The Right Honourable Sir Robert Menzies KT, AK, CH, FAA, FRS, QC
12th Prime Minister of Australia Elections: 1940, 1949, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1958, 1961, 1963
In office 26 April 1939 – 26 August 1941
Monarch	George VI
Governor General	Lord Gowrie
Preceded by	Earle Page
Succeeded by	Arthur Fadden
In office 19 December 1949 – 26 January 1966
Monarch	George VI Elizabeth II
Governor General	Sir William McKell Sir William Slim Viscount Dunrossil Viscount De L'Isle Lord Casey
Preceded by	Ben Chifley
Succeeded by	Harold Holt
Member of the Australian Parliament for Kooyong
In office 15 September 1934 – 16 February 1966
Preceded by	John Latham
Succeeded by	Andrew Peacock
Deputy Premier of Victoria
In office May 1932 – July 1934
Preceded by	Albert Dunstan
Succeeded by	Wilfrid Kent Hughes
Constituency	Nunawading
Personal details
Born	(1894-12-20)20 December 1894 Jeparit, Victoria, Australia
Died	15 May 1978(1978-05-15) (aged 83) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Political party	Nationalist (1928–1931) UAP (1931–1945) Liberal (1945–1966)
Spouse(s)	Pattie Leckie Menzies
Children	3
Alma mater	University of Melbourne
Profession	Lawyer

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, KT, AK, CH, FAA, FRS,^[1] QC (20 December 1894 – 15 May 1978) was an Australian politician and the 12th Prime Minister of Australia. Serving a collective total of over 18 years, he was Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister.

Menzies' first term as Prime Minister commenced in 1939, after the death in office of the United Australia Party leader Joseph Lyons and a short-term interim premiership by Sir Earle Page. His party narrowly won the 1940 election, which produced a hung parliament, with the support of independent MPs in the House. A year later, his government was brought down by those same MPs crossing the floor. He spent eight years in opposition, during which he founded the Liberal Party of Australia. He again became Prime Minister at the 1949 election, and he then dominated Australian politics until his retirement in 1966.

Menzies was renowned as a brilliant speaker, both on the floor of Parliament and on the hustings; his speech "The Forgotten People" is an example of his oratorical skills. Throughout his life and career, Menzies held strong beliefs in the Monarchy and in traditional ties with Britain. In 1963 Menzies was invested as the first and only Australian Knight of the Order of the Thistle. Menzies is regarded highly in Prime Ministerial opinion polls and is very highly regarded in Australian society for his tenures as Prime Minister.

Early life[link]

Robert Gordon Menzies was born to James Menzies and Kate Menzies (née Sampson) in Jeparit, a town in the Wimmera region of northwestern Victoria, on 20 December 1894. His father James was a storekeeper, the son of Scottish crofters who had immigrated to Australia in the mid-1850s in the wake of the Victorian gold rush. His maternal grandfather, John Sampson, was a Cornish miner from Penzance who also came to seek his fortune on the goldfields, in Ballarat.^[2] Menzies was proud of his mother's origin. Cornish author A.L. Rowse wrote, 'When Menzies visited us [at All Souls College, Oxford] he told me that he was a Cornish Sampson on his mother's side.'^[3] His father and one of his uncles had been members of the Victorian Parliament, while another uncle had represented Wimmera in the House of Representatives.^[4] He was proud of his Highland ancestry – his enduring nickname, Ming, came from /ˈmɪŋəs/, the Scots – and his own preferred – pronunciation of Menzies. His middle name, Gordon, was given to him in honour and memory of Charles George Gordon, a British army officer killed in Khartoum in 1885.^[5]

Menzies was first educated at a one-room school, then later at private schools in Ballarat and Melbourne (Wesley College) and studied law at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1916.

When World War I began, Menzies was 19 years old and held a commission in the university's militia unit. He resigned his commission at the very time others of his age and class clamoured to be allowed to enlist. It was later stated that, since the family had made enough of a sacrifice to the war with the enlistment of two of three eligible brothers, Menzies should stay to finish his studies.^[4] Menzies himself never explained the reason why he chose not to enlist. Subsequently he was prominent in undergraduate activities and won academic prizes and declared himself to be a patriotic supporter of the war and conscription.^[6] Menzies was admitted to the Victorian Bar and to the High Court of Australia in 1918 and soon became one of Melbourne's leading lawyers after establishing his own practice. In 1920 he married Pattie Leckie, the daughter of federal Nationalist, and later Liberal, MP, John Leckie.

Rise to power[link]

In 1928, Menzies gave up his law practice to enter state parliament as a member of the Victorian Legislative Council from East Yarra Province, representing the Nationalist Party of Australia. His candidacy was nearly defeated when a group of ex-servicemen attacked him in the press for not having enlisted, but he survived this crisis. The following year he shifted to the Legislative Assembly as the member for Nunawading. Before the election, he founded the Young Nationalists as his party's youth wing and served as its first president. He was Deputy Premier of Victoria from May 1932 until July 1934.

