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{{Short description|Prime Minister of Australia (1939–1941; 1949–1966)}}
{{For|other people with the same name|Robert Menzies (disambiguation)}}
{{Use Australian English|date=September 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = Sir Robert Menzies
| honorific-suffix    = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|sep=|KT|AK|CH|QC|FAA|FRS}}
| image               = Robert Menzies 1960 colour (cropped).jpg
| caption             = Menzies in 1960
| order               = 12th
| office              = Prime Minister of Australia
| monarch             = {{ubl|[[George VI]]|[[Elizabeth II]]}}
| governor-general    = {{ubl|[[Sir William McKell]]|[[Sir William Slim]]|[[William Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil|Viscount Dunrossil]]|[[William Sidney, 1st Viscount De L'Isle|Viscount De L'Isle]]|[[Richard Casey, Baron Casey|Lord Casey]]}}
| deputy              = {{ubl|[[Arthur Fadden]]|[[John McEwen]]}}
| term_start          = 19 December 1949
| term_end            = 26 January 1966
| predecessor         = [[Ben Chifley]]
| successor           = [[Harold Holt]]
| term_start1         = 26 April 1939
| term_end1           = 29 August 1941
| monarch1            = [[George VI]]
| governor-general1   = [[Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie|Lord Gowrie]]
| deputy1             = {{ubl|Earle Page|[[Archie Cameron]]|Arthur Fadden}}
| predecessor1        = [[Earle Page]]
| successor1          = Arthur Fadden
| office2             = [[Leader of the Opposition (Australia)|Leader of the Opposition]]
| primeminister2      = {{ubl|[[John Curtin]]|[[Frank Forde]]|[[Ben Chifley]]}}
| deputy2             = Arthur Fadden
| term_start2         = 23 September 1943
| term_end2           = 19 December 1949
| predecessor2        = Arthur Fadden
| successor2          = [[Ben Chifley]]
| order3              = 1st
| office3             = Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia{{!}}Leader of the Liberal Party
| term_start3         = 21 February 1945
| term_end3           = 20 January 1966
| deputy3             = {{ubl|[[Eric Harrison]]|Harold Holt}}
| predecessor3        = ''Position established''
| successor3          = Harold Holt
| office4             = [[United Australia Party|Leader of the United Australia Party]]
| term_start4         = 22 September 1943
| term_end4           = 21 February 1945
| predecessor4        = [[Billy Hughes]]
| successor4          = ''Position abolished''
| term_start5         = 18 April 1939
| term_end5           = 9 October 1941
| predecessor5        = [[Joseph Lyons]]
| successor5          = Billy Hughes
| office6             = [[United Australia Party|Deputy Leader of the United Australia Party]]
| leader6             = Joseph Lyons
| term_start6         = 4 December 1935
| term_end6           = 20 March 1939
| predecessor6        = [[John Latham (judge)|John Latham]]
| successor6          = [[Billy Hughes]]
| constituency_MP7    = [[Division of Kooyong|Kooyong]]
| parliament7         = Australian
| term_start7         = 15 September 1934
| term_end7           = 17 February 1966
| predecessor7        = [[John Latham (judge)|Sir John Latham]]
| successor7          = [[Andrew Peacock]]
| office8             = [[United Australia Party – Victoria#Deputy Leaders|Deputy Leader of the United Australia Party in Victoria]]
| leader8             = [[Stanley Argyle]]
| term_start8         = 15 June 1932
| term_end8           = 31 July 1934
| predecessor8        = [[Ian Macfarlan]]
| successor8          = [[Ian Macfarlan]]
| office9             = 1st [[Deputy Premier of Victoria]]
| premier9            = Stanley Argyle
| term_start9         = 19 May 1932
| term_end9           = 31 July 1934
| predecessor9        = ''Position established''
| successor9          = [[Ian Macfarlan]]
| office10            = [[Attorney-General of Victoria (Australia)|Attorney-General of Victoria]]
| premier10           = Stanley Argyle
| term_start10        = 19 May 1932
| term_end10          = 24 July 1934
| predecessor10       = [[Ian Macfarlan]]
| successor10         = [[Albert Bussau|Sir Albert Bussau]]
| constituency_AM11   = [[Electoral district of Nunawading|Nunawading]]
| assembly11          = Victorian Legislative
| term_start11        = 30 November 1929
| term_end11          = 31 July 1934
| predecessor11       = [[Edmund Greenwood]]
| successor11         = [[William Boyland (Australian politician)|William Boyland]]
| office12            = Member of the [[Victorian Legislative Council]] for [[East Yarra Province]]
| term_start12        = 2 June 1928
| term_end12          = 11 November 1929
| predecessor12       = [[George Swinburne]]
| successor12         = [[Clifden Eager|Sir Clifden Eager]]
| birth_name          = Robert Gordon Menzies
| birth_date          = {{birth date|df=yes|1894|12|20}}
| birth_place         = [[Jeparit]], [[Victoria (state)|Victoria]], [[Australia]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=yes|1978|5|15|1894|12|20}}
| death_place         = [[Malvern, Victoria]], Australia
| resting_place       = [[Melbourne General Cemetery]]
| party               = {{ubl|[[Liberal Party of Australia|Liberal]] (from 1945)|[[United Australia Party|United Australia]] (1931–1945)|[[Nationalist Party (Australia)|Nationalist]] (to 1931)}}
| education           = {{ubl|[[Jeparit|Jeparit State School]]|[[Grenville College, Ballarat]]}}
| alma_mater          = [[Wesley College, Melbourne|Wesley College]], [[University of Melbourne]]
| profession          = {{hlist|[[Lawyer]]|Politician}}
| relatives           = {{hlist|[[Frank Menzies|Frank]] (brother)|[[Sydney Sampson]] (uncle)|[[Hugh Menzies|Hugh]] (uncle)|[[Douglas Menzies|Douglas]] (cousin)|[[Peter Henderson (Australian public servant)|Peter Henderson]] (son-in-law)|[[Catherine Anne Money]] (niece)}}
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Pattie Menzies|Pattie Leckie]]|1920}}
| father              = [[James Menzies (Victorian politician)|James Menzies]]
| mother              = Kate Sampson
| children            = 4
| signature           = Robert Menzies signature 1961.svg
| module              = {{listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Robert Menzies voice.ogg|title=Robert Menzies's voice|type=speech|description=Menzies on the [[Petrov Affair]]<br/>Recorded 25 October 1970}}
}}
{{Robert Menzies sidebar}}
{{Liberalism in Australia}}

