Sir Earle Page | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portraitc. 1939 | |
| 11th Prime Minister of Australia | |
| In office 7 April 1939 – 26 April 1939 | |
| Monarch | George VI |
| Governor-General | Lord Gowrie |
| Preceded by | Joseph Lyons |
| Succeeded by | Robert Menzies |
| 2nd Leader of the Country Party | |
| In office 5 April 1921 – 13 September 1939 | |
| Deputy | |
| Preceded by | William McWilliams |
| Succeeded by | Archie Cameron |
| Minister for Health | |
| In office 19 December 1949 – 11 January 1956 | |
| Prime Minister | Robert Menzies |
| Preceded by | Nick McKenna |
| Succeeded by | Donald Cameron |
| In office 29 November 1937 – 7 November 1938 | |
| Prime Minister | Joseph Lyons |
| Preceded by | Billy Hughes |
| Succeeded by | Harry Foll |
| Minister for Commerce | |
| In office 28 October 1940 – 7 October 1941 | |
| Prime Minister |
|
| Preceded by | Archie Cameron |
| Succeeded by | William Scully |
| In office 9 November 1932 – 26 April 1939 | |
| Prime Minister | Joseph Lyons |
| Preceded by | Frederick Stewart |
| Succeeded by | George McLeay |
| Treasurer of Australia | |
| In office 9 February 1923 – 21 October 1929 | |
| Prime Minister | Stanley Bruce |
| Preceded by | Stanley Bruce |
| Succeeded by | Ted Theodore |
| Father of the House | |
| In office 28 October 1952 – 9 December 1961 | |
| Preceded by | Billy Hughes |
| Succeeded by | Eddie Ward |
| Member of Parliament forCowper | |
| In office 13 December 1919 – 9 December 1961 | |
| Preceded by | John Thomson |
| Succeeded by | Frank McGuren |
| 1st Chancellor of the University of New England | |
| In office 8 February 1955 – 1960 | |
| Deputy | Phillip Wright |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Phillip Wright |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Earle Christmas Grafton Page (1880-08-08)8 August 1880 Grafton, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 20 December 1961(1961-12-20) (aged 81) Camperdown,New South Wales, Australia |
| Resting place | St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney |
| Political party | Country |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5 |
| Relatives | |
| Residence(s) | Grafton, New South Wales, Australia |
| Education |
|
| Alma mater | University of Sydney |
| Occupation |
|
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Australia |
| Branch/service | Australian Army |
| Years of service | 1916–17 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Royal Australian Army Medical Corps |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
| ||
|---|---|---|
Member forCowper (1919–1961) Term of government (April 1939) Autobiography | ||
Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page (8 August 1880 – 20 December 1961) was an Australian politician and surgeon who served as the 11thPrime Minister of Australia from 7 to 26 April 1939, in acaretaker capacity following the death ofJoseph Lyons. He was the leader of theCountry Party from 1921 to 1939, and was the most influential figure in its later years.
Page was born inGrafton, New South Wales. He entered theUniversity of Sydney at the age of 15, and completed a degree in medicine at the age of 21. After completing hismedical residency atRoyal Prince Alfred Hospital inSydney, he moved back to Grafton and opened a private hospital. He soon became involved in local politics, and in 1915 purchased a part-share inThe Daily Examiner, a local newspaper. He also briefly was a military surgeon duringWorld War I. Page gained prominence as an advocate of various development schemes for theNorthern Rivers region, especially those involving hydroelectricity. He also helped found a movement forNew England statehood.
At the1919 Australian federal election, Page was elected to theParliament of Australia representing theDivision of Cowper. He joined the new Country Party the following year as its inauguralwhip, and then replacedWilliam McWilliams as party leader in 1921. Page opposed the economic policies of Prime MinisterBilly Hughes, and when the Country Party gained thebalance of power at the1922 election, he demanded Hughes' resignation as the price for a coalition with theNationalist Party. He was subsequently madeTreasurer of Australia under the new prime minister,Stanley Bruce, serving in that role from 1923 to 1929. He had a significant degree of influence on domestic policy, with Bruce concentrating on international issues.
