Robert Muldoon

The Right Honourable Sir Robert David ("Rob") Muldoon KCMG CH (25 September 1921–5 August 1992) served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1975 to 1984.

Youth

Born to lower-middle-class parents in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, Muldoon's strongest formative influence was his fiercely intelligent, iron-willed maternal grandmother, Jerusha, a committed socialist. Though Muldoon never accepted her creed, he did develop under her influence a potent ambition, a consuming interest in politics, and an abiding respect for New Zealand's welfare state. Also, when he was a teenager, Muldoon suffered the humiliation of his father being committed to an institution as his mind decayed. Years later, Muldoon discovered that his father, a First World War veteran, had suffered from syphilis.

Related Topics:
Auckland - Socialist - Welfare state - First World War - Syphilis

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