'''Sir Robert Gordon Menzies''' (20 December 1894 – 15 May 1978) was an Australian politician and lawyer who served as the 12th [[prime minister of Australia]] from 1939 to 1941 and from 1949 to 1966. He held office as the leader of the [[United Australia Party]] (UAP) in his first term, and subsequently as the inaugural leader of the [[Liberal Party of Australia]] in his second. He was the [[member of parliament]] (MP) for the [[Victoria (state)|Victorian]] division of [[Division of Kooyong|Kooyong]] from 1934 to 1966. He is the [[List of prime ministers of Australia|longest-serving prime minister]] in Australian history.

Menzies studied law at the [[University of Melbourne]] and became one of [[Melbourne]]'s leading lawyers. He was [[Deputy Premier of Victoria]] from 1932 to 1934, and then transferred to [[Federal Parliament]], subsequently becoming [[Attorney-General of Australia]] and [[Minister for Industry (Australia)|Minister for Industry]] in the government of [[Joseph Lyons]]. In April 1939, following Lyons's death, Menzies [[1939 United Australia Party leadership election|was elected]] leader of the [[United Australia Party]] (UAP) and sworn in as prime minister. He authorised [[Military history of Australia during World War II|Australia's entry into World War II]] in September 1939, and spent four months in England to participate in meetings of [[Churchill war ministry|Churchill's war cabinet]]. On his return to Australia in August 1941, Menzies found that he had lost the support of his party and consequently resigned as prime minister. He subsequently helped to create the new Liberal Party, and was elected its inaugural leader in August 1945.

At the [[1949 Australian federal election|1949 federal election]], Menzies led the [[Coalition (Australia)|Liberal–Country coalition]] to victory and returned as prime minister. His appeal to the home and family, promoted via reassuring radio talks, matched the national zeitgeist as the economy grew and middle-class values prevailed; the [[Australian Labor Party]]'s support had also been eroded by [[Cold War]] scares. After 1955, [[Menzies government (1949–66)|his government]] also received support from the [[Democratic Labor Party (Australia, 1955)|Democratic Labor Party]], a breakaway group from the Labor Party. Menzies won seven consecutive elections during his second period, eventually retiring as prime minister in January 1966. Despite the failures of his first administration, his government is remembered for its development of Australia's capital city of [[Canberra]], its expanded [[Immigration to Australia|post-war immigration scheme]], emphasis on higher education, and national security policies, which saw Australia contribute troops to the [[Military history of Australia during the Korean War|Korean War]], the [[Military history of Australia during the Malayan Emergency|Malayan Emergency]], the [[Military history of Australia during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation|Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation]], and the [[Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War|Vietnam War]].