Page returned to cabinet after the1934 election, when the Country Party entered a new coalition withJoseph Lyons'United Australia Party (UAP). He was appointedMinister for Commerce, and concentrated on agricultural issues. When Lyons died in office in April 1939, Page was commissioned as his successor in a caretaker capacity while the UAPelected a new leader,Robert Menzies. Page subsequently denounced Menzies and refused to serve in his cabinet, withdrawing the Country Party from the coalition, but this proved unpopular and he resigned the party leadership after a few months. The coalition was eventually reconstituted, and Page served again as Minister for Commerce under Menzies andArthur Fadden until the government's defeat in October 1941.
Page's last major role was asMinister for Health (1949–1956) in the post-warMenzies Government. He retired from cabinet at the age of 76, and died a short time after losing his seat at the1961 election. Page served in parliament for almost 42 years, thethird longest-serving Australian parliamentarian of all time; only Menzies lasted longer as the leader of a major Australian political party. He secured his party's independence by refusing overtures to merge with the Nationalists and the UAP, and the policies that he favoured – decentralisation, agrarianism, and government support of primary industry – have remained the basis of its platform up to the present day. The coalitions that he established and maintained with Bruce and Lyons have served as a model forall subsequent coalition governments.
Earle Christmas Grafton Page was born inGrafton, New South Wales, on 8 August 1880. His first middle name, which he disliked, was given to him to carry on the surname of a childless relative, while his second middle name was in honour of his birthplace. Page was the fifth of eleven children born to Charles Page and Mary Johanna Haddon (Annie) Cox.[1] His older brotherRodger was chaplain to the royal family ofTonga and his younger brotherHarold was the deputy administrator of theTerritory of New Guinea and a Japanese prisoner of war. Page's parents had both lived in Grafton since they were children. His mother was born inTasmania to an English father and a Scottish mother. His father, born in London, was a successful businessman and a member of theGrafton City Council, serving a single term as mayor in 1908. The family business was a hardware manufacturing firm, which had its origins in acoachbuilding firm established in 1858 by Page's maternal grandfather, Edwin Cox.[2] His other grandfather, James Page, arrived in Grafton in 1855, serving as the town's first schoolmaster and firsttown clerk.[3]
Page began his schooling at Grafton Public School, where he excelled academically. His family could not afford to send him to boarding school, as a result of financial difficulties caused by thebanking crisis of 1893. Page consequently had to rely on scholarships to advance his education.[4] He won a bursary to attendSydney Boys High School in 1895, where he passed the university entrance exams, and the following year – aged 15 – began studying aliberal arts course at theUniversity of Sydney. He was equal top in mathematics in his first year, and was also awarded the lucrative Struth Exhibition for "general proficiency in the arts", which allowed him to switch to medicine and covered his first four years of medical school.[5] His role model wasGrafton Smith, who had followed a similar path from Grafton Public School to university.[6] AtSydney Medical School, Page's lecturers includedWilliam Haswell (biology),James Hill (biology),Charles Martin (physiology),Anderson Stuart (physiology), andJames Wilson (anatomy).[7] He graduated at the top of his class in 1901, with the degrees ofBachelor of Medicine (M.B.) andMaster of Surgery (Ch.M.).[8]
Page's first professional posting came before he had even been registered as a medical practitioner. Due to a shortage of doctors, he was acting superintendent of theRoyal Alexandra Hospital for Children for one month.[9] In 1902, he took up a position as aresident at theRoyal Prince Alfred Hospital, serving in a variety of roles including as house surgeon underRobert Scot Skirving. During that time he contracted a near-fatal infection from a postmortem examination.[10] He also met his future wife, nurseEthel Blunt.[11] Page returned to his home town in 1903, taking over a practice inSouth Grafton. He and two partners subsequently established a new private hospital, Clarence House Hospital, which opened in 1904 and served both Grafton and the surrounding region.[12]
