Australia - Frank Forde - 4th Australian Prime Minister 6th - 13th July 1945 Francis Michael Forde (
18 July 1890 –
28 January 1983) was an
Australian politician and the 15th
Prime Minister of Australia.
Born at
Mitchell, Queensland (where his father was a grazier), Forde was educated at
Catholic schools and became a teacher. Settling in
Rockhampton, he became active in the
Labor Party and in workers' education groups.
In
1917 he was elected to the
Queensland Legislative Assembly as Labor MP for
Rockhampton. In
1922 he resigned and was elected to the
Australian House of Representatives for
Capricornia.
Forde soon advanced in the Labor ranks. When Labor won the
1929 election, he became Assistant Minister for Trade and Customs in the
Scullin government. In the last days of the government he became Minister for Trade and Customs. As one of the few senior Labor MPs to survive defeat at the
1931 elections, Forde became Deputy Opposition Leader in 1932. He remains the only Federal Deputy Leader of the ALP to have come from Queensland. When Scullin retired in 1935, Forde contested the leadership ballot but was defeated by one vote by
John Curtin, mainly because he had supported Scullin's economic policies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Forde http://john.curtin.edu.au/behindthes...pms/forde.html