Gorton, John Grey (1911-2002), a member of the Liberal Party, served as prime minister of Australia from January 1968 to March 1971. He was the first Australian senator to become prime minister. Gorton succeeded John McEwen. McEwen served as temporary prime minister after Prime Minister Harold E. Holt disappeared while swimming in December 1967.
Gorton was known as an independent thinker who followed his own beliefs rather than the policies of his party. In 1971, Gorton’s Liberal Party failed to give him a vote of confidence and elected William McMahon to succeed him.
Early life and family
Boyhood and education.
Gorton was born on Sept. 9, 1911, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. His parents were John Rose Gorton, an English immigrant who had become a wealthy orange grower, and Alice Sinn, the daughter of a railway worker. John Rose Gorton, the boy’s father, was separated from his wife and was not married to John’s mother. In 1920, when John was about 9 years old, his mother died of tuberculosis. John’s father sent the boy to live with his wife in Sydney. 
Gorton’s family sent him to private schools. In 1930, he graduated from Geelong Grammar School, one of Australia’s most highly regarded prep schools (private schools that prepare students for university education). He studied history, politics, and economics at Oxford University in England. He graduated with a master’s degree in 1935.
Marriage and family life.
While visiting Europe in 1934, Gorton met Bettina Brown, an American language student at the Sorbonne in Paris. The young couple married on Feb. 15, 1935. They moved to Australia to manage Gorton’s father’s orange groves at Kerang, Victoria. The Gortons had a daughter, Joanna, and two sons, Michael and Robin.
War hero.
In 1940, during World War II, Gorton enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force, where he became a fighter pilot. He suffered severe facial wounds in a plane crash in 1942. He went to a military hospital near Melbourne, Victoria, for plastic surgery. The surgery partially repaired Gorton’s facial injuries but left him with a crooked nose. The Air Force discharged him in 1944 with the rank of flight lieutenant.
Entry into politics
From 1946 to 1952, Gorton served on the Kerang Shire Council, the governing body of the shire of Kerang. The shire was a unit of local government within the state of Victoria. He also briefly held office as president of the shire. In 1949, Gorton won election to Australia’s federal Senate, where he represented Victoria. He was sworn in on Feb. 22, 1950. He kept his Senate seat through the next four elections, in 1951, 1953, 1958, and 1964.
Cabinet member
In December 1958, Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies appointed Gorton minister for the Navy, a post he held until December 1963. As minister for the Navy, Gorton modernized the Royal Australian Navy’s ships and equipment, and he gained approval for the purchase of six new submarines. He also improved the Navy’s administration.
During the remainder of the 1960’s, Gorton held numerous other portfolios (official areas of responsibility). Some of the portfolios overlapped. He served as minister assisting the minister for external affairs from 1960 to 1963; minister-in-charge of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) from 1962 to 1968; minister for the interior from December 1963 to March 1964; minister for works from 1963 to 1967; minister-in-charge of Commonwealth activities in education and research from 1963 to 1966; and minister for education and science from 1966 to 1968. Gorton was elected leader of the Senate in 1967.
While her husband served in the Cabinet, Bettina Gorton earned a bachelor’s degree in Asian studies and became an Australian citizen. She worked part-time at Australian National University compiling an English-Malay dictionary.
Prime Minister Menzies retired in 1966 and was succeeded by Harold E. Holt. Holt’s time in office was cut short, however, after he disappeared while swimming near Melbourne in December 1967. Holt was presumed drowned. Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen was sworn in as the new prime minister but served only a few weeks.
Prime minister
The Liberal Party elected Gorton to replace Holt as its leader on Jan. 9, 1968. Gorton took the oath of office as prime minister on January 10. The prime minister is traditionally a member of the House of Representatives. For that reason, Gorton resigned from the Senate on January 31 and ran in a by-election (special election) to fill Holt’s vacant seat in the House. He won the election and held the seat, representing Higgins, for the next three general elections in 1969, 1972, and 1974.
Domestic policies.
Australia’s Liberal Party, despite its name, is generally a conservative party. As prime minister, Gorton’s policies were more liberal than those of many other Liberal Party members. Gorton worked to improve education, health, and social services in Australia, and he raised pensions. He increased government funding for the arts and created the Australian Council for the Arts (later the Australia Council) in 1968. He established the Australian Film Development Corporation in 1970 to encourage the Australian film industry. After leaving office, Gorton continued to promote Australian film and television. In 1973, he helped pass legislation establishing the Australian Film and Television School (now the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, or AFTRS) to train professionals for the country’s motion-picture and television industry.
International relations.
In international relations, Gorton worked to distance Australia from its traditional close ties to the United Kingdom. More than many earlier prime ministers, who considered themselves British, Gorton took pride in his country. He called himself ”Australian to the boot-heels.” He believed that the Australian government should assume greater responsibility for national affairs. He called for close relations with Asian nations, but he preferred to give those countries economic aid instead of military help. Gorton at first supported Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War (1959-1975), but he began withdrawal from Vietnam in 1970.
Growing unpopularity.
In the 1969 elections, the Liberal Party lost most of its large majority in the House of Representatives. Many members of the party grew dissatisfied with Gorton’s leadership. On March 10, 1971, party members voted on a motion of confidence in his leadership. The vote was a tie, 33-33. Recognizing that his leadership was finished, Gorton declared the post vacant. He later wrote that he “must be the first prime minister who has voted himself out of office.” William McMahon replaced Gorton as Liberal Party leader and prime minister. The party elected Gorton as deputy leader.
Later years
Gorton became minister of defense in McMahon’s Cabinet in March 1971. However, McMahon soon accused Gorton of disloyalty for writing a series of newspaper articles critical of the government. McMahon forced him to resign on Aug. 12, 1971. Gorton gave up the deputy leadership of the Liberal Party four days later.
Gorton left the Liberal Party in November 1975. The following month, he ran as an independent for the Senate seat representing the Australia Capital Territory, but he was not elected. After the election, he retired from politics.
Gorton appeared frequently on television and hosted a weekly radio program from 1978 to 1982. Queen Elizabeth II honored him with a knighthood for public service in 1977. He became known as Sir John Gorton.
Bettina Gorton died of cancer on Oct. 2, 1983. On July 24, 1993, Gorton married his second wife, Nancy Home.
Gorton rejoined the Liberal Party in 1999. He died in a Sydney hospital on May 19, 2002, from pneumonia and respiratory failure.