Page was a keen adopter of new technologies. In 1904, he bought what he claimed was "the firstRover car in Australia", which was powered by kerosene.[13] He upgraded to anItala in 1908, and had the chassis enlarged so it could be used as an ambulance. He also had an x-ray machine installed in his hospital, one of the first in Australia outside a major city.[14] Page developed a reputation for surgical innovation, taking a number of patients from Sydney and even some from interstate. One operation that brought him particular fame wasthe removal of a patient's diseased lung, a procedure that had only been invented a few years previously.[15] Page became an inauguralFellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 1927, and in 1942 was made an honoraryFellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS).[16]
In February 1916, Page enlisted in theAustralian Army Medical Corps. He was chief medical officer aboard the troopshipHMATBallarat, and was then stationed at an army hospital inCairo for several months. He was transferred to a hospital in England in July 1916, and concluded his service as a surgical specialist at acasualty clearing station in France. Page returned to Australia in March 1917 and was discharged from the military in July 1917.[16] Although his active involvement in medicine declined as his political career progressed, he was frequently called upon to treat his fellow MPs or parliamentary staff. This was particularly true after the federal government moved to Canberra, as the new capital had only a handful of qualified surgeons. In 1928, for instance, he performed an emergency appendectomy onParker Moloney.[17]
Page's medical career brought him considerable wealth, and he began investing in land. He bought several large farming properties inSouth East Queensland, including inNerang,Kandanga, and theNuminbah Valley; Pages Pinnacle in the Numinbah State Forest is named after him.[18] His entry into public life came about as a result of his passion forhydroelectricity, which he first observed in New Zealand while attending a medical convention in 1910. He believed that it could be applied to theNorthern Rivers region, which was still mostly unelectrified outside of the major towns. Page was elected to theSouth Grafton Municipal Council in 1913, believing his position as analderman would be useful in his lobbying efforts. However, his overtures to the state government were rebuffed. In 1915, Page was one of the founders of theNorthern New South Wales Separation League, which advocated the creation of a new state in theNew England region. He toured a number of towns to raise awareness of the new movement, but interest waned as a result of the ongoing war. Later that year, he was part of a syndicate that boughtThe Daily Examiner, the local newspaper in Grafton.[19]
Page visited a number of hydroelectric sites in North America in 1917, on his way back from military service in France. He was elected mayor of South Grafton in 1918, serving until 1920, and also became the inaugural president of the North Coast Development League. He developed more concrete plans for a hydroelectric project on theClarence River, and put forward various other development schemes relating to roads, railways, and ports, all of which served to raise his profile in the local district. Page was elected to theAustralian House of Representatives at the1919 federal election, defeating the sittingNationalist MP,John Thomson in theDivision of Cowper. He stood as an independent with the endorsement of the Farmers' and Settlers' Association, and after the election joined the newCountry Party, along with 10 other MPs from rural seats. Page continued to advocate for hydroelectricity throughout his political career, and many such projects were built in New South Wales. However, the specific scheme he favoured for the Clarence River was never put in place, only the smallerNymboida Power Station. Decentralisation also remained a pet project, with Page frequently arguing for New South Wales and Queensland to be divided into smaller states to aid regional development. The movement for New England statehood waned in the 1920s, but re-emerged in the 1950s; a legally binding referendum on the subject was finally held in 1967, after Page's death, but was narrowly defeated in controversial circumstances.[19]
Page was elected leader of the Country Party in 1921, replacingWilliam McWilliams. At the1922 federal election the party campaigned on a platform which included the establishment of a nationalsinking fund, national insurance scheme covering "sickness, unemployment, poverty and age", and conversion of theCommonwealth Bank into a fullcentral bank.[20] The party emerged from the election with thebalance of power in the House; theNationalist government ofBilly Hughes lost its majority and could not govern without Country Party support. It soon became apparent that the price for that support would be a full coalition with the Nationalists. However, the Country Party had been formed partly due to discontent with Hughes' rural policy, and Page's animosity toward Hughes was such that he would not even consider supporting him. Indeed, he would not even begin talks with the Nationalists as long as Hughes remained leader. Bowing to the inevitable, Hughes resigned.[21]
Page then began negotiations with Hughes' successor as leader of the Nationalists,Stanley Bruce. His terms were stiff; he wanted his Country Party to have five seats in an 11-man cabinet, including the post ofTreasurer and the second rank in the ministry for himself. These demands were unprecedented for a prospective junior coalition partner in a Westminster system, and especially so for such a new party. Nonetheless, Bruce agreed rather than force another election.[21] For all intents and purposes, Page was the firstDeputy Prime Minister of Australia (a title that did not officially exist until 1968). Since then, the leader of theCountry/National Party has been the second-ranking member in nearly everynon-Labor government. Page wasacting prime minister on several occasions, and in January 1924 chaired the first meeting ofFederal Cabinet ever held inCanberra, atYarralumla. Parliament did not move to Canberra until 1927.[22][23]
As Treasurer, Page formed a close working relationship with Bruce.[24] Due to favourable economic conditions the government was able to abolishland tax, cut income tax, and establishment the national sinking fund that Page had campaigned on. The government also established an investment fund for theCouncil for Scientific and Industrial Research and sponsored the first national housing program.[25] The final years of Page's treasurership were marked by the beginnings of an economic downturn. The budget went intodeficit in 1927 and his 1929 budget speech referred to a "temporary financial depression".[26] He was a strong believer in orthodox finance and conservative policies, as well as a "highprotectionist" supporting tariff barriers to protect Australian rural industries.[19][27]
Page introduced a series of reforms to the Commonwealth Bank to enhance its central banking functions. In 1924, he announced that the government would place the Commonwealth Bank under an independent board, comprising a governor, theTreasury secretary, and representatives of industry. The same bill placed banknotes under the direct control of the bank, whereas previously it had been under a nominally independent Note Issue Board.[28] Later reforms saw the establishment of a Rural Credits Department within the bank, the profits of which were partly hypothecated to agricultural research.[29] In March 1925, cabinet decided to return Australia to thegold standard, which it had left during World War I. It delayed its announcement until the United Kingdom had decided it would do the same, which "disguised what was arguably Australia’s first explicit macroeconomic policy decision".[28]
In 1924, Bruce and Page established theLoan Council to coordinate public-sector borrowings between the state and federal governments. It was given constitutional force withan amendment passed in 1928. The government abolished the previous system of per-capita grants to states that had been implemented in 1911 and began introducingtied grants, initially for road building.[29] It also established aroyal commission into the proposedNational Insurance scheme, chaired by SenatorJohn Millen. Page was one of the chief supporters of theNational Insurance Bill 1928, which would have provided "sickness, old age, disability and maternity benefits", as well as payments to orphans and a limited form ofchild endowment. It was to be paid for by compulsory contributions from workers and co-contributions from employers. The government took the policy to the1928 Australian federal election but failed to pass the bill by the time of its defeat in 1929.[30]
As Treasurer, Page continued his professional medical practice. On 22 October 1924, he had to tell his best friend, Thomas Shorten Cole (1870–1957), the news that his wife Mary Ann Crane had just died on the operating table from complications of intestinal or stomach cancer, reputed by their daughter Dorothy May Cole to be "the worst day of his life".[citation needed] Due to a shortage of surgeons in Canberra, in 1928 Page performed an appendectomy on fellow MPParker Moloney.[31]
In his memoirs, Page recalled that the defeat of the government at the1929 election came as a relief, following the intense stress of the government's final term.[32] He and the Country Party sat on thecrossbench, withJohn Latham replacing Bruce as Nationalist leader andleader of the opposition.[33] Page regarded time out of office as a period which "sharpened our wits and enabled us to prepare public opinion for the policies we hoped to implement when the next opportunity came".[34]
In 1931, a group of dissident Labor MPs led by former Scullin government ministerJoseph Lyons merged with the Nationalists to form theUnited Australia Party (UAP), with Lyons replacing Latham as opposition leader. Page and Lyons produced a joint policy statement in October 1931 and Page expected that the Country Party would form a new coalition government. However, at the1931 election the UAP won majority government in its own right.[35] Lyons offered the Country Party three cabinet positions, on the basis that he would choose the ministers and portfolios. Page rejected this and also insisted that thetrade and customs portfolio be assigned to the Country Party. Negotiations eventually collapsed and Lyons formeda UAP-only ministry.[1]
Page's oldest son Earle Jr. was killed by a lightning strike in January 1933; shortly after his wife Ethel suffered a stroke. Page considered retiring from politics but was persuaded to instead take a leave of absence, with his deputyThomas Paterson serving as acting leader of the Country Party for nine months.[36]
The UAP lost its majority at the1934 election, after which Lyons governed in minority for two months. He eventually negotiated a new coalition agreement with Page, which provided four ministerial positions and assurances around tariff policies. Page was appointedMinister for Commerce, a significant portfolio covering agriculture and trade policy, and again became thede facto deputy prime minister.[37]
One of Page's first initiatives in the commerce portfolio was the creation of the Australian Agricultural Council (AAC) in December 1934, which aimed to coordinate state and federal agricultural policy on a similar basis to theLoan Council.[38] In his 1934 election policy he had envisioned the AAC as a "board of directors for Australian agriculture" that would "eliminate needless waste of public and private capital".[39] The council "quickly became central to agricultural policy", covering a wide variety of topics including debt relief for farmers, agricultural marketing (reforms to which were rejected in a1937 referendum), soil erosion, pest control, and problems in the wheat and dairy industries. Page found some of his attempts to guide policy were stymied by state agricultural ministers, with the AAC remaining a voluntary body reliant on passage of state legislation.[40]
Page was made a Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the New Year's Day Honours of 1938.[41] While nine Australian prime ministers were knighted (and Bruce was elevated to the peerage), Page is the only one who was knighted before becoming prime minister.
When Lyons died suddenly in 1939, theGovernor-General of AustraliaLord Gowrie appointed Page as caretaker prime minister pending the UAP choosing a new leader. He held the office for three weeks until the UAP elected former deputy leaderRobert Menzies as its new leader, and hence prime minister.[42] Page had been close to Lyons, but disliked Menzies, whom he charged publicly with having been disloyal to Lyons. Page contacted Stanley Bruce (now in London asAustralian High Commissioner to the UK) and offered to resign his seat if Bruce would return to Australia to seek re-election to the parliament in a by-election for Page's old seat, and then seek election as UAP leader. Bruce said that he would only re-enter the parliament as an independent.[43]
When Menzies was elected UAP leader, Page refused to serve under him, and made an extraordinary personal attack on him in the House, accusing him not only of ministerial incompetence but of physical cowardice (for failing to enlist during World War I). His party soon rebelled, though, and Page was deposed as Country Party leader in favour ofArchie Cameron.[42]
In March 1940, Archie Cameron led the Country Party back into coalition with the UAP. However, he resigned as party leader on 16 October, following the1940 federal election. Page attempted to regain the party's leadership, but was deadlocked withJohn McEwen over multiple ballots. As a compromise, the party electedArthur Fadden as acting leader; he was confirmed in the position a few months later. Page replaced Cameron asMinister for Commerce in the reconstituted ministry.[44]
.png)
Fadden replaced Menzies as prime minister in August 1941. A few weeks later, cabinet decided to send Page to London asresident minister, with the intention that he would be granted access to theBritish War Cabinet. While he was en route to England, the Fadden government lost a confidence motion and was replaced by an ALP minority government. The new prime ministerJohn Curtin nonetheless allowed Page to take up the position, declining his offer to return to Australia.[45] Theattack on Pearl Harbor in December changed the dynamic of Anglo-Australian relations, as theWar in the Pacific became the primary concern of the Australian government. Page assisted in the creation of thePacific War Council early the following year. He later recalledWinston Churchill's frustration in war cabinet meetings with Curtin's decision to withdraw troops from the Middle East and North Africa and return them to Australia. He credited himself with helping negate the tensions between the two men, but in February 1942 mistakenly advised Churchill that the Australian government was amenable to diverting the7th Division to Burma rather than return it directly to Australia. He was heavily rebuked by Curtin and external affairs ministerHerbert Evatt for his error.[46]
Page wrote to Curtin in April 1942 that since January he had been through "the worst period of acute mental distress of my whole life".[46] His tenure was not regarded as a success, and he was said to have suffered from a lack of experience in diplomacy.[47] Field MarshalAlan Brooke, theChief of the Imperial General Staff, recalled that in war cabinet meetings he had "the mentality of a greengrocer".[48] Page left London in June 1942 following a severe bout of pneumonia.[46] He had been made aMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) before his departure.[49] He returned to Australia in August, travelling via the United States,[50] and quickly turned his attention to planning for post-war reconstruction.[51]
Page spent the remaining years of theCurtin andChifley governments on the opposition backbench.[52] He served on theAdvisory War Council and was a delegate to the constitutional convention in Canberra in late 1942, which included members of all major political parties. However, he was frustrated by the government's failure to offer him any formal role in developing post-war policy, which he believed was due to him given his past work.[53] Page's brotherHarold and nephewRobert were killed by the Japanese during the war.[54][55]
Page was reappointedMinister for Health after the Coalition won the1949 federal election, at the age of 69.[56] He was the chief architect of theNational Health Act 1953, which established a national public health scheme based on government subsidies of voluntary private insurance and free medical services for pensioners. He played a key role in securing the support of the medical profession, which had strongly opposed theChifley government's attempt to introduce universal health care.[57] Unlike in previous governments, Page had little influence beyond his own policy area and was frustrated by the lack of interest in his ideas for national development.[56] In 1951 when Senator Gordon Brown of the ALP suffered a stroke while speaking in the Senate, Page, a trained surgeon rushed in from the House to treat him before medical professionals could take Brown to hospital for treatment.[58]
Upon the death of Billy Hughes in October 1952, Page became theFather of the House of Representatives andFather of the Parliament.[59] In 1954, he became the first chancellor of theUniversity of New England, which had become fully autonomous from theUniversity of Sydney.[60] He retired from cabinet at the age of 76, moving to the backbench in January 1956 after theDecember 1955 election.[61]
Upon Arthur Fadden's retirement in 1958, Page became the only former prime minister returned at that year's election.
| Electorate | Election | Votes | Vote change[a] | Total time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First-preference (%) | Two-party preference (%) | ||||||
| Cowper (New South Wales) | 1919[62] | 11,372 | 52.4 | 15,543 | 71.6 | — | — |
| 1922[63] | 13,157 | 67.3 | — |  14.1% | 3 years, 3 days | ||
| 1925[64] | 24,571 | 70.0 | — | 5.1% | 5 years, 336 days | ||
| 1928[65] | 27,556 | 76.8 | — | 4.4% | 8 years, 340 days | ||
| 1929[66] | unopposed | 9 years, 303 days | |||||
| 1931[67] | 29,266 | 72.3 | 30,476 | 75.3 |  2.6%[b] | 12 years, 6 days | |
| 1934[68] | 30,924 | 64.2 | 33,935 | 70.4 | 8.0% | 14 years, 276 days | |
| 1937[69] | 32,000 | 63.2 | — | 0.5% | 17 years, 314 days | ||
| 1940[70] | 27,773 | 53.7 | 33,590 | 64.9 | 9.3% | 20 years, 283 days | |
| 1943[71] | 24,017 | 45.5 | 27,737 | 52.7 | 7.7% | 23 years, 251 days | |
| 1946[72] | 31,785 | 57.2 | 33,071 | 59.5 | 11.4% | 26 years, 289 days | |
