out a style quite distinct from those of his predecessors– the aloof Menzies and the affable, sporty Holt. Gorton liked to portray himself as a man of the people who enjoyed a beer and a gamble, with a bit of a "larrikin" streak about him. Unfortunately for him, this reputation later came back to haunt him.

He also began to follow new policies, pursuing independent defence and foreign policies and distancing Australia from its traditional ties to Britain. But he continued to support Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, a position he had reluctantly inherited from Holt, which became increasingly unpopular after 1968. On domestic issues, he favoured centralist policies at the expense of the states, which alienated powerful Liberal state leaders like Sir Henry Bolte of Victoria and Sir Robert Askin of New South Wales. He also fostered an independent Australian film industry and increased government funding for the arts.

Gorton proved to be a surprisingly poor media performer and public speaker, and was portrayed by the media as a foolish and incompetent administrator. He was unlucky to come up against a new and formidable Labor Opposition Leader in Gough Whitlam. Also, he was subjected to media speculation about his drinking habits and his involvements with women. He generated great resentment within his party, and his opponents became increasingly critical of his reliance on an inner circle of advisers– most notably his private secretary Ainsley Gotto.

The Coalition suffered a 7% swing against it at the 1969 election, and Labor outpolled it on the two party preferred vote. The Coalition lost most of the sizeable majority in the House of Representatives it had inherited from Holt, with its majority reduced from 45 seats to seven. It may have lost government had it not been for the Democratic Labor Party's longstanding practice of preferencing against Labor.

Leadership challenge

John and Bettina Gorton in the early 1950's.

After the election, Gorton was challenged for the Liberal leadership by McMahon and David Fairbairn, but so long as McEwen's veto on McMahon remained in place, he was fairly safe. McEwen retired in January 1971, and his successor, Doug Anthony, told the Liberals that the veto no longer applied. With the Liberal Party falling further behind Labor in the polls, a challenge was launched in March with the resignation of the Defence Minister, Malcolm Fraser, who attacked Gorton on the floor of Parliament in his resignation speech, saying that Gorton was "not fit to hold the great office of Prime Minister."

Gorton called a Liberal Party meeting to settle the matter. A motion of confidence in his leadership was tied. Gorton took it upon himself to say "Well that is not a vote of confidence, so the party will have to elect a new leader". Contrary to myth, Gorton did not have a casting vote (nor did he vote against himself), as a tied motion was automatically defeated. Subsequently McMahon was elected leader and thus Prime Minister. Australian television marked the end of his stormy premiership with a newsreel montage appropriately accompanied by Sinatra's anthem My Way.

In a surprise move, Gorton contested and won the position of Deputy Leader, forcing McMahon to make him Defence Minister. This farcical situation ended within a few months when McMahon sacked him for disloyalty.

After 1972

After Labor won the 1972 election, Gorton served in the Shadow Ministry of Billy Snedden until after the 1974 election, when he was dropped. When Fraser became Liberal leader in 1975, Gorton resigned from the party, sat as an independent, and openly campaigned against Fraser, whom he detested. He denounced the dismissal of the Whitlam government by Sir John Kerr, and unsuccessfully stood for an Australian Capital Territory Senate seat at the 1975 election as an independent. He achieved 11 per cent of the vote, coming third behind the major parties. In 1973, Gorton moved a motion in Parliament calling for the decriminalisation of homosexual acts between consenting adults in Australia. The motion was successful following a conscience vote.

Retirement

Gorton retired to Canberra, where he kept out of the political limelight, although he quietly rejoined the Liberal Party. In March 1983, he congratulated Bob Hawke "for rolling that bastard Fraser". Bettina Gorton died aged about 67 on 2 October 1983, and in 1993 he married Nancy Home. In his old age he was rehabilitated by the Liberals; his 90th birthday party was attended by Prime Minister John Howard. As late as 2002, he told his biographer Ian Hancock that he still could not tolerate being in the same room as Malcolm Fraser. He died at the age of 90 in Sydney in May, 2002.

Honours

Bust of John Gorton by sculptor Victor Greenhalgh located in the Prime Minister's Avenue in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens

Gorton was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1968, a Companion of Honour in 1971, a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1977 and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1988. He was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001.

See also

• First Gorton Ministry
• Second Gorton Ministry

Further reading

• Hancock, Ian (2002), John Gorton: He Did It His Way, Hodder, Sydney, New South Wales (sympathetic) ISBN 0 7336 1439 6
• Henderson, Gerard (2000), 'Sir John Grey Gorton,' in Michelle Grattan (ed.), Australian Prime Ministers, New Holland, Sydney, New South Wales, pages 299-311. ISBN 1 86436 756 3
• Hughes, Colin A (1976), Mr Prime Minister. Australian Prime Ministers 1901-1972, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, Ch.21. ISBN 0 19 550471 2
• Reid, Alan (1969), The Power Struggle, Shakespeare Head Press, Sydney, New South Wales.
• Reid, Alan (1971), The Gorton Experiment, Shakespeare Head Press, Sydney, New South Wales. (highly critical)
• Trengove, Alan (1969), John Grey Gorton: An Informal Biography, Cassell Australia, Melbourne.

External links

• John Gorton– Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archives of Australia
• John Gorton at the National Film and Sound Archive