biography
| name: |
Menzies, Sir Robert Gordon
|
pronunciation:
[menzees]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1894–1978)
|
| biography:
| Australian statesman and prime minister (1939–41, 1949–66), born in Jeparit, Victoria, NE Australia. He studied in Melbourne, practised as a barrister before entering politics, became a member of the Victoria parliament (1928), a KC (1929), and moved to the Federal House of Representatives (1934). He was Commonwealth attorney general (1935–9), then became prime minister. He again took office as premier of the coalition government in 1949, which he led for the next 25 years, maintaining strong political links with Britain and cultivating a close economic and military alliance with the USA. In 1956 he headed the Five Nations Committee, which sought to come to a settlement with Nasser on the question of Suez. He was knighted in 1963. |
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