Labor Leader - 30 October 1915 - 14 November 1916
Labor Prime Minister - 27 October 1915 - 14 November 1916
Biography
Born in England, Hughes was a school teacher in London before migrating to Australia in 1884. He worked in various rural jobs and then settled in Sydney in 1886. He opened a bookshop in the suburb of Balmain, where local wharf labourers invited him to become secretary of their union. He later formed the Wharf Labourers' Union. He joined the Labour Leagues and entered the NSW parliament in 1894. Elected to the first House of Representatives in 1901, he was minister for foreign affairs in the Watson government of 1904 and in 1910 became attorney-general and deputy leader to Andrew Fisher. In 1915 he replaced Fisher as Labor leader and prime minister. Hughes was determined to increase Australia's World War I effort and decided to make up declining enlistment numbers by military conscription. This move caused a split in the Labor Party and in a referendum in 1916 the public vote was against conscription. Hughes left the Labor Party, formed the National Labor Party and continued to govern with the support of Joseph Cook's conservative opposition. In 1917 these two groups joined to form the Nationalist Party. He resigned after the defeat of a second conscription referendum later in 1917 but was re-commissioned, remaining prime minister at the head of various Nationalist governments until 1922, when he was pressured by the Country Party, which held the balance of power, to resign in favour of Stanley Bruce. He remained a member of parliament until his death in 1952.
[ref : 'Dictionary of Famous Australians' Ann Atkinson (Allen & Unwin,
1995)] (From pm.gov.au)