28 Facts About Henry Bolte

Sir Henry Edward Bolte was an Australian politician who served as the 38th premier of Victoria from 1955 to 1972.

Henry Bolte held office as the leader of the Victorian division of the Liberal Party of Australia and was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the division of Hampden from 1947 to 1972.

Henry Bolte is the longest-serving premier in Victorian state history, having been in office for over 17 consecutive years.

Henry Bolte was the son of Anna Jane and James Henry Bolte.

Shortly after his birth, Henry Bolte's parents moved the family to Skipton in the Western District where they ran a local pub, the Ripon Hotel.

Henry Bolte's mother's stepfather William Warren was a hotel proprietor, running the Skipton Hotel until 1921 when he sold it to the Boltes.

Henry Bolte entered Ballarat Grammar School as a boarder in 1922 on a technical scholarship, attending alongside his future parliamentary colleagues Tom Hollway and Edward Montgomery.

Henry Bolte left school in 1924 and returned to Skipton, where he had land dealings and ran a haberdashery shop established by his father.

Henry Bolte was active in community organisations, playing cricket and football for local teams, qualifying as a swimming instructor and serving as secretary of the local racing club.

Henry Bolte's store failed in 1929 and during the Great Depression he worked as a shearer to support himself.

In 1934, with money from his grandmother, Henry Bolte purchased Kialla, a sheep farming property of 900 acres at Bamganie near Meredith.

Henry Bolte was stationed at Puckapunyal for periods as an artillery instructor and pay clerk, but was rejected for overseas service and discharged in January 1943.

Henry Bolte was founding president of the Liberal Party's Meredith branch in 1945 and was a delegate to its inaugural state council.

Henry Bolte first stood for parliament at the 1945 state election, running unsuccessfully in the seat of Hampden, but reprised his candidacy in 1947 and defeated the incumbent Australian Labor Party member Raymond Hyatt.

When Henry Bolte was elected to Parliament in 1947 the Liberal leader was Thomas Hollway, who came from Ballarat but was somewhat less conservative than Henry Bolte.

Henry Bolte was a rough-hewn politician who liked to be seen as a simple farmer, but he had a shrewd political mind.

Henry Bolte used state debt to provide a wide range of state infrastructure and he was very successful at winning overseas investment for the state.

Henry Bolte was easily re-elected at the 1958,1961 and 1964 state elections.

Henry Bolte was a proponent of using capital punishment as a deterrent against violent crime.

Henry Bolte had the power to recommend clemency, but declined to exercise it, arguing that the death penalty was a necessary deterrent for crime against government officials and law enforcement officers.

Henry Bolte had said "If I thought the law was wrong I would change it".

Henry Bolte's standing was reduced by a crisis in the state education system, with teacher shortages and overcrowded schools as the children of the baby boom passed through the education system.

At the 1970 state elections the Liberals seemed in serious danger of losing office, or at least being forced into a coalition with the Country Party, but Henry Bolte was saved by Holding's left-wing enemies in the Labor Party, who sabotaged his campaign by publicly opposing government funding for non-government schools.

Henry Bolte was promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1972 New Year Honours.

Henry Bolte was shrewd enough to see that the Liberals had a year at most to broaden their appeal before a statutory general election, and concluded that they needed a new leader and a new image for the 1970s.

On 24 March 1984, Henry Bolte was involved in a serious head-on accident when he was driving home after an evening in the local hotel near his property at Bamganie.

Henry Bolte later told author Tom Prior "Of course I know nothing, I was unconscious".

Henry Bolte was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the New Year's Day honours list of 1966.