John Kerr

The Right Honourable Sir John Robert Kerr, AK, GCMG, GCVO, QC (September 24 1914 - April 7 1991), Australian judge and 18th Governor-General of Australia, dismissed the Labor government of Gough Whitlam on 11 November 1975, sparking one of the most significant constitutional crises in Australian history.

Kerr's career

Kerr was born in Balmain, a working-class suburb of Sydney, where his father was a boiler-maker. He won scholarships to the University of Sydney and graduated in law, being called to the New South Wales bar in 1938. As a student he met Dr H V Evatt, then a judge of the High Court of Australia, and became a protege of his for many years. In 1938 he married Peggy Worstead, with whom he had three children. He spent World War II working for an intelligence organisation, the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, a fact which later gave rise to many conspiracy theories. In 1946 he became principal of the Australian School of Pacific Administration and the first Secretary-General of the South Pacific Commission.

Related Topics:
Balmain - Sydney - University of Sydney - New South Wales - 1938 - Dr H V Evatt - High Court of Australia - World War II - 1946 - Australian School of Pacific Administration - South Pacific Commission

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Kerr returned to the bar in 1948, becoming a prominent lawyer representing trade union clients and a member of the Labor Party. He intended seeking Labor endorsement for a parliamentary seat at the 1951 elections, but withdrew in favour of another candidate. After the Labor split of 1955, however, he became disillusioned with party politics. He disliked what he saw as the leftwards trend of the Labor Party under Evatt's leadership, but was not attracted to the breakaway group, the Democratic Labor Party.

Related Topics:
1948 - Trade union - Labor Party - 1951 - 1955 - Democratic Labor Party

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In the 1960s Kerr became one of Sydney's leading industrial lawyers. In 1964 he was one of a group of lawyers (which also included future NSW Premier Neville Wran) who lent their expertise to the defence of the publishers of the satirical magazine Oz magazine when they were prosecuted for obscenity.

Related Topics:
1964 - Neville Wran - Oz magazine

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In 1966 Kerr was appointed a Judge of the Commonwealth Industrial Court, and later to several other judicial positions. During this period his political views became more conservative. He joined the Association for Cultural Freedom, a conservative group (later revealed to have received Central Intelligence Agency funding) and became a friend of Sir Garfield Barwick, the Liberal Attorney-General who became Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia in 1964. Kerr also founded the Law Association for Asia and the Western Pacific (LawAsia) in 1966 and served as President of that organisation until 1970.

Related Topics:
1966 - Association for Cultural Freedom - Central Intelligence Agency - Sir Garfield Barwick - Liberal - High Court of Australia - 1964 - Law Association for Asia and the Western Pacific - 1970

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Kerr was appointed Chief Justice of New South Wales in 1972. When Sir Paul Hasluck retired as Governor-General in July 1974, the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, offered Sir John the post. Kerr did not know Whitlam well, but he had remained friends with several ministers in Whitlam's government, such as James McClelland and Joe Riordan. Whitlam seems to have believed that because of Kerr's former membership of the ALP he was still politically "reliable," without realising that Kerr's political views had changed and that he came to see the role of Governor-General differently to Whitlam. Shortly after Kerr took office his wife died. He later married Anne Robson.

Related Topics:
1972 - Sir Paul Hasluck - 1974 - Prime Minister - James McClelland - Joe Riordan

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