John Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945) was Prime Minister of Australia from 7 October 1941 to 5 July 1945, succeeding Arthur Fadden and preceding Frank Forde. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party since 1935, and he led the Labor Party to its best federal election success in history two months before World War II. Like his United States counterpart and ally President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he died before the end of the war.
Biography[]
John Joseph Curtin was born on 8 January 1885 in Creswick, Victoria, Australia to an Irish Catholic father and a Protestant mother. Curtin was initially a socialist activist and journalist, marrying the daughter of Australian Labor Party senator Ted Needham. In 1935, he beat Frank Forde as Needham's replacement as leader of the Labor Party, although he was an unlikely candidate. He refused Prime Minister Robert Menzies' offer for a "national government" during World War II, and in 1941 he led the Labor Party to their greatest success in a federal election. Curtin improved relations with the United States by giving Australia a strong voice in the US government via General Douglas MacArthur, an American general who was forced to flee to Australia after the Fall of the Philippines in December 1941. MacArthur was given supreme command over Australian ground forces, and in 1942 he accepted a British act which made Australia a dominion independent of the United Kingdom. Curtin established closer relations with America than he did with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Curtin frequently met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the USA as well as Churchill in London. He died in Canberra in July 1945 while in office, not living to see the end of the war; Roosevelt had died back in April 1945 in office as well.