| Herbert Vere Evatt | |
|---|---|
| |
| Governor-General of Australia | |
| In office 1948–1951 | |
| Monarch | George VI |
| Prime Minister | Ben Chifley Robert Menzies |
| Preceded by | George, Duke of Kent |
| Succeeded by | Alec Douglas-Home |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 April 1894 East Maitland, New South Wales |
| Died | 2 November 1965 (aged 71) Canberra, Australia |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Sheffer (m. 1920) |
| Children | 2 |
Herbert Vere Evatt (30 April 1894 – 2 November 1965) was an Australian politician and judge who served as Governor-General of Australia from 1948 to 1951 after previously serving as a justice of the High Court of Australia from 1930 to 1940. He is best known for causing the 1951 constitutional crisis by refusing to grant Prime Minister Robert Menzies a double dissolution election.
Biography[]
Herbert Vere Evatt was born on 30 April 1894 in East Maitland and grew up in Sydney, where he studied law at the University of Sydney. After serving in the New South Wales Parliament, he was appointed to the High Court of Australia in 1930. He served until 1940, when he resigned in order to participate in the 1940 eleciton. He was elected to the Parliament under the Australian Labor Party and participated in the war coalition government under Robert Menzies from 1943 to 1946. After the death of John Curtin in 1945 he contested the Labor Party leadership, but was defeated by Ben Chifley. After Chifley’s appointment as Prime Minister of Australia in 1946, Evatt was first appointed to diplomatic positions, but after George, Duke of Kent was recalled to the United Kingdom he was offered the position of Governor-General of Australia. Evatt’s nomination was controversial and generated opposition even from the King George VI himself as Evatt was an active member of the ALP at the time, but he was nonetheless appointed.
In 1951, Evatt became a subject of controversy again when he refused to grant Menzies, whom he grown to strongly dislike, a double dissolution election after the Labor controlled Senate rejected his banking bill. This led to a constitutional crisis, after Menzies’ government won the subsequent vote of no confidence. Menzies ultimately requested that the king dismisses Evatt and appoints Alec Douglas-Home instead. After his dismissal, Evatt continued to participate in Labor Party, but he wasn’t selected for the 1952 election and in 1953, after Chifley’s sudden death, he lost the leadership election to Arthur Calwell. His health also began to deteriorate through the 1950s. He nevertheless continued to engage in the Labor party, criticising both Menzies’ government of Australia and Calwell’s leadership of the party, and supporting the party’s left-wing faction, but had little impact on the party in the later years. After the ALP won the 1958 election, Calwell assigned Evatt to the Australian mission to the United Nations where he remained for a few years before ultimately retiring in 1964. On 2 November 1965, Evatt died of pneumonia.