Chifley, Joseph Benedict was and Australian statesman and Labor prime minister (1945 – 49).
Born in Bathurst, New South Wales, the son of a blacksmith, Chifley left school at seventeen to join the New South Wales government railway.At twenty four he became the youngest first class locomotive driver in the service.
Chifley becoame increasingly involved in trade union and Labor politics and entered parliament in 1928, when he won the federal seat of Macquarie for the Labor Party.
Losing it in 1931, he was reelected in 1940 and became treasurer and minister for postwar reconstruction in the Curtin government.
Following the Curtin’s death in 1945, Chifley became prime minister. Continuing to fulfill Labor’s welfare and nationalization programme in accordance with his famous ‘light in the hill’ of socialism, he also initiated the postwar immigration policy and the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme.
He was defeated in the 1949 election but remained leader of the opposition until his death in 1951.
A tough single minded administrator, Chifley had the image of an unpretentious idealist and is remembered for his characteristic gravelly voice.
Chifley, Joseph Benedict (1885 – 1952)
