Earle Page

Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page (August 8th 1880 – December 20th 1961) was a politician Australia N who was the eleventh Prime Minister of Australia and which is still at the present time, behind Billy Hughes, the member of Parliament having remained longest at the Australian Parliament from December 13rd, 1919 to December 9th, 1961 is 39 years and 361 days.

Page was born with Grafton and made its studies in Sydney where it obtained its diploma for the occupation of Doctor in 1901. He exerted in Sydney before engaging in the Australian army as army medical officer during the First World War where he was useful in Egypt. After the war he intalla as farmer and was elected mayor of Grafton.

In 1919 Page was elected appointed of Cowper as a candidate of the " Association of the Farmers and Colons" (" the Farmers and Settlers Association") from News-Wales of the South which became the " Country Party" in 1920. HE became chief of the party in 1921. The dissension with the agricultural policy of the government of Billy Hughes was one of the main reasons of the creation of this party and when, with the elections of 1922, this one was enough strong to be essential to the formation of a governmental majority, Page asked for and obtained the resignation of Hughes like condition to its support for a Nationaliste government.

Page became Minister for Finance of the government Bruce-Page, a station which it occupied until 1929. He was a burning defender of a preserving and very orthodoxe policy from a financial point of view except when the wellbeing of the farmers was threatened; he was happy to see the government spending his money at the same time as he showed a partisan convinced of raised customs duties to the entry of the country to protect small Australian industries.

When the governmental majority Bruce-Page was beaten by the Workers party in 1929, Page passed in the opposition. In 1931 Joseph Lyons was able to form a gouvernemen without the assistance of Country Party. In 1934, however, there needed a coalition for a parliamentary majority and Page became Ministre Commercial. When Lyons died suddenly in 1939, the general governor, Lord Gowrie, charged Page with providing the functions of Prime Minister. It occupied the station during three weeks (from April 7th to 29th 1939), time that l'" United Australian Party" - UAP- (the party which will become the liberal party in 1945) appoints its new leader.

Page felt very near to Lyons but he did not like Robert Menzies, his second, that Page estimated to have been unfair towards Lyons. When Menzies was elected with the head of the UAP, Page refused to take part in its government and publicly carried a personal attack against him in full House of Commons, showing it of cowardice not to be itself committed during the First World War. The party of Page did not accept the behavior of its chief and it was replaced by archie Cameron.

Page and Menzies forgot their different to be able to devote itself to the new effort of war and Page returned to the government. However the charges of Page had not been forgotten and certain deputies of the opposition, in particular Eddie Ward, from time to time undertook to point out them. In 1941, the Menzies government was reversed and Page spent the eight years of the worker governments of John Curtin and Ben Chifley on the benches of the opposition. In 1949 Menzies returned to the government and Page became Minister for Health, posts that it occupied until 1956, whereas it was 76 years old, becoming again simple deputy.

Page refused to withdraw Parliament and was represented with the elections of 1961 whereas it was 81 years old and that it was reached of a cancer to the lungs and incompetent to conduct campaign. It was beaten and lost the seat which it had occupied during nearly 42 years. But the day of the elections, it was already in the coma and it died a few days later without to have begun again conscience. He is still at present the deputy who represented longest the same district at the Australian Parliament.

Page was the first president of the University of England News which had been created in 1954. A district of Canberra bears its name.

Its grandson, Donald Page, are currently appointed at the Parliament of News-Wales of the South and occupied the station of second of the national party of 2003 to 2007.

Simple: Earle Page

Random links: