Percival Clarence Millar was an Australian politician.
17 Facts About Clarrie Millar
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Clarrie Millar was a member of the National Party and served in the House of Representatives from 1974 to 1990, representing the Queensland seat of Wide Bay.
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Clarrie Millar was born on 15 June 1925 in Norwood, South Australia, the son of Elsie and Percival John Turbill.
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Clarrie Millar left school at the age of thirteen, by which time the family had settled in Hobart.
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Clarrie Millar worked for the department as a messenger boy, post office assistant, and junior assistant telegrapher.
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Clarrie Millar enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1943, at the age of 18.
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Clarrie Millar joined the Central Bureau as a radio operator conducting signals intelligence.
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Clarrie Millar was initially stationed in Brisbane and later in the Northern Territory, where he intercepted the Japanese message of surrender in 1945.
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Clarrie Millar was discharged from the RAAF in 1946 with the rank of leading aircraftman.
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Clarrie Millar transferred to the Department of Immigration in 1948, then in 1950 left the public service and moved to Biloela, Queensland, where he operated a dairy farm alongside his brother and stepfather.
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The farm experienced financial difficulties and after five years Clarrie Millar moved to Brisbane where he found work as a real estate agent.
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Clarrie Millar became "an innovative farmer, practising soil conservation and strip grazing, and improving his herd by artificial insemination", and obtaining a pilot's licence.
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Clarrie Millar was elected chairman of the Country Party's Kilkivan branch in 1974, having previously held office in state and federal electorate councils.
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Clarrie Millar was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1974 federal election, defeating incumbent Australian Labor Party MP Brendan Hansen in the seat of Wide Bay.
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Clarrie Millar served as chairman of committees from 1978 to 1983.
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Together with Labor's Tom Uren, Clarrie Millar was the last World War II combat veteran to serve in the House, though Russ Gorman who was a non-combat WWII veteran would serve until 1996.
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Clarrie Millar was the father of ABC journalist Lisa Millar.