==Early life==
===Birth and family background===
Robert Gordon Menzies was born on 20 December 1894 at his parents' home in [[Jeparit, Victoria]].{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=5}} He was the fourth of five children born to Kate (''née'' Sampson) and [[James Menzies (Australian politician)|James Menzies]]; he had two elder brothers, an elder sister [[Isabel Alice Green|Isabel]], and a younger brother. Menzies was the first Australian prime minister to have two Australian-born parents: his father was born in [[Ballarat]] and his mother in [[Creswick, Victoria|Creswick]]. His grandparents on both sides had been drawn to Australia by the [[Victorian gold rush]]. His maternal grandparents were born in [[Penzance]], [[Cornwall]].{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=4}} His paternal grandfather, also named Robert Menzies, was born in [[Renfrewshire (historic)|Renfrewshire]], Scotland, and arrived in Melbourne in 1854.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=1}} The following year he married Elizabeth Band, the daughter of a cobbler from [[Fife]].{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=2}} Menzies was proud of his Scottish heritage, and preferred his surname to be pronounced in the [[Menzies#Pronunciation|traditional Scottish manner]] ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɪ|ŋ|ɪ|s}} {{respell|MING|iss}}) rather than as it is spelled ({{IPAc-en|'|m|ɛ|n|z|i|z}} {{respell|MEN|zeez}}). This gave rise to his nickname "Ming", which was later expanded to "[[Ming the Merciless]]" after the comic strip character.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rhodes |first=Campbell |title=Tosspot to Bodgie: Seven Prime Ministerial nicknames |url=https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/tosspot-to-bodgie-seven-prime-ministerial-nicknames/ |publisher=[[Museum of Australian Democracy]] |date=19 June 2017 |access-date=2 June 2018}}</ref> His middle name was given in honour of [[Charles George Gordon]].<ref name=haz14>{{cite book |last=Hazlehurst |first=Cameron |title=Menzies Observed |url=https://archive.org/details/menziesobserved0000hazl |url-access=registration |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1979 |page=[https://archive.org/details/menziesobserved0000hazl/page/14 14] |isbn=9780868613208}}</ref>

The Menzies family had moved to Jeparit, a small [[Wimmera]] township, in the year before Robert's birth.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=4}} At the 1891 census, the settlement had a population of just 55 people.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=7}} His elder siblings had been born in Ballarat, where his father was a locomotive painter at the [[Phoenix Foundry]]. Seeking a new start, he moved the family to Jeparit to take over the general store,{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=4}} which "survived rather than prospered".{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=7}} During Menzies's childhood, three of his close relatives were elected to parliament. His uncle [[Hugh Menzies|Hugh]] was elected to the [[Victorian Legislative Assembly]] in 1902, followed by his father in 1911, while another uncle, [[Sydney Sampson]], was elected to the federal [[Australian House of Representatives]] in 1906.<ref name=adb>{{cite AuDB |id2=menzies-sir-robert-gordon-bob-11111 |title=Menzies, Sir Robert Gordon (Bob) (1894–1978)|first=Allan |last=Martin|year=2000|volume=15}}</ref> Each of the three represented rural constituencies, and were defeated after a few terms. Menzies's maternal grandfather John Sampson was active in the trade union movement. He was the inaugural president of the Creswick Miners' Association, which he co-founded with future [[Australian Labor Party]] MP [[William Spence]], and was later prominent in the Amalgamated Miners' Association.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=4}}

===Childhood===
[[File:Robert Menzies, age 13.jpg|thumb|right|Article in ''[[Melbourne Punch]]'' detailing Menzies's feat of topping the state school examinations at the age of 13]]

Growing up, Menzies and his siblings "had the normal enjoyments and camaraderies of a small country town".{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=11}} He began his formal education in 1899 at the Jeparit State School, a single-teacher [[one-room school]].<ref name=haz14/> When he was about eleven, he and his sister were sent to Ballarat to live with his paternal grandmother; his two older brothers were already living there. In 1906, Menzies began attending the Humffray Street State School in [[Bakery Hill, Victoria|Bakery Hill]]. The following year, aged 13, he ranked first in the state-wide scholarship examinations. This feat financed the entirety of his secondary education, which had to be undertaken at private schools, as Victoria did not yet have a system of public secondary schools.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=12}} In 1908 and 1909, Menzies attended [[Grenville College, Ballarat|Grenville College]], a small private school in [[Ballarat Central]].{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=15}} He and his family moved to [[Melbourne]] in 1910, where he enrolled in [[Wesley College, Melbourne|Wesley College]].{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=18}} Menzies was "not very interested in and certainly incompetent at sport", but excelled academically. In his third and final year at Wesley he won a £40 exhibition for university study, one of 25 awarded by the state government.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=19}}

===University===
In 1913, Menzies entered the [[Melbourne Law School]]. He won a variety of prizes, exhibitions, and scholarships during his time as a student, graduating as a [[Bachelor of Laws]] (LL.B.) in 1916 and a [[Master of Laws]] (LL.M.) in 1918. He did, however, fail Latin in his first year.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://museumsandcollections.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/1379056/10_Stone-Berryman_Menzies12.pdf|title=The Robert Menzies Collection at the University of Melbourne |author=Caitlin Stone and Jim Berryman|year=2013|publisher=University of Melbourne|access-date=2 June 2018}}</ref> One of his prize-winning essays, ''The Rule of Law During the War'', was published as a brochure with an introduction by [[Harrison Moore]], the law school dean. In 1916, Menzies was elected president of the [[University of Melbourne Student Union|Student Representatives' Council]] and editor of the ''Melbourne University Magazine''. He wrote both prose and poetