Stanley Bruce
Encyclopedia
Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH
, MC
, FRS, PC
(15 April 188325 August 1967), was an Australian
politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia
. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created. He was the first incumbent Prime Minister to lose his seat at an election; the only other being John Howard
in 2007.
Stanley Bruce was born in a mansion on Grey Street, St Kilda
, a Melbourne suburb, in 1883; however, his family moved shortly after to a new mansion, "Wombalano", built in Kooyong Road, Toorak
(now owned by the Murdoch family). The boy's father, of Scottish
descent, was a prominent businessman.
Bruce was educated at Glamorgan (now part of Geelong Grammar School
), Melbourne Grammar School
, and then at Cambridge University. After graduation he studied law in London and was called to the bar in 1907. He practised law in London, and also managed the London office of his father's importing business.
When World War I broke out he joined the British Army
, and was commissioned to the Worcestershire Regiment
, seconded to the Royal Fusiliers. In 1917 he was severely wounded in France, winning the Military Cross
and the Croix de guerre
.
Bruce was invalided home to Melbourne, and soon became involved in recruiting campaigns for the Army. His public speaking attracted the attention of the Nationalist Party
, and in 1918 he was elected to the House of Representatives as MP for Flinders
, near Melbourne. His background in business led to his being appointed Treasurer (finance minister) in 1921.
The Nationalist Party lost its majority at the 1922 election
, and could only stay in office with the support of the Country Party
. However, the Country Party let it be known it would not serve under incumbent Prime Minister Billy Hughes
. This gave the more conservative members of the Nationalist Party an excuse to force Hughes to resign; the conservatives had only tolerated Hughes in order to keep the Australian Labor Party
out of power. Bruce was chosen as Hughes's successor.
Bruce then entered negotiations with the Country Party, leader, Sir Earle Page
, for a coalition government. On 9 February 1923 he became prime minister at the age of only 39, at the head (despite being the youngest member) of a Nationalist-Country coalition government
. He had to pay a high price in the process, though; he was forced to give the Country Party five posts in a Cabinet of only eleven members. He also had to give Page the Treasury
portfolio, as well as the number-two position in the government. These demands were unheard of for such a young party in the Westminster system
. Nonetheless, Bruce readily agreed, if only to avoid forcing another election.
Bruce's appointment marked an important turning point in Australian political history. He was the first Prime Minister who had not been involved in the movement for federation, who had not been a member of a colonial Parliament, and who had not been a member of the original 1901 federal Parliament. He was, in addition, the first Prime Minister to head a cabinet consisting entirely of Australian-born ministers. With his aristocratic manners and dress – he drove a Rolls Royce and wore white spats – he was also the first genuinely "Tory
" Australian Prime Minister.
In general Bruce formed an effective partnership with Page, and exploited public fears of Communism and militant trade unions to dominate Australian politics through the 1920s. Despite predictions that Australians would not accept such an aloof leader as Bruce, he won a smashing victory over a demoralised ALP, led by Matthew Charlton
, at the 1925 election
. Throughout his term of office, he pursued a policy of support for the British Empire
, the League of Nations
, and the White Australia Policy
:
In his policy launch speech made at the Shire Hall in Dandenong
, south-eastern Melbourne, on 25 October 1925, Bruce reiterated his government's commitment to the White Australia Policy
:
On 8 July 1928 he was appointed a Companion of Honour
. His government was reelected, though with a significantly reduced majority, in 1928
.
and return arbitration powers to the States.
On 10 September 1929, Hughes and five other Nationalist members joined Labor in voting against the Bill. The Bill was lost by 34 votes to 35 when Littleton Groom
, the Speaker, abstained, bringing down the Bruce–Page government and forcing the 1929 election
.
Labor, now led by James Scullin
(Charlton had resigned from the party's leadership in 1928), won a landslide victory, scoring an 18-seat swing--at the time, the second-worst defeat of a sitting government in Australian history. Bruce was defeated by Labor's candidate Jack Holloway in his electorate of Flinders. Bruce had gone into the election holding Flinders with what appeared to be a fairly safe 10.7 percent two-party majority. However, on the second count an independent Liberal candidate's preferences flowed mostly to Holloway, thus making Bruce the first sitting prime minister to lose his seat. The only other sitting Australian prime minister to be defeated in his own electorate is John Howard
, at the 2007 election.
After his 1929 electoral defeat, Bruce went to England for personal business reasons and contested the 1931 election
from that country as a member of the United Australia Party
(a merger of Bruce's Nationalists and Labor dissidents). He won his seat back, becoming the first person (and, to date, the only person) ever to be re-elected to parliament after serving as Prime Minister and leaving the House of Representatives.
