Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne,
CH, MC, FRS, PC (
15 April, 1883–25 August, 1967), Australian politician and diplomat, was the eighth
Prime Minister of Australia. He was born in
Melbourne, where his father was a prominent businessman of Scottish descent. He 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. When the Nationalist Party lost its majority at the
1922 election, the
Country Party demanded that Prime Minister
Billy Hughes resign as the price of joining a coalition government, and Bruce found himself Prime Minister at the age of only 39.
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. With his aristocratic manners and dress – he drove a
Rolls Royce and wore white
spats – he was the first genuinely "
Tory" Australian Prime Minister.
He formed an effective partnership with the Country Party leader,
Dr Earle 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, he won a smashing victory over a demoralised
Labor Party at the
1925 election. He pursued a policy of vigorous national development and, in foreign affairs, support for the
British Empire and the
League of Nations.
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 Conciliation and Arbitration Court and return arbitration powers to the States. On 10 September 1929,
Billy Hughes and five other Nationalist members joined Labor in voting against the Bill. The Bill was lost 34 votes to 35 when
Littleton Groom, the Speaker, abstained, bringing down the Bruce–Page government and sending Australians to the polls in the
1929 election just one year after the Nationalists won the
1928 election. Labor won a landslide victory and Bruce lost his own seat – the only Australian Prime Minister to date to suffer such a fate.
In 1931 Bruce won his seat back and became a
Minister without Portfolio in the government of
Joseph Lyons. But Lyons wanted Bruce out of politics and in 1933 he was dispatched to London as
High Commissioner. This post he held 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 was created
Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, of Westminster Gardens in the City of Westminster.
Bruce divided the rest of his life between London and Melbourne. He represented Australia on various
United Nations bodies and sat on the boards of many companies. He died in London on
25 August 1967. 