Menzies transferred to federal politics in 1934, representing the United Australia Party (UAP—the Nationalists had merged with other non-Labor groups to form the UAP during his tenure as a state parliamentarian) in the upper-class Melbourne electorate of Kooyong. He was immediately appointed Attorney-General and Minister for Industry in the Lyons government. In 1937 he was appointed a Privy Councillor.

In late 1934 and early 1935 Menzies unsuccessfully prosecuted the Lyons government's case for the attempted exclusion from Australia of Egon Kisch, a Czech Jewish communist. Because of this, some accused Menzies of being pro-Nazi, whilst others saw it as an early example of his strong opposition to communism. Following the outbreak of World War II Menzies found it necessary to distance himself from the controversy by claiming Interior Minister Thomas Paterson was responsible since he made the initial order to exclude Kisch.

Animosity developed between Earle Page and Menzies which was aggravated when Page became Acting Prime Minister during Lyons' illness after October 1938. Menzies and Page attacked each other publicly. He later became deputy leader of the UAP. His supporters said he was Lyons's natural successor; his critics accused Menzies of wanting to push Lyons out, a charge he denied. In 1938 his enemies ridiculed him as "Pig Iron Bob", the result of his industrial battle with waterside workers who refused to load scrap iron being sold to Imperial Japan. In 1939, however, he resigned from the Cabinet in protest at postponement of the national insurance scheme. With Lyons' sudden death on 7 April 1939, Page became acting Prime Minister until the UAP could elect a leader.

First term as Prime Minister[link]

Robert Menzies broadcasting to the nation the news of the outbreak of war, 1939. (See quote to right).

Menzies and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1941.

On 18 April, Menzies was elected Leader of the UAP and was sworn in as Prime Minister eight days later. A crisis arose almost immediately, however, when Page refused to serve under him. In an extraordinary personal attack in the House, Page accused Menzies of cowardice for not having enlisted in the War, and of treachery to Lyons. Menzies then formed a minority government. When Page was deposed as Country Party leader a few months later, Menzies reformed the Coalition with Page's successor, Archie Cameron.

– Menzies radio broadcast to the nation on 3 September 1939 informing Australia that the country was at war with Germany and her allies.^[7][8]

In September 1939, Menzies found himself a wartime leader of a small nation of 7 million people that depended on Britain for defence against the looming threat of the Japanese Empire, with 100 million people, a very powerful military, and an aggressive foreign policy that looked south. He did his best to rally the country, but the bitter memories of the disillusionment which followed the First World War made this difficult. Added to this was the fact that Menzies had not served in that war, and that as Attorney-General and Deputy Prime Minister, Menzies had made an official visit to Germany in 1938, and like his Opposition at the time, supported Neville Chamberlain's policy of Appeasement. At the 1940 election, the UAP was nearly defeated, and Menzies' government survived only thanks to the support of two independent MPs, Arthur Coles and Alex Wilson. The Australian Labor Party (ALP), under John Curtin, refused Menzies' offer to form a war coalition, and also opposed using the Australian army for a European war, preferring to keep it at home to defend Australia. The ALP did agree to participate in the Advisory War Council, however. Menzies sent the bulk of the army to help the British in the Middle East and Singapore, and told Winston Churchill the Royal Navy should strengthen its Far Eastern forces.^[9]

In 1941 Menzies spent months in Britain discussing war strategy with Churchill and other leaders, while his position at home deteriorated. The Australian historian David Day has suggested that Menzies hoped to replace Churchill as British Prime Minister, and that he had some support in Britain for this. Other Australian writers, such as Gerard Henderson, have rejected this theory. When Menzies came home, he found he had lost all support, and was forced to resign as Prime Minister. However, the UAP was so bereft of leadership that it was forced to allow the Country Party leader, Arthur Fadden, to become Prime Minister even though the Country Party was the junior partner in the Coalition. Menzies was very bitter about what he saw as this betrayal by his colleagues, and almost left politics. However, he was prevailed upon to remain UAP leader and Minister for Defence Co-ordination in Fadden's government.

Formation of Liberal Party and return to power[link]

Extract; The Forgotten People, Robert Menzies, 22 May 1942;

Fadden's government was defeated in Parliament later in 1941, and Labor formed a government under John Curtin. Menzies argued that he should become Leader of the Opposition, but most of his colleagues favoured Fadden. Menzies resigned the leadership in disgust and was succeeded by Billy Hughes. However, Menzies remained an opposition frontbencher under Fadden.