He was named a Minister without portfolio
in the government of Joseph Lyons
. Lyons quickly dispatched Bruce back to England to represent the government there and he led the Australian delegation to the 1932 Ottawa Imperial Conference
. In 1933 Bruce resigned from Parliament in order to take the position in London as Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He held this post with great distinction for 12 years, playing a notable role in the Abdication Crisis
triggered by Edward VIII
, and representing Australia's interests in London during World War II. He was appointed a member of the Imperial War Cabinet
and the Pacific War Cabinet.
In 1947 he became the first Australian created an hereditary peer
when he was made Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, of Westminster Gardens in the City of Westminster (Sir John Forrest
was to have been similarly honoured in 1918, and his peerage was even publicly announced, but he died before it was officially created.) He was the first Australian to take his seat in the House of Lords
.
Bruce divided the rest of his life between London and Melbourne. He remained Australian High Commissioner until 1945; subsequently he represented Australia on various UN bodies, and his name was considered for the position of United Nations Secretary-General. He was the chairman of the World Food Council
for five years. Bruce was appointed as the first Chancellor of the Australian National University
and served from 1951 until 1961. The residential college, Bruce Hall at the Australian National University
in Canberra
was named in honour of Lord Bruce.
's Lake Burley Griffin
.
Viscountess Bruce of Melbourne died on 16 March 1967, only a few months before her husband.
bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post
. The Canberra
suburb of Bruce
, and the electoral Division of Bruce
based in south-east Melbourne, are both named after Stanley Bruce.
Melbourne Grammar School also has a house named after him, Bruce House. Bruce Hall, at the Australian National University, is also named in his honour.
Order of the Companions of Honour
The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....
, MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
, FRS, PC
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
(15 April 188325 August 1967), was an Australian
Australian people
Australian people, or simply Australians, are the citizens of Australia. Australia is a multi-ethnic nation, and therefore the term "Australian" is not a racial identifier. Aside from the Indigenous Australian population, nearly all Australians or their ancestors immigrated within the past 230 years...
politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created. He was the first incumbent Prime Minister to lose his seat at an election; the only other being John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
in 2007.
Early life
St Kilda, Victoria
St Kilda is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Port Phillip...
, a Melbourne suburb, in 1883; however, his family moved shortly after to a new mansion, "Wombalano", built in Kooyong Road, Toorak
Toorak, Victoria
Toorak is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district located on a rise on the south side of a bend in the Yarra River. Its Local Government Area is the City of Stonnington...
(now owned by the Murdoch family). The boy's father, of Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
descent, was a prominent businessman.
Bruce was educated at Glamorgan (now part of Geelong Grammar School
Geelong Grammar School
Geelong Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, co-educational, boarding and day school. The school's main campus is located at Corio, on the northern outskirts of Geelong, Victoria, Australia, overlooking Corio Bay and Limeburners Bay....
), Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, located in South Yarra and Caulfield, suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
, and then at Cambridge University. After graduation he studied law in London and was called to the bar in 1907. He practised law in London, and also managed the London office of his father's importing business.
When World War I broke out he joined the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, and was commissioned to the Worcestershire Regiment
Worcestershire Regiment
The Worcestershire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 29th Regiment of Foot and the 36th Regiment of Foot....
, seconded to the Royal Fusiliers. In 1917 he was severely wounded in France, winning the Military Cross
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
and the Croix de guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
.
Political career
Nationalist Party of Australia
The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...
, and in 1918 he was elected to the House of Representatives as MP for Flinders
Division of Flinders
The Division of Flinders is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election...
, near Melbourne. His background in business led to his being appointed Treasurer (finance minister) in 1921.
The Nationalist Party lost its majority at the 1922 election
Australian federal election, 1922
Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes lost its majority...
, and could only stay in office with the support of the Country Party
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
. However, the Country Party let it be known it would not serve under incumbent Prime Minister Billy Hughes
Billy Hughes
William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....
. This gave the more conservative members of the Nationalist Party an excuse to force Hughes to resign; the conservatives had only tolerated Hughes in order to keep the Australian 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...
out of power. Bruce was chosen as Hughes's successor.
Prime Minister
Earle Page
Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH was the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history, with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.-Early life:...
, for a coalition government. On 9 February 1923 he became prime minister at the age of only 39, at the head (despite being the youngest member) of a Nationalist-Country coalition government
Coalition (Australia)
The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...
. He had to pay a high price in the process, though; he was forced to give the Country Party five posts in a Cabinet of only eleven members. He also had to give Page the Treasury
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer of Australia is the minister in the Government of Australia responsible for government expenditure and revenue raising. He is the head of the Department of the Treasury. The Treasurer plays a key role in the economic policy of the government...
portfolio, as well as the number-two position in the government. These demands were unheard of for such a young party in the Westminster system
Westminster System
The Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system of government modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom. This term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
. Nonetheless, Bruce readily agreed, if only to avoid forcing another election.
Bruce's appointment marked an important turning point in Australian political history. He was the first Prime Minister who had not been involved in the movement for federation, who had not been a member of a colonial Parliament, and who had not been a member of the original 1901 federal Parliament. He was, in addition, the first Prime Minister to head a cabinet consisting entirely of Australian-born ministers. With his aristocratic manners and dress – he drove a Rolls Royce and wore white spats – he was also the first genuinely "Tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
" Australian Prime Minister.
In general Bruce formed an effective partnership with Page, and exploited public fears of Communism and militant trade unions to dominate Australian politics through the 1920s. Despite predictions that Australians would not accept such an aloof leader as Bruce, he won a smashing victory over a demoralised ALP, led by Matthew Charlton
Matthew Charlton
Matthew Charlton was an Australian Labor Party politician.Charlton was born at Linton in rural Victoria but moved to Lambton, New South Wales at the age of five. He worked as a coal miner after only a primary education and then married Martha Rollings in 1889...
, at the 1925 election
Australian federal election, 1925
Federal elections were held in Australia on 14 November 1925. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 22 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...
. Throughout his term of office, he pursued a policy of support for the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
, and the White Australia Policy
White Australia policy
The White Australia policy comprises various historical policies that intentionally restricted "non-white" immigration to Australia. From origins at Federation in 1901, the polices were progressively dismantled between 1949-1973....
:
"We intend to keep this country white and not allow its peoples to be faced with the problems that at present are practically insoluble in many parts of the world."
In his policy launch speech made at the Shire Hall in Dandenong
Dandenong, Victoria
Dandenong is a suburb and major urban centre in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 30 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Situated on Dandenong Creek and mostly flat land at the foothills of Mount Dandenong, it is the main administrative centre for the City of...
, south-eastern Melbourne, on 25 October 1925, Bruce reiterated his government's commitment to the White Australia Policy
White Australia policy
The White Australia policy comprises various historical policies that intentionally restricted "non-white" immigration to Australia. From origins at Federation in 1901, the polices were progressively dismantled between 1949-1973....
:
"It is necessary that we should determine what are the ideals towards which every
Australian would desire to strive. I think those ideals might well be stated as being to
secure our national safety, and to ensure the maintenance of our White Australia
Policy to continue as an integral portion of the British Empire."
On 8 July 1928 he was appointed a Companion of Honour
Order of the Companions of Honour
The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....
. His government was reelected, though with a significantly reduced majority, in 1928
Australian federal election, 1928
Federal elections were held in Australia on 17 November 1928. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...
.
Maritime Industries crisis
Strikes of sugar mill workers in 1927, waterside workers in 1928, then of transport workers, timber industry workers and coal miners erupted in riots and lockouts in New South Wales in 1929. Bruce responded with a Maritime Industries Bill that was designed to do away with the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and ArbitrationCommonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration
The Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration is a defunct Australian court, which had jurisdiction to arbitrate interstate industrial disputes....
and return arbitration powers to the States.
On 10 September 1929, Hughes and five other Nationalist members joined Labor in voting against the Bill. The Bill was lost by 34 votes to 35 when Littleton Groom
Littleton Groom
Sir Littleton Ernest Groom, KCMG was an Australian Commonwealth Minister, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Australia's 17th longest serving federal Parliamentarian . He was a member of every non-Australian Labor Party ministry from 1905 to 1926...
, the Speaker, abstained, bringing down the Bruce–Page government and forcing the 1929 election
Australian federal election, 1929
Federal elections were held in Australia on 12 October 1929. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election, with no Senate seats up for election, as a result of Billy Hughes and other rebel backbenchers crossing the floor over industrial relations legislation, depriving the...
.
Labor, now led by James Scullin
James Scullin
James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...
(Charlton had resigned from the party's leadership in 1928), won a landslide victory, scoring an 18-seat swing--at the time, the second-worst defeat of a sitting government in Australian history. Bruce was defeated by Labor's candidate Jack Holloway in his electorate of Flinders. Bruce had gone into the election holding Flinders with what appeared to be a fairly safe 10.7 percent two-party majority. However, on the second count an independent Liberal candidate's preferences flowed mostly to Holloway, thus making Bruce the first sitting prime minister to lose his seat. The only other sitting Australian prime minister to be defeated in his own electorate is John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, at the 2007 election.
