Lionel Frost Bowen AC (born 28 December 1922), Australian politician, was a senior Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 figure, serving in the ministries of Gough Whitlam

Gough Whitlam

Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...

 and Bob Hawke

Bob Hawke

Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....

. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Australia

Deputy Prime Minister of Australia

The Deputy Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the second-most senior officer in the Government of Australia. The Deputy Prime Ministership has been a ministerial portfolio since 1968, and the Deputy Prime Minister is appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime...

 from 1983 to 1990.

Early life

Bowen was born in the Sydney suburb of Ultimo

Ultimo, New South Wales

Ultimo is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Ultimo is located 2 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney....

 and educated at Cleveland Street public school, Marcellin College Randwick

Marcellin College Randwick

Marcellin College Randwick is a systemic Roman Catholic, secondary, day school for boys, located in Randwick, a south-eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

 and Sydney University

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

, receiving an LLB

Bachelor of Laws

The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...

 in 1946, and becoming a solicitor. He served in the Second Australian Imperial Force

Second Australian Imperial Force

The Second Australian Imperial Force was the name given to the volunteer personnel of the Australian Army in World War II. Under the Defence Act , neither the part-time Militia nor the full-time Permanent Military Force could serve outside Australia or its territories unless they volunteered to...

 from 1941 to 1945, achieving the rank of corporal

Corporal

Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....

.

Political career

He served in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 1962–69, representing Randwick

Electoral district of Randwick

Randwick was an Australian electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, originally created with the abolition of multi-member constituencies in 1894 from part of Paddington, along with Waverley and Woollahra. It was named after and including the Sydney...

 before being elected to the Parliament of Australia

Parliament of Australia

The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...

 in 1969

Australian federal election, 1969

Federal elections were held in Australia on 25 October 1969. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia John Gorton with coalition partner the Country Party led by John McEwen defeated the Australian...

, to the seat of Kingsford Smith

Division of Kingsford Smith

The Division of Kingsford Smith is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in the south-eastern suburbs of Sydney, on the north shore of Botany Bay, and the coast of the Tasman Sea...

 in the House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

. From 1972 to 1975 he served successively as Minister for Manufacturing Industry

Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (Australia)

The current Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research is Kim Carr, appointed on 3 December 2007. He administers his portfolio through the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.-List of Ministers for Industry :...

, Special Minister of State

Special Minister of State

The Special Minister of State , currently the Special Minister of State for the Public Service and Integrity is a ministerial portfolio in the Australian Government Department of Finance and Deregulation responsible for various parliamentary, electoral, financial and oversight affairs.Other areas...

 and Postmaster-General

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Australia)

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is currently Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy. He replaced Senator the Hon Helen Coonan on 3 December 2007.-Portfolio:...

 in the Whitlam cabinet

Second Whitlam Ministry

The Second Whitlam Ministry was the forty-ninth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 19 December 1972 to 12 June 1974.Australian Labor Party*Hon Gough Whitlam, QC MP: Prime Minister. Minister for Foreign Affairs...

, gaining a reputation as a reliable if unspectacular minister.

When Whitlam resigned as Labor leader after his defeat at the 1977 election

Australian federal election, 1977

Federal elections were held in Australia on 10 December 1977. All 124 seats in the House of Representatives, and 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate, were up for election....

, Bowen contested the party leadership but was defeated by Bill Hayden

Bill Hayden

William George "Bill" Hayden AC was the 21st Governor-General of Australia. Prior to this, he represented the Australian Labor Party in parliament; he was a minister in the government of Gough Whitlam, and later became Leader of the Opposition, narrowly losing the 1980 federal election to the...

 and became Deputy Leader. He retained this position when Bob Hawke

Bob Hawke

Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....

 became Leader in February 1983. When Hawke won the March 1983 election

Australian federal election, 1983

Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 March 1983. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 64 seats in the Senate, were up for election, following a double dissolution...

, Bowen became Deputy Prime Minister

Deputy Prime Minister of Australia

The Deputy Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the second-most senior officer in the Government of Australia. The Deputy Prime Ministership has been a ministerial portfolio since 1968, and the Deputy Prime Minister is appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime...

 and Minister for Trade

Minister for Trade (Australia)

The Australian Minister for Trade has been Dr. Craig Emerson since 14 September 2010.-Portfolio:Currently the Minister for Trade administers the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade jointly with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, although prior to 1987 there was a separate Department of Trade...

 in the first Hawke Ministry

First Hawke Ministry

The First Hawke Ministry was the fifty-fifth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and held office from 11 March 1983 to 13 December 1984.Australian Labor Party-Cabinet:*Hon Bob Hawke, AC MP: Prime Minister...

. In July 1983, he was appointed Vice-President of the Executive Council

Vice-President of the Executive Council

The Vice-President of the Federal Executive Council is a position in Australian federal governments, whose holder acts as presiding officer of the Federal Executive Council in the absence of the Governor-General....

 and in the December 1984 ministry

Second Hawke Ministry

The Second Hawke Ministry was the fifty-sixth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and held office from 13 December 1984 to 24 July 1987.Australian Labor Party-Cabinet:*Hon Bob Hawke, AC MP: Prime Minister...

, he became Attorney-General

Attorney-General of Australia

The Attorney-General of Australia is the first law officer of the Crown, chief law officer of the Commonwealth of Australia and a minister of the Crown. The Attorney-General is usually a member of the Federal Cabinet, but there is no constitutional requirement that this be the case since the...

, losing the Trade portfolio.

In 1988 Bowen sponsored four referendum

Referendum

A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

s to reform the Australian Constitution

Constitution of Australia

The Constitution of Australia is the supreme law under which the Australian Commonwealth Government operates. It consists of several documents. The most important is the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia...

 (see Australian referendum, 1988

Australian referendum, 1988

The 1988 Australian Referendum was held on 3 September 1988. It contained four referendum questions, none of which passed. The failure was generally attributed to the open ended and nondescriptive wording of the proposed amendments....

), but all were defeated. He retired from federal politics prior to the March 1990 election, and was succeeded as Deputy Prime Minister by Paul Keating

Paul Keating

Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...

.

In 1991, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia "in recognition of service to the community and politics."