Sir Robert Ross McDonald QC was an Australian politician who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1933 to 1950, representing the seat of West Perth.
15 Facts About Ross McDonald
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Ross McDonald served as leader of the Nationalist Party from 1938 to 1945, and of the Liberal Party from 1945 to 1946, during the period when those parties were the junior partners in the coalition with the Country Party.
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Ross McDonald boarded at Scotch College, Perth, and then studied law by correspondence at the University of Adelaide.
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Ross McDonald enlisted as a private in the Australian Imperial Force in 1916, and later served as a lower-level officer with various artillery units in France and Belgium.
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Ross McDonald had reached the rank of lieutenant by the end of the war.
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On his return to Australia in 1919, Ross McDonald joined the law firm of Robert Thomson Robinson, eventually becoming a partner.
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Ross McDonald was a part-time lecturer at the University of Western Australia from 1928 to 1931, and served as the foundation vice-president of the Australian branch of the International Commission of Jurists.
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At the 1933 state election, Ross McDonald stood as the Nationalist candidate for West Perth, and was elected in spite of his party's landslide defeat.
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Norbert Keenan succeeded the former premier James Mitchell as the party's leader, but Ross McDonald soon became one of the party's most prominent MPs, due to his debating style.
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When Keenan, aged 74, resigned as leader in April 1938, Ross McDonald was elected in his place.
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In 1944 and 1945, Ross McDonald was involved in the affiliation of Western Australia's Nationalist Party to the new federal Liberal Party, and the corresponding name change.
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Ross McDonald resigned as leader of the Liberal Party in December 1946, in favour of Ross McLarty, with the belief that the party would be better served by a leader from a rural constituency.
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Ross McDonald resigned from the ministry in October 1949 and from parliament at the 1950 election.
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Ross McDonald was knighted in June 1950 for his services to the state.
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Ross McDonald died at St John of God Subiaco Hospital in March 1964, having never married.