In 1943 Curtin won a huge election victory. Hughes resigned as UAP leader, and Menzies returned to the leadership. Fadden yielded the post of Opposition Leader back to Menzies as well. During 1944 Menzies held a series of meetings at 'Ravenscraig' an old homestead in Aspley to discuss forming a new anti-Labor party to replace the moribund UAP. This was the Liberal Party, which was launched in early 1945 with Menzies as leader. But Labor was firmly entrenched in power and in 1946 Curtin's successor, Ben Chifley, was comfortably re-elected. Comments that "we can't win with Menzies" began to circulate in the conservative press.^{[citation needed]}

Over the next few years, however, the anti-communist atmosphere of the early Cold War began to erode Labor's support. In 1947, Chifley announced that he intended to nationalise Australia's private banks, arousing intense middle-class opposition which Menzies successfully exploited. The 1949 coal strike, engineered by the Communist Party, also played into Menzies' hands. In the December 1949 election, Menzies won power for the second time in a massive landslide. He picked up 48 seats in a House of Representatives that had been expanded to 121 members, while Labor picked up only four. The net 44-seat swing is still the largest defeat of a sitting government at the federal level in Australia.

Second term as Prime Minister[link]

1970 ABC interview with Robert Menzies and Allan Fraser, discussing their recollections of the Petrov Affair.

In 1950 Menzies was awarded the Legion of Merit (Chief Commander) by U.S. President Harry S. Truman for "exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services 1941–1944 and December 1949 – July 1950".

Robert and wife Pattie Menzies in the 1940s

Although Menzies had a comfortable majority in the House, the ALP-controlled Senate made life very difficult for him. In 1951 Menzies introduced legislation to ban the Communist Party, hoping that the Senate would reject it and give him an excuse for a double dissolution election, but Labor let the bill pass. It was subsequently ruled unconstitutional by the High Court. But when the Senate rejected his banking bill, he called a double dissolution. While he won a slightly reduced majority in the House (the Coalition suffered a five-seat swing), he won six seats in the Senate to win control of both chambers. Later in 1951 Menzies decided to hold a referendum on the question of changing the Constitution to permit the parliament to make laws in respect of Communists and Communism where he said this was necessary for the security of the Commonwealth. If passed, this would have given a government the power to introduce a bill proposing to ban the Communist Party (although whether it would have passed the Senate is an open question). The new Labor leader, Dr H. V. Evatt, campaigned against the referendum on civil liberties grounds, and it was narrowly defeated. He sent Australian troops to the Korean War and maintained a close alliance with the United States.

Queen Elizabeth II with Menzies at an official function during her first visit to Australia in 1954

Economic conditions, however, deteriorated, and Evatt was confident of winning the 1954 elections. Shortly before the elections, Menzies announced that a Soviet diplomat in Australia Vladimir Petrov, had defected, and that there was evidence of a Soviet spy ring in Australia, including members of Evatt's staff. Evatt felt compelled to state on the floor of Parliament that he'd personally written to Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, who assured him there were no Soviet spy rings in Australia. This Cold War scare enabled Menzies to win the election; although Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote, it came up eight seats short of toppling the Coalition. Evatt accused Menzies of arranging Petrov's defection. The aftermath of the 1954 election caused a split in the Labor Party, with several anti-Communist members from Victoria defecting to form the Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist). The new party directed its preferences to the Liberals, and Menzies was comfortably re-elected over Evatt in 1955. Menzies was reelected almost as easily in 1958, again with the help of preferences from what had become the Democratic Labor Party. By this time the post-war economic recovery was in full swing, fueled by massive immigration and the growth in housing and manufacturing that this produced. Prices for Australia's agricultural exports were also high, ensuring rising incomes.^{[citation needed]}

Following the Egyptian dictator Colonel Nasser's nationialisation of the Suez Canal Company on 26 July 1956, Menzies led a delegation to Egypt to try to force Nasser to compromise with the West. Although, in retrospect, the issue seems to have had little relevance to Australia, at the time it was seen as confirming Menzies' status as a world statesman. Menzies publicly supported the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt during the Suez Crisis.

Labor's new leader, Arthur Calwell, gave Menzies a scare after an ill-judged squeeze on credit – an effort to restrain inflation – caused a rise in unemployment. At the 1961 election Menzies was returned with a majority of only two seats. But Menzies was able to exploit Labor's divisions over the Cold War and the American alliance, and win an increased majority in the 1963 election. An incident in which Calwell was photographed standing outside a South Canberra hotel while the ALP Federal Executive (dubbed by Menzies the "36 faceless men") was determining policy also contributed to the 1963 victory. This was the first "television election" and Menzies, although nearly 70, proved a master of the new medium. Menzies' policy speech was televised on 12 November 1963, a method that "had never before been used in Australia".^[11] The effect of this form of political communication was studied by Colin Hughes and John Western, who published their findings in 1966. This was itself the first such detailed study in Australia.^[11]

In 1963, Menzies was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT),^[12] the order being chosen in recognition of his Scottish heritage. He is the only Australian ever appointed to this order, although three British governors-general of Australia (Lord Hopetoun; Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, later Lord Novar; and Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester) were members. He was the second of only two Australian prime ministers to be knighted during their term of office (the first prime minister Edmund Barton was knighted during his term in 1902).