Later life
Australian federal election, 1931
Federal elections were held in Australia on 19 December 1931. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...
from that country as a member of the United Australia Party
United Australia Party
The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...
(a merger of Bruce's Nationalists and Labor dissidents). He won his seat back, becoming the first person (and, to date, the only person) ever to be re-elected to parliament after serving as Prime Minister and leaving the House of Representatives.
He was named a Minister without portfolio
Minister without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
in the government of Joseph Lyons
Joseph Lyons
Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
. Lyons quickly dispatched Bruce back to England to represent the government there and he led the Australian delegation to the 1932 Ottawa Imperial Conference
British Empire Economic Conference
The British Empire Economic Conference was a 1932 conference of British colonies and the autonomous dominions held to discuss the Great Depression. It was held between 21 July and 20 August in Ottawa.The conference saw the group admit the failure of the gold standard and abandon attempts to...
. In 1933 Bruce resigned from Parliament in order to take the position in London as Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He held this post with great distinction for 12 years, playing a notable role in the Abdication Crisis
Edward VIII abdication crisis
In 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire was caused by King-Emperor Edward VIII's proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite....
triggered by Edward VIII
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
, and representing Australia's interests in London during World War II. He was appointed a member of the Imperial War Cabinet
Imperial War Cabinet
The Imperial War Cabinet was created by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George in the spring of 1917 as a means of co-ordinating the British Empire's military policy during the First World War...
and the Pacific War Cabinet.
In 1947 he became the first Australian created an hereditary peer
Australian peers
Australians were originally eligible to receive British Imperial Honours. Such honours included peerages, which at that time were all hereditary and automatically meant membership of the House of Lords - neither of these is necessarily the case any more....
when he was made Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, of Westminster Gardens in the City of Westminster (Sir John Forrest
John Forrest
Sir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....
was to have been similarly honoured in 1918, and his peerage was even publicly announced, but he died before it was officially created.) He was the first Australian to take his seat in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
.
Bruce divided the rest of his life between London and Melbourne. He remained Australian High Commissioner until 1945; subsequently he represented Australia on various UN bodies, and his name was considered for the position of United Nations Secretary-General. He was the chairman of the World Food Council
World Food Council
World Food Council was a United Nations organization established by the UN General Assembly in December 1974 by recommendation of the World Food Conference. Its headquarter was in Rome, Italy. WFC's goal was to serve as coordinating body for national ministries of agriculture to help reduce...
for five years. Bruce was appointed as the first Chancellor of the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
and served from 1951 until 1961. The residential college, Bruce Hall at the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
was named in honour of Lord Bruce.
Personal
Bruce married Ethel Dunlop Anderson (born 25 May 1879) in 1913. They had no children. He died in London on 25 August 1967, aged 84. As he was childless the viscountcy became extinct. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered on CanberraCanberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
's Lake Burley Griffin
Lake Burley Griffin
Lake Burley Griffin is an artificial lake in the centre of Canberra, the capital of Australia. It was completed in 1963 after the Molonglo River—which ran between the city centre and Parliamentary Triangle—was dammed...
.
Viscountess Bruce of Melbourne died on 16 March 1967, only a few months before her husband.
Posthumous honours
In 1972 Bruce was honoured on a postage stampPostage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post
Australia Post
Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
. The Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
suburb of Bruce
Bruce, Australian Capital Territory
Bruce is a suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Bruce was gazetted as a division on 6 June 1968 in recognition of Viscount Stanley Melbourne Bruce, the first Chancellor of the Australian National University and eighth Prime Minister of Australia. S. M. Bruce served as...
, and the electoral Division of Bruce
Division of Bruce
The Division of Bruce is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1955 and is named for Stanley Bruce, who was Prime Minister of Australia from 1923 to 1929. It is located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne...
based in south-east Melbourne, are both named after Stanley Bruce.
Melbourne Grammar School also has a house named after him, Bruce House. Bruce Hall, at the Australian National University, is also named in his honour.
Further reading
- Commonwealth Members of Parliament who have served in war, Parliament of AustraliaParliament of AustraliaThe 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...
, 26 March 2007. - Carroll, Brian (2004), Australia's Prime Ministers: from Barton to Howard, Rosenburg Press.
- Edwards, Cecil (1965), Bruce of Melbourne: Man of Two Worlds, Heinemann.
- Hughes, Colin A. (1976), Mr Prime Minister. Australian Prime Ministers 1901–1972, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, Ch.9. ISBN 0195504712