21 Facts About Gordon Scholes

Gordon Glen Denton Scholes AO was an Australian politician.

Gordon Scholes was a member of the Australian Labor Party and served in the House of Representatives from 1967 to 1993, representing the Division of Corio.

Gordon Scholes served terms as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minister for Defence, and Minister for Territories.

Gordon Scholes was the only child of Mary Louisa and Thomas Glen Denton Scholes; his father was a railway worker and his mother was a psychiatric nurse.

Gordon Scholes spent two long periods in hospital, once at the age of three following a car accident and again at the age of fourteen following a bout of rheumatic fever.

Gordon Scholes's father enlisted in the military in 1941 and was injured while fighting in New Guinea, subsequently becoming a long-term patient at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.

Gordon Scholes stayed with relatives in various locations around Victoria while his mother worked at a munitions factory, attending twelve different schools.

Gordon Scholes eventually settled in Daylesford where his mother's aunt lived, attending Daylesford Technical High School to the age of fifteen.

Gordon Scholes subsequently joined the Victorian Railways where his father and grandfather had worked, working his way from engine-cleaner to fireman to engine-driver, including on the Spirit of Progress between Melbourne and Sydney.

Gordon Scholes joined the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees and after settling in Geelong became the union's delegate to the local trades hall.

Gordon Scholes was a talented amateur boxer and in 1949 became the amateur heavyweight champion of Victoria.

Gordon Scholes joined the ALP in 1954 and was elected president of its Geelong branch in 1962.

Gordon Scholes served as Bob Hawke's campaign manager in the seat of Corio at the 1963 federal election.

Gordon Scholes was the Labor Party candidate in Corio in the 1966 election, and was defeated by incumbent Liberal Sir Hubert Opperman.

Gordon Scholes won the seat at the ensuing by-election on a swing of 11 percent.

Gordon Scholes won the seat in his own right at the 1969 election.

Gordon Scholes served as Speaker from 27 February 1975 until 16 February 1976, a period taken up almost entirely by the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.

Kerr refused to see the Speaker or to recognise the motion of no confidence in the Fraser government by the House of Representatives, keeping Gordon Scholes waiting for more than an hour.

Gordon Scholes later accused Kerr of bad faith for making an appointment to receive the Speaker shortly after 3pm, and then not waiting to hear from him before dissolving Parliament more than an hour later, with the appointed Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser still as Prime Minister, without the confidence of the House of Representatives.

Gordon Scholes was Minister for Defence in the first Hawke Ministry from March 1983 to December 1984 and then Minister for Territories until July 1987.

Gordon Scholes was an honorary member of the Geelong Philatelic Society.