Menzies meets with US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara at the Pentagon in June 1964

In 1965, Menzies committed Australian troops to the Vietnam War, and also to reintroduce conscription. These moves were initially popular, but later became a problem for his successors. Despite his pragmatic acceptance of the new power balance in the Pacific after World War II and his strong support for the American alliance, he publicly professed continued admiration for links with Britain, exemplified by his admiration for Queen Elizabeth II, and famously described himself as "British to the bootstraps". Over the decade, Australia's ardour for Britain and the monarchy faded somewhat, but Menzies' had not. At a function attended by the Queen at Parliament House, Canberra, in 1963, Menzies quoted the Elizabethan poet Thomas Ford, "I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her till I die".^{[citation needed]}

Retirement and legacy[link]

Sir Robert Menzies

Menzies retired on Australia Day 1966, ending 38 years as an elected official. To date, he is the last Australian Prime Minister to leave office on his own terms. He was succeeded as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister by his former Treasurer, Harold Holt. Although the coalition remained in power for almost another seven years (until the 1972 Federal election), it did so under four different Prime Ministers.

On his retirement he became the thirteenth Chancellor of his the University of Melbourne and remained the head of the university from March 1967 until March 1972. Much earlier, in 1942, he had received the first honorary degree of Doctor of Laws of Melbourne University. His responsibility for the revival and growth of university life in Australia was widely acknowledged by the award of honorary degrees in the Universities of Queensland, Adelaide, Tasmania, New South Wales, and the Australian National University and by thirteen universities in Canada, the United States and Britain, including Oxford and Cambridge. Many learned institutions, including the Royal College of Surgeons (Hon. FRCS) and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (Hon. FRACP), elected him to Honorary Fellowships, and the Australian Academy of Science, for which he supported its establishment in 1954, made him a fellow (FAAS) in 1958.

In July 1966 the Queen appointed Menzies to the ancient office of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle, taking official residence at Walmer Castle during his annual visits to Britain. He toured the United States giving lectures, and he published two volumes of memoirs. At the end of 1966 Menzies took up a scholar-in-residence position at the University of Virginia. Menzies encountered some public tribulation in retirement; however, when he suffered strokes in 1968 and 1971, he faded from public view.^{[citation needed]}

Menzies died from a heart attack in Melbourne in 1978 and was accorded a state funeral, held in Scots' Church, Melbourne, at which Prince Charles represented Queen Elizabeth II.^[13]

Menzies was Prime Minister for a total of 18 years, five months and 12 days, by far the longest term of any Australian Prime Minister. During his second term he dominated Australian politics as no one else has ever done. He managed to live down the failures of his first term in office and to rebuild the conservative side of politics from the nadir it hit in 1943. Menzies also did much to develop higher education in Australia and made the increasing development of Canberra one of his big projects.

However, it can also be noted that while retaining government on each occasion, Menzies lost the two-party-preferred vote in 1940, 1954, and 1961.

He was the only Australian Prime Minister to recommend the appointment of four governors-general (Sir William Slim, and Lords Dunrossil, De L'Isle, and Casey). Only two other Prime Ministers have ever chosen more than one governor-general. (Malcolm Fraser chose Sir Zelman Cowen and Sir Ninian Stephen; and John Howard chose Peter Hollingworth and Michael Jeffery.)

The Menzies era saw Australia become an increasingly affluent society, with average weekly earnings in 1965 50% higher in real terms than in 1945. The increased prosperity enjoyed by most Australians during this period was accompanied by a general increase in leisure time, with the five-day workweek becoming the norm by the mid-Sixties, together with three weeks of paid annual leave.^[14]

Critics say that Menzies' success was mainly due to the good luck of the long post-war boom and his manipulation of the anti-communist fears of the Cold War years, both of which he exploited with great skill. He was also crucially aided by the crippling dissent within the Labor Party in the 1950s and especially by the ALP split of 1954.^{[citation needed]}

Several books have been filled with anecdotes about him and with his many witty remarks. While he was speaking in Williamstown, Victoria, in 1954, a heckler shouted, "I wouldn’t vote for you if you were the Archangel Gabriel" – to which Menzies coolly replied "If I were the Archangel Gabriel, I’m afraid you wouldn't be in my constituency."

Planning for an official biography of Menzies began soon after his death, but it was long delayed by Dame Pattie Menzies' protection of her husband's reputation and her refusal to co-operate with the appointed biographer, Frances McNicoll. In 1991, the Menzies family appointed Professor A.W. Martin to write a biography, which appeared in two volumes, in 1993 and 1999.

The National Museum of Australia in Canberra holds a significant collection of memorabilia relating to Robert Menzies, including a range of medals and civil awards received by Sir Robert such as his Jubilee and Coronation medals, Order of Australia, Companion of Honour and US Legion of Merit. There are also a number of special presentation items including a walking stick, cigar boxes, silver gravy boats from the Kooyong electorate and a silver inkstand presented by Queen Elizabeth II.^[15]

Titles and honours[link]

The Menzies Spire at Jeparit, Victoria. In part the inscription reads: "The spire symbolises the rise to world recognition of a boy who was born in Jeparit and who rose by his own efforts to become Australia's Prime Minister and a statesman recognised and honoured throughout the world."

• On 1 January 1951 he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH)^[16]

• On 29 August 1952, the University of Sydney conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) on Menzies.^[17] He was likewise awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by the Universities of Bristol, Belfast, Melbourne, British Columbia, McGill, Montreal, Royal University of Malta, Laval, Quebec, Tasmania, Cambridge, Harvard, Leeds, Adelaide, Queensland, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Drury and California.^[18] On 29 April 1964 Menzies was presented with the honorary degree of a Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by the University of Western Australia.^[19] Menzies was also awarded with an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of New South Wales.^[18]

• In 1973 Menzies was awarded Japan's Order of the Rising Sun, Grand Cordon, First Class (other Australian Prime Ministers to be awarded this honour were Edmund Barton, John McEwen, Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam).^[20]

• On 7 June 1976, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of Australia (AK). The category of Knight of the order had been created only on 24 May, and the Chancellor and Principal Knight of the Order, the Governor-General Sir John Kerr, became the first appointee, ex officio. Menzies' was the first appointment made after this.

• In 1984, the Australian Electoral Commission proclaimed at a redistribution on 14 September 1984, the Division of Menzies for representation in the Australian House of Representatives in honour of the former Prime Minister. The division neighbours Menzies' old division of Kooyong in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria.

Appointments[link]

• 1950, he was appointed a Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit
• 1951, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH)
• 1963, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT)
• 1973, he was appointed a Grand Cordon First Class of the Order of the Rising Sun
• 1976, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of Australia (AK)

Medals[link]

• 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal
• 1937, he was awarded the King George VI Coronation Medal
• 1953, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal

Styles from birth[link]

Styles and titles Menzies held held from birth until death, in chronological order:

• Mr Robert Menzies (20 December 1894–1928)
• The Hon. Robert Menzies, MLC (1928–1929)
• The Hon. Robert Menzies, MLA (1929–1929)
• The Hon. Robert Menzies, KC, MLA (1929–1934)
• The Hon. Robert Menzies, KC, MP (1934–1937)
• The Rt Hon. Robert Menzies, KC, MP (1937–1951)
• The Rt Hon. Robert Menzies, CH, KC, MP (1951–1952)
• The Rt Hon. Robert Menzies, CH, QC, MP (1952–1958)
• The Rt Hon. Robert Menzies, CH, FAA, QC, MP (1958–1963)
• The Rt Hon. Sir Robert Menzies, KT, CH, FAA, QC, MP (1963–1965)
• The Rt Hon. Sir Robert Menzies, KT, CH, FAA, FRS, QC, MP (1965–1966)
• The Rt Hon. Sir Robert Menzies, KT, CH, FAA, FRS, QC (1966–1976)
• The Rt Hon. Sir Robert Menzies, KT, AK, CH, FAA, FRS, QC (1976 – 15 May 1978)

See also[link]

Bust of Robert Menzies by sculptor Wallace Anderson located in the Prime Minister's Avenue in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens

• First Menzies Ministry
• Second Menzies Ministry
• Third Menzies Ministry
• Fourth Menzies Ministry
• Fifth Menzies Ministry
• Sixth Menzies Ministry
• Seventh Menzies Ministry
• Eighth Menzies Ministry
• Ninth Menzies Ministry
• Tenth Menzies Ministry

Actors who have played Menzies[link]

• In the 1984 mini series The Last Bastion, Menzies was portrayed by John Wood.
• In the 1987 mini series Vietnam, he was portrayed by Noel Ferrier.
• In the 1988 mini series True Believers, he was portrayed by John Bonney.
• In the 1996 Egyptian film Nasser 56, he was portrayed by Egyptian actor Hassan Kami.
• In the 2007 film Curtin, he was portrayed by Bille Brown.
• In the 2008 television documentary Menzies and Churchill at War, he was portrayed by Matthew King.
• Max Gillies has caricatured Menzies on stage and in the comedy satire series The Gillies Report.

Eponyms of Menzies[link]

• Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Foundation
• Menzies School of Health Research Australia
• R. G. Menzies Building, Australian National University Library
• The Menzies Research Centre Ltd.^{[dead link]}
• Menzies College (La Trobe University)
• Robert Menzies College (Macquarie University)^{[dead link]}
• Sir Robert Menzies Building (Monash University, Clayton Campus)
• The Australian federal electoral division of Menzies.^[21]
• Menzies Wing (Wesley College, Melbourne)

Further reading[link]

• Brett, Judith (1992) Robert Menzies' Forgotten People, Macmillan, (a sharply critical psychological study)
• Cook, Ian (1999), Liberalism in Australia, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Victoria, Ch. 7 'Robert Menzies'. ISBN 0-19-553702-5
• Hazlehurst, Cameron (1979), Menzies Observed, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, New South Wales. ISBN 0-86861-320-7
• Hughes, Colin A (1976), Mr Prime Minister. Australian Prime Ministers 1901–1972, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, Chs. 13 and 18. ISBN 0-19-550471-2
• Martin, A.W. (1993 and 1999) Robert Menzies: A Life, two volumes, Melbourne University Press online edition from ACLS E-Books
• Martin, Allan (2000), 'Sir Robert Gordon Menzies,' in Grattan, Michelle, "Australian Prime Ministers", New Holland Publishers, pages 174–205. (very good summary of his life and career) ISBN 1-86436-756-3
• Martin, A.W. (2000), "Menzies, Sir Robert Gordon (Bob) (1894 – 1978)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, Melbourne University Press, (Melbourne), pp 354–361.^[22]
• Starr, Graeme (1980), The Liberal Party of Australia. A Documentary History, Drummond/Heinemann, Richmond, Victoria. ISBN 0-85859-223-1

Notes and references[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Menzies

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Robert Menzies

• "Robert Menzies". Australia's Prime Ministers. National Archives of Australia. http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/. Retrieved 29 June 2010. 
• Martin, A. W. (2000). "Menzies, Sir Robert Gordon (Bob) (1894–1978)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: Australian National University. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150416b.htm. Retrieved 29 June 2010. 
• "Robert Menzies". National Museum of Australia. http://www.nma.gov.au/education/school_resources/websites_and_interactives/primeministers/robert_menzies/. Retrieved 29 June 2010. 
• The Menzies Foundation
• The Menzies Virtual Museum
• The Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, London
• The Liberal Party's Robert Menzies website
• The Legacy of Sir Robert Menzies^{[dead link]} National Library of Australia
• Listen to Menzies' declaration of war on australianscreen online
• Menzies' declaration of war was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia Registry in 2010
• Sir Robert Menzies at the National Film and Sound Archive

Ira Hamilton Hayes
Nickname	Chief Falling Cloud[citation needed]
Born	(1923-01-12)January 12, 1923 Sacaton, Arizona
Died	January 24, 1955(1955-01-24) (aged 32) Sacaton, Arizona
Place of burial	Arlington National Cemetery, Section 34
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps
Years of service	1942 - 1945
Rank	Corporal
Unit	3rd Parachute Battalion 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines 1st Headquarters Battalion, HQMC
Battles/wars	World War II Bougainville Campaign Battle of Iwo Jima

Ira Hamilton Hayes (January 12, 1923 – January 24, 1955) was a Pima Native American and an American Marine who was one of the six men immortalized in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima during World War II.^[1][2] Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community in Sacaton, Arizona, and enlisted in the Marine Forces Reserve on August 24, 1942. He trained as a Paramarine and saw action in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. On February 19, 1945, Hayes participated in the landing at Iwo Jima and fought in the subsequent battle for the island. On February 23, Hayes, together with fellow Marines Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and Mike Strank, and Navy Corpsman John Bradley, raised the American flag over Mount Suribachi, an event photographed by Joe Rosenthal.

As a result of Rosenthal's photograph, Hayes and the others became national heroes in the United States. He was instrumental in confirming the identity of one of his fellow Marines in the photograph, Harlon Block. Hayes was never comfortable with his new-found fame, however, and after his honorable discharge from the Marine Corps he descended into alcoholism. He died of exposure and alcohol poisoning on January 24, 1955 after a night of drinking, and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Hayes was often commemorated in art and film, both before and after his death. He is depicted in the Marine Corps War Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, based on the famous photograph, and he portrayed himself in the 1949 film Sands of Iwo Jima. His story was the subject of the 1961 film The Outsider, and inspired Peter La Farge's song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes". He was also depicted in the 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers.

Early life[link]

Hayes was born in Sacaton, Arizona, a town located in the Gila River Indian Community in Pinal County, the eldest of six children to Nancy Hamilton (1901–1972) and Joseph Hayes (1887–1978).^[3] The Hayes children were: Ira (1923–1955), Harold (1924–1925), Arlene (1926–1929), Leonard (1927–1952), Vernon (1929–1958), and Kenneth (born 1931).^[3]

Joseph Hayes was a World War I veteran who supported his family by subsistence farming and cotton harvesting.^[4] Nancy Hayes was a devout Presbyterian and a Sunday school teacher at the Assemblies of God church in Sacaton.^[4]

As a child, Hayes was remembered as being shy and sensitive by his family and friends. Sara Bernal, his first cousin, stated, "[Joseph Hayes] was a very quiet man, he would go days without saying anything unless you spoke to him first. The other Hayes children would play and tease me, but not Ira. He was quiet, and somewhat distant. Ira didn't speak unless spoken to. He was just like his father."^[5] His boyhood friend Dana Norris stated, "Even though I'm from the same culture, I could never get under his skin. Ira had the characteristic of not wanting to talk. But we Pimas are not prone to tooting our own horns. Ira was a quiet guy, such a quiet guy."^[5] Despite this, Hayes was a precocious child who displayed an impressive grasp of the English language, a language that many Pimas did not know how to speak.^[4] He was also a voracious reader, learning how to read and write by age four.^[4]