| 1949[73] | 22,791 | 61.7 | — | 4.6% | 29 years, 362 days | ||
| 1951[74] | 22,632 | 61.0 | 23,001 | 62.0 | 0.7% | 31 years, 136 days | |
| 1954[75] | 21,767 | 58.8 | 21,805 | 58.9 | 2.0% | 34 years, 167 days | |
| 1955 | unopposed | 35 years, 362 days | |||||
| 1958[76] | 21,152 | 54.8 | 23,566 | 61.1 | 4.5%[c] | 38 years, 344 days | |
| 1961[77] | 15,259 | 39.9 | 18,442 | 48.2 | 14.6% | 41 years, 361 days | |
Page sought a 17th term in parliament at the1961 election, having joined Billy Hughes two years earlier as only the second person to serve over 40 years in federal parliament. Two weeks before the election, he experienced stomach pains while visiting the home ofIan Robinson nearCoraki. His health then dramatically declined and he was admitted to theRoyal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer and underwent immediate surgery.[78] He had been gravely ill even before being admitted to hospital and was too sick to campaign nearly as actively as he had campaigned in the previous four decades. He fought the election anyway, though he scarcely appeared on the hustings.[19]
Page died in hospital on 20 December 1961, aged 81. He was granted astate funeral atSt Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney.[79] At his request, his ashes were scattered over the Clarence River near his home.[80] On the same date Page died, the election result in Cowper was declared and recorded his defeat by Labor challengerFrank McGuren, as part of a nationwide swing against the Coalition.[79] The seat had been reported as a Labor gain on election night 11 days earlier; Page died without knowing he had been defeated.[19]
Page had represented Cowper for just four days short of 42 years, making him the longest-serving Australian federal parliamentarian who represented the same seat throughout his career. OnlyBilly Hughes andPhilip Ruddock have served in Parliament longer than Page.[81] He was the last former prime minister to lose his seat untilTony Abbott lost his seat ofWarringah in2019, thoughJohn Howard would lose his seat ofBennelong as a sitting prime minister in2007.
Page's defeat/death saw the Australian Federal Parliament having no former prime ministers among its members for the first time since the period between Sir Joseph Cook's resignation from Parliament in 1921 to becomeAustralian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Page forcing Billy Hughes' resignation as prime minister in 1923.
Page marriedEthel Blunt on 18 September 1906. They had met atRoyal Prince Alfred Hospital while he was undertaking his medical residency; she was a senior nurse there. Page soon began courting her, and convinced her to become the matron of his new hospital in Grafton. She gave up nursing after their marriage, but was active in politics and community organisations. The couple had five children: Mary (b. 1909), Earle Jr. (b. 1910), Donald (b. 1912), Iven (b. 1914), and Douglas (b. 1916). Their grandchildren includeDon Page, who was active in New South Wales state politics, andGeoff Page, a poet.[82]
Page was predeceased by his first wife and his oldest son. Earle Jr., a qualified veterinarian, was killed by a lightning strike in January 1933, aged 22.[83] Ethel died in May 1958, aged 82, after a long illness.[84]On 20 July 1959 atSt Paul's Cathedral, London, Page married for a second time, wedding his long-serving secretary Jean Thomas (32 years his junior).Stanley Bruce was his best man.[19] The second Lady Page lived for almost 50 years after her husband's death, dying on 20 June 2011; her ashes were interred atNorthern Suburbs Crematorium.[85]
Notes
Citations
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
| Parliament of Australia | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member for Cowper 1919–1961 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Father of the House of Representatives 1952–1961 | Succeeded by |
| Father of the Parliament 1952–1961 | ||
| Party political offices | ||
| New political party | Leader of the Country Party 1922–1939 | Succeeded by |
| New title | Federal President of theCountry Party 1926–1961 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Australia 1939 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Treasurer of Australia 1923–1929 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Commerce 1934–1939 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Health 1937–1938 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Commerce 1940–1941 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Health 1949–1956 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| New title | Chancellor of theUniversity of New England 1954–1960 | Succeeded by |
