17 Facts About Dudley Erwin

George Dudley Erwin was an Australian politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1955 to 1975, representing the Liberal Party.

Dudley Erwin was Chief Government Whip from 1967 to 1969, and played a role in the ascension of John Gorton to the prime ministership after the disappearance of Harold Holt.

Dudley Erwin was briefly Minister for Air in 1969, but a falling-out with Gorton ended his ministerial career.

Dudley Erwin grew up on his father's farming property near Wensleydale.

Dudley Erwin attended the local state school until the age of 13, leaving during the Great Depression to help on the farm.

Dudley Erwin took a correspondence course in Morse code, later attending the Marconi School of Wireless in Sydney.

Dudley Erwin enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in January 1940, training as a radio operator.

Dudley Erwin finished the war with the rank of flight lieutenant, serving as a navigator with No 25 Squadron and No 31 Squadron.

Dudley Erwin was discharged in October 1945 and bought a farm of 360 acres near that of his father.

Dudley Erwin was elected for the Liberal Party as the member of the House of Representatives seat of Ballaarat at the 1955 election.

Dudley Erwin was Government Whip from February 1967 to February 1969 and strongly supported John Gorton's election as Liberal leader following the disappearance and presumed drowning of Prime Minister Harold Holt on 17 December 1967.

In November 1969, Dudley Erwin was left out of Gorton's second ministry.

Dudley Erwin chaired the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary and Government Publications, which produced the first edition of the Australian Government Style Manual.

However, in 1957 Dudley Erwin divorced his first wife on the grounds of desertion.

Dudley Erwin remarried to Virginia Joan Burrows, an American divorcee, in 1962.

Dudley Erwin died of a heart attack in Canberra on 29 October 1984.

Dudley Erwin was survived by his daughter, youngest son, third wife, and stepson from his third marriage; his oldest son predeceased him.