Pfc. Ira H. Hayes, a Pima, at age 19, ready to jump, Marine Corps Paratroop School, 1943

In 1932, the family settled in Bapchule, Arizona, located approximately 12 miles northwest of Sacaton.^[4] The Hayes children attended grade school in Sacaton and high school at the Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Arizona. Esther Monahan, one of his classmates, stated, "Ira wasn't like the other guys. He was shy and never talked to us girls. He was so much more shy than the other Pima boys. The girls would chase him and try to hug him and kiss him, like we did with all the boys. We'd catch the other boys, who enjoyed it. But not Ira. Ira would just run away."^[6] After the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Ira confided to his classmate Eleanor Pasquale that he was determined on serving in the United States Marine Corps.^[6] Pasquale stated, "Every morning in school, [the students] would get a report on World War II. We would sing the anthems of the Army, Marines, and the Navy."^[7] In June 1942, Hayes graduated at the Phoenix Indian School and returned to the reservation.

Hayes enlisted in the Marine Forces Reserve on August 24, 1942.^[8]

Hayes had been trained at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California, and went on to become a paratrooper at Marine Corps Base San Diego and had a codename of Chief Falling Cloud. On December 2, 1942, he joined Company B, 3rd Parachute Battalion, Divisional Special Troops, U.S. 3rd Marine Division, at Camp Elliott, California. On March 14, 1943, Hayes sailed for New Caledonia with the 3rd Parachute Battalion. Hayes served a tour of duty there and first saw combat in the Bougainville Campaign.

The Marine Corps parachute units were disbanded in February 1944, and Hayes transferred to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, U.S. 5th Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California. Hayes agreed to serve a second tour of duty, and sailed to Hawaii in September 1944.

Battle of Iwo Jima[link]

Hayes is pictured to the far left

On February 19, 1945, the 5th Marine Division landed on Iwo Jima. Hayes partook in the battle for the island and was among the Marines that took Mount Suribachi five days later on February 23, 1945.

The raising of the second American flag on Suribachi by five Marines: Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and Mike Strank, and a Navy Corpsman, John Bradley, was immortalized by photographer Joe Rosenthal and became an icon of the war. Overnight, Hayes became a national hero, along with the two other survivors in the famous photograph, Rene Gagnon and John Bradley.

When Iwo Jima was secured by U.S. forces, Hayes was ordered to Washington, D.C. Together with the Navy Pharmacist's Mate John Bradley and Marine Private First Class Rene Gagnon, he was assigned to temporary duty with the Finance Division, U.S. Treasury Department, for appearances in connection with the Seventh War Bond Drive.^[9]

Rank and military awards[link]

• Corporal
• Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat "V" Device
• Combat Action Ribbon
• Presidential Unit Citation (Ribbon only) with One 5/16" Silver Star
• American Campaign Medal
• Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with Four Bronze 3/16" Stars (for Vella Lavella, Bougainville, Consolidation of the Northern Solomons, and Iwo Jima)
• World War II Victory Medal
• USMC Occupation of Japan Medal
• Parachutist Badge
• Rifle Sharpshooter Badge

Post World War II[link]

Ira Hayes (left) with Los Angeles mayor Fletcher Bowron (1947)

After the war, Hayes attempted to lead a normal civilian life. "I kept getting hundreds of letters. And people would drive through the reservation, walk up to me and ask, 'Are you the Indian who raised the flag on Iwo Jima?'"^[10] Although he rarely spoke about the flag raising, he spoke about his service in the Marine Corps with great pride.

After returning home from the war, Hayes remained troubled that one of his friends, Harlon Block, one of the flag raisers who was killed in action days after, was mistaken for another man, Hank Hansen. Hayes later hitchhiked 1,300 miles from the Gila River Indian Community to Edward Frederick Block, Sr.'s farm in Weslaco, Texas in order to reveal the truth to Block's family. He was instrumental in having the controversy resolved, to the delight and gratitude of the Block family.

Ira Hayes appeared in the 1949 John Wayne film, Sands of Iwo Jima, along with fellow flag raisers John Bradley and Rene Gagnon. All three men played themselves in the film. Wayne hands the flag to be raised to the three men. (The actual flag that was raised on Mount Suribachi is used in the film.)

After the war, Hayes was arrested 52 times for public drunkenness.^[11] Referring to his alcoholism, he once said: "I was sick. I guess I was about to crack up thinking about all my good buddies. They were better men than me and they're not coming back. Much less back to the White House, like me."^[10]

In 1954, after a ceremony where he was lauded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as a hero, a reporter approached Hayes and asked him, "How do you like the pomp and circumstance?" Hayes hung his head and said, "I don't."^[12]

Hayes' disquiet about his unwanted fame and his subsequent post-war problems were first recounted in detail by the author William Bradford Huie in The Outsider, published in 1959 as part of his collection Wolf Whistle and Other Stories. The Outsider was filmed in 1961, directed by World War II veteran turned film director Delbert Mann and starring Tony Curtis.^[13]

The 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood, suggests that Hayes suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder.

Death[link]

Ira Hayes' tombstone.

On the morning of January 24, 1955, Hayes was found dead, lying in his own blood and vomit, near an abandoned adobe hut in Sacaton, Arizona. He had been drinking and playing cards at a bar on the reservation with his friends and brothers Vernon and Kenneth. An altercation ensued between Hayes and a Pima named Henry Setoyant, and all left except Hayes and Setoyant.

The Pinal County coroner concluded that Hayes' death was caused by exposure and alcohol poisoning. However, his brother Kenneth still believes that the death resulted from the altercation with Setoyant. The Gila River Police Department did not conduct an investigation into Hayes' death and Setoyant denied any allegations of fighting with Hayes.^[14]

In the 1961 film of his life, (starring Tony Curtis) The Outsider, his death is dramatized for the screen. He is shown freezing to death on an Arizona mountain top, after a night of drinking.

Hayes is buried in Section 34, Grave 479A at Arlington National Cemetery. At the funeral, fellow flag-raiser Rene Gagnon said of him: "Let's say he had a little dream in his heart that someday the Indian would be like the white man — be able to walk all over the United States."^[15]

Commemoration[link]

On November 10, 1993, the United States Marine Corps held a ceremony at the Iwo Jima Memorial commemorating the anniversary of the Corps. Of Ira Hayes, USMC Commandant General Carl Mundy said:

One of the pairs of hands that you see outstretched to raise our national flag on the battle-scarred crest of Mount Suribachi so many years ago, are those of a Native American ... Ira Hayes ... a Marine not of the ethnic majority of our population.

Were Ira Hayes here today ... I would tell him that although my words on another occasion have given the impression that I believe some Marines ... because of their color ... are not as capable as other Marines ... that those were not the thoughts of my mind ... and that they are not the thoughts of my heart.

I would tell Ira Hayes that our Corps is what we are because we are of the people of America ... the people of the broad, strong, ethnic fabric that is our nation. And last, I would tell him that in the future, that fabric will broaden and strengthen in every category to make our Corps even stronger ... even of greater utility to our nation. That's a commitment of this commandant ... And that's a personal commitment of this Marine.

Portrayal in music, film and literature[link]

• Hayes' story was immortalized in a song, "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", by Peter LaFarge. Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Smiley Bates, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Kinky Friedman, Tom Russell, Hazel Dickens, Patrick Sky, and Townes Van Zandt each covered the song. In 1964, Cash took the song to number 3 on the Billboard country music chart.^[16]
• Ira Hayes appeared as himself in the 1949 John Wayne film, Sands of Iwo Jima.
• In the 1960 telefilm The American, he was played by Marine veteran Lee Marvin.
• Tony Curtis played Hayes in the 1961 film The Outsider.^[13]
• Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the 2006 movie Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood. The movie was based on the 2000 bestselling book of the same name by James Bradley and Ron Powers.
• The poet Ai dedicates her poem "I Can't Get Started" to Hayes.
• Ira Hayes is mentioned in the poem "Petroglyphs of Serena" by Adrian C. Louis.
• Ira Hayes was also mentioned briefly in the book "Code Talker" by Joseph Bruchac.
• Ira Hayes was also mentioned multiple times in the book "Indian Killer" by Sherman Alexie.

Monuments, memorials, and namings[link]

• Marine Corps War Memorial (rear Marine flag raising figure), Arlington, VA
• Hayes Peak, the northernmost mountain in the Sierra Estrella, Phoenix, AZ
• Ira Hayes Park (statue), Sacaton, Arizona
• Marine Corps League, Ira Hayes Detachment 2, Phoenix, AZ
• American Legion, Ira Hayes Post 84, Sacaton, AZ

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	World War II portal
	United States Marine Corps portal

• Native Americans and World War II
• PTSD
• Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
• Shadow of Suribachi: Raising The Flags on Iwo Jima
• Survivor guilt

Bibliography[link]

Notes

References

• Bradley, James; Powers, Ron (2006). Flags of Our Fathers (2006 ed.). Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-58908-5.  - Total pages: 576
• Quiet Hero: The Ira Hayes Story written and illustrated by S. D. Nelson, (Lee & Low Books, 2006) ISBN 978-1-58430-263-6.
• The Outsider and Other Stories, by William Bradford Huie, Panther Books, GB 1961, originally published in the USA 1959, by Signet as Wolf Whistle and Other Stories

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ira Hayes

• Gila River Indian Community official website
• Peter LaFarge Biography
• The Flag Raisers on Iwojima.com
• The Outsider at the Internet Movie Database
• Flags of Our Fathers - Movie