FRANCIS MICHAEL FORDE

19th PRIME MINISTER

6 JUL 1945 - 13 JUL 1945

Forde

Lost leadership ballot to Curtin by just one vote.

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Party

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Ministerial Appointments

Conferences

Parliamentary Party Positions

Other Positions

Education

Occupations

Family History

Honours

Further Reading


Frank Forde was 'always a bridesmaid but never a bride' - or at least only for eight days as Prime Minister. This brief consummation of his political ambitions was typical of a career in which power slipped three times from his fingertips.

As a Labor personality of the period 1917-57, he had the almost mandatory qualifications for leadership in that era: an Irish-Catholic background, humble beginnings, hands-on experience in the workforce, anti-conscription activities in the First World War and early dedication to Labor politics. But the sum of all these things was never quite enough to establish his leadership.

His father, an Irish immigrant, was a railway foreman in the bush town of Mitchell, on the line running west between Roma and Charleville in Queensland. Forde was born there in 1890, as the second of six children. In those days, teaching was one of the few ways in which a bright youngster could move from a restricted background into the wider world. After primary education at the local school, Forde went to Christian Brothers College, Toowoomba, to train for that vocation.

But the confines of the schoolroom palled fairly soon and he joined the Postmaster-General's Department as a telegraphist. Telephones were still a rarity and telegrams were a principal means of communication. Modestly ambitious, he learned enough to become an electrician in the PMG Department and was stationed at Rockhampton.

There he joined the Australian Natives Association, the society devoted to the advancement and welfare of Australia which has been a seed-bed for many politicians of all parties. He became involved in the Queensland Labor Party and in the move to divide Queensland into three separate states.

The anti-conscription campaign was particularly active in Queensland, where Labor held almost continuous power for many years. Forde's involvement in the campaign led to his entry into State Parliament in 1917. He held the seat of Rockhampton until 1922, when he resigned to contest the federal seat of Capricornia. His victory began 24 years in the Commonwealth Parliament.

Forde appears to have been a ‘good party man'- intelligent, hardworking, loyal and dedicated - the type of man who climbs soberly and steadily up the ladder in any profession. When Labor regained power in 1929, Scullin appointed him Minister for Trade. He performed impressively enough for the party to elect him deputy leader in 1932.

When Scullin resigned in 1935, Forde could reasonably have expected to follow him as leader. But supporters of John Curtin nominated him for the post and Curtin defeated Forde by only one vote.

Forde swallowed his disappointment and continued to work faithfully for the good of the party. As a man who had no eccentricities, no special charisma and no particular physical distinction, he rarely attracted any attention from journalists or cartoonists. He presented the image of a good, average Australian, contentedly married with four children. Nevertheless Curtin and the party thought highly enough of him for him to become deputy leader and Deputy Prime Minister when Labor returned to power in October 1941.

Curtin also appointed him Minister for the Army. For the rest of the Second World War, he accepted this arduous responsibility with dedication and efficiency. He was a loyal supporter of Curtin's turning away from Britain to America and of General Douglas MacArthur as the Supreme Commander of Allied forces in the south-west Pacific.

When Curtin died, the Governor-General immediately commissioned Forde as Prime Minister until the party decided on a new leader. Forde was nominated but, after only eight days in power, he lost to Ben Chifley. He continued as Minister for the Army until he lost his seat in the 1946 elections, probably because impatient servicemen blamed him for delays in demobilisation. The party rewarded his long efforts by appointing him High Commissioner to Canada, where he served until 1953.

In 1955 he made a political comeback by winning a seat in the Queensland Parliament and gaining so much party support that there was a move to depose Premier Vince Gair and replace him with Forde. All that Forde had to do was to hold on to his seat in the 1957 state elections - but he lost again, and again by one vote, to a Country Party member.

After this 'third time unlucky' he retired from politics. He made a brief reappearance in the public eye in 1964, when Menzies sent him to the USA to represent Australia at the funeral of Douglas MacArthur, but otherwise he lived out the rest of his 92 years in relative obscurity.


Parties Australian Labor Party
Electorates Capricornia
State Queensland
Parliamentary Service State
Elected to the Legislative Assembly, Queensland, for Rockhampton, in byelection, 1917. Held the seat until his resignation in 1922.
Successfully sought endorsement for the federal seat of Capricornia.
Federal
Elected to the House of Representatives for Capricornia, Queensland, general elections 1922-43. Defeated in general election, 1946.
(Won the seat of Flinders in the Queensland State Parliament in 1955; defeated 1957).
Ministerial Appointments
Assistant Minister for Trade and Customs, 1929-31.
Minister for Customs 1931-32.
Member of War Cabinet, from 7 October 1941 to 6 July 1945.
Minister for the Army and Deputy Prime Minister, from 7 October 1941 to 3 April 1944.
Resumed as Minister for the Army and Deputy Prime Minister, from 3 July 1944 to 22 January 1945, and from 13 July 1945 to 1 November 1946.
Minister for Defence, from 15 August 1946 to 1 November 1946.
Prime Minister, from 6 July to 13 July 1945.
Deputy Prime Minister, from 13 July 1945 to 1 November 1946.
Acting Ministries
Acting Minister for Markets and for Transport, 1930-31.
Acting Prime Minister and Acting Minister for Defence, from 3 April to 3 July 1944, and from 19 October 1944 to 22 January 1945.
Acting Minister for Commerce and Agriculture, 1945.
Acting Minister for Trade and Customs, from 19 October 1944 to 6 January 1945.
Committee Service
Member of the War Council from 29 October 1940 to 31 October 1945.
Member of the Privileges Committee, 1944.
Conferences
Leader of the Australian delegations to New Zealand, 1944, and to the United Nations Conference, San Francisco, April 1945.
Parliamentary Party Positions
Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party, 1932-46.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition, 1932-41.
Party Positions
Joined the Labor Party in 1917.
Other Positions
Member of Royal Commission on the Moving Picture Industry, 1927-28.
Appointed High Commissioner to Canada, 1946-53.
Education Schooling
Primary education at Mitchell, Queensland..
Christian Brothers College at Toowoomba, Queensland.
Occupations
School teacher.
Telegraphist and electrician with the Postmaster-General's Department in Rockhampton.
Family History Born
18 July 1890 at Mitchell, Queensland.
Second of six children. Father was a rail-way foreman who emigrated from Ireland.
Frank Forde married Veronica O'Reilly in 1925. They had four children.
Died
28 January 1983 at Brisbane, Queensland.
Honours
Privy Councillor, 1944.
Further Reading
Blanch, Ken, 'One-vote Loser on Three Political Occasions: Former Prime Minister Frank Forde Dies', Courier-Mail, 29 January 1983: 4
Corbett, John D., 'Francis M. Forde: His Political Career Has Reached its Apex', Australasian, 4 November 1944: 16
'Francis Michael Forde' [Obituary], Canberra Times, 29 January 1983: 11
Gibson, David Andrew, 'The Right Hon. Francis M. Forde PC: His Life and Times', BA Honours Thesis, Department of History, University of Queensland, 1973
Hawke, Robert J. L., 'Frank Forde Memorial Address', Commonwealth Record, v.10, no.25, 24-30 June 1985: 1002-5.

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