81 Facts About John McEwen

Sir John McEwen was an Australian politician and farmer who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia from 1967 to 1968, in a caretaker capacity following the disappearance of prime minister Harold Holt.

John McEwen was the leader of the Country Party from 1958 to 1971, serving as the inaugural deputy prime minister of Australia from 1968 to 1971.

John McEwen was orphaned at the age of seven and raised by his grandmother, initially in Wangaratta and then in Dandenong.

John McEwen was nonetheless eligible for a soldier settlement scheme, and selected a property at Stanhope.

John McEwen established a dairy farm, but later bought a larger property and farmed beef cattle.

John McEwen was first elevated to cabinet by Joseph Lyons in 1937.

John McEwen became deputy leader of the Country Party in 1943, under Arthur Fadden.

John McEwen replaced Fadden as leader in 1958, and remained in the position until his retirement from politics in 1971.

John McEwen served in parliament for 36 years in total, spending a record 25 years as a government minister.

John McEwen came to have a major influence on economic policy, particularly in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing, and trade.

John McEwen was 67 at the time, the oldest person to become prime minister and only the third from the Country Party.

John McEwen was Australia's third shortest serving prime minister, after Earle Page and Frank Forde.

John McEwen remained as deputy prime minister until his retirement from politics in 1971.

John McEwen was born on 29 March 1900, at his parents' home in Chiltern, Victoria.

John McEwen was the son of Amy Ellen and David James McEwen.

John McEwen's mother was born in Victoria, and had English and Irish ancestry.

John McEwen's father was of Ulster Scots origin, born in Mountnorris, County Armagh.

John McEwen worked as a chemist, and served a term on the Chiltern Shire Council.

John McEwen's mother died of lung disease in March 1902, just before his second birthday; she had given birth to a daughter, Amy, a few months earlier.

John McEwen died from meningitis in September 1907, when his son was seven.

John McEwen grew up in what he described as "pretty frugal circumstances", and in 1912 his grandmother moved the family to Dandenong, on the outskirts of Melbourne.

John McEwen initially worked as a switchboard operator, for which he was paid 15 shillings per week.

John McEwen began attending night school in Prahran, and in 1915 passed an examination for the Commonwealth Public Service and began working as a junior clerk at the office of the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor.

John McEwen joined the Australian Army Cadets and completed a Royal Australian Navy course in radiotelegraphy, hoping to qualify for the newly opened Royal Military College, Duntroon.

John McEwen passed the entrance exam, but instead chose to enlist as a private in the Australian Imperial Force, in order to be posted overseas sooner.

John McEwen selected an 86-acre lot at Stanhope, on land that previously been a sheep station.

John McEwen spent several months working as a farm labourer and later did the same as a stevedore at the Port of Melbourne, eventually saving enough money to return to Stanhope and establish his dairy farm.

In 1926, John McEwen sold his property and bought a larger farm nearby, which he named Chilgala.

John McEwen switched from dairy to beef cattle, and was able to expand his property by buying abandoned farms from the government.

John McEwen had a reputation as one of the best farmers in the district, and came to be seen by the other soldier-settlers as a spokesman and leader.

John McEwen represented them in meetings with government officials, and was secretary of the local Water Users' League, which protected the interests of irrigators.

John McEwen joined the Victorian Farmers' Union in 1919 at the age of 19 and was active in the Country Party, its political wing.

John McEwen first stood for parliament at the 1932 Victorian state election, contesting the Legislative Assembly seat of Waranga.

John McEwen's campaigning efforts brought him to the attention of party leaders and he soon joined the state executive.

Country MP William Hill decided to quit politics altogether in protest, with John McEwen endorsed by the Victorian party as its replacement for Hill in the seat of Echuca.

John McEwen nonetheless retained Echuca with the aid of favourable preference flows from Australian Labor Party voters.

John McEwen regarded this as "the first step towards a wheat industry stabilisation plan".

In 1936, following the Privy Council's ruling in James v Commonwealth, John McEwen moved in parliament that the constitution be amended to allow for the federal government to legislate on the marketing of agricultural products.

John McEwen's seat was abolished in a redistribution during his first term and he transferred to the seat of Indi at the 1937 election.

John McEwen rose rapidly within the parliamentary Country Party and narrowly failed to win the deputy leadership after the 1937 election, losing to Harold Thorby by a single vote on the second ballot.

John McEwen was appointed Minister for the Interior in the third Lyons ministry, a coalition government between the Country Party and the United Australia Party led by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons.

In December 1937, John McEwen was formally expelled from the Victorian Country Party, while remaining a member of the federal parliamentary Country Party.

John McEwen contested the resulting leadership ballot on 13 September 1939, losing by seven votes to five to South Australian MP Archie Cameron.

Only a few weeks after his election, John McEwen joined three other Country Party MPs in crossed the floor to support an ALP amendment to a bill on conscientious objectors.

John McEwen was confirmed in the position in March 1941, a role he would hold until 1958.

On 16 October 1940, John McEwen was appointed Minister for Air and Minister for Civil Aviation in a post-election cabinet reshuffle.

John McEwen remained as air and civil aviation minister until the defeat of the Fadden government in October 1941, with Fadden having succeeded as prime minister upon Menzies' resignation in August 1941.

John McEwen secured war cabinet approval for volunteers to be recruited from the Citizen Military Forces and authorised steps to expand RAAF auxiliaries, announcing the creation of the Australian Air Force Cadets and the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force in early 1941.

John McEwen had a strained relationship with RAAF chief Charles Burnett, frequently clashing over expenditure matters.

John McEwen oversaw the acceleration of Australia's involvement in the Empire Air Training Scheme, which saw RAAF personnel receive training in Canada before being seconded to the Royal Air Force for combat in the European theatre.

In May 1941, John McEwen announced that 1,000 RAAF ground staff would be seconded to the RAF.

John McEwen faced criticisms that RAAF personnel in the UK were being assigned to RAF units rather than the Article XV squadrons required by the scheme, and that Australian officers were being denied senior leadership opportunities in RAF commands.

John McEwen continued to serve on the Advisory War Council following the Fadden government's defeat, remaining as a member for the duration of the war.

John McEwen was elected deputy leader of the Country Party in September 1943, with the position having been vacant since Fadden's elevation to the leadership.

John McEwen opposed suggestions that the Country Party should merge into the new Liberal Party of Australia, created by Menzies as a replacement for the UAP, and remained defensive of the Country Party's independence throughout his political career.

John McEwen was a prominent campaigner for the "No" vote in the Curtin government's 1944 post-war reconstruction referendum.

John McEwen was a leading opponent of the Chifley government's attempts to nationalise the private banking sector in 1947 and 1948.

At this election, John McEwen stood in the new seat of Murray, which had been carved out of Indi's northwest section.

John McEwen became Minister for Commerce and Agriculture, switching to Minister for Trade in 1956.

John McEwen came to see the resumption of trade with Japan as important for Australian producers, as Australia sought new markets outside the existing framework of Imperial Preference.

John McEwen first put forward a cabinet proposal to enter into trade negotiations with Japan in July 1953, which was rejected although an accompanying recommendation to liberalise restrictions on Japanese imports was accepted.

John McEwen eventually secured cabinet approval for trade talks with Japan in November 1954, on his third attempt.

In 1958, following Fadden's retirement, John McEwen was elected unopposed as leader of the Country Party.

John McEwen's cause was championed by a number of media outlets, including The Sun and The Australian.

Holt replaced Menzies as prime minister in January 1966, with John McEwen continuing on his previous position.

John McEwen's portfolio had been expanded after the 1963 election, with his department now called the Department of Trade and Industry.

John McEwen enjoyed a "sound working relationship" with Holt, but without the same rapport he had had with Menzies.

John McEwen issued a public statement criticising the decision, which he feared would damage primary industry.

The Governor-General, Lord Casey, sent for John McEwen and commissioned him as interim prime minister, on the understanding that his commission would continue only so long as it took for the Liberals to elect a new leader.

John McEwen contended that if Casey commissioned a Liberal as interim prime minister, it would give that person an undue advantage in the upcoming ballot for a full-time leader.

John McEwen retained all of Holt's ministers, and had them sworn in as the John McEwen Ministry.

John McEwen had been encouraged to remain prime minister on a more permanent basis but to do so would have required him to defect to the Liberals, an option he had never contemplated.

However, John McEwen sparked a leadership crisis when he announced that he and his Country Party colleagues would not serve under McMahon.

Gorton created the formal title deputy prime minister for John McEwen, confirming his status as the second-ranking member of the government.

John McEwen was the last serving parliamentarian from the Great Depression era, and hence the last parliamentary survivor of the Lyons government.

John McEwen was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1969.

John McEwen was knighted in 1971 after his retirement from politics, becoming a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George.

On 26 July 1968, John McEwen married Mary Eileen Byrne, his personal secretary for 15 years, at Wesley Church, Melbourne; he was aged 68, she was 46.

John McEwen had no children by any of his marriages.

John McEwen had severe dermatitis for most of his adult life.

John McEwen was cremated, and his estate was sworn for probate at $2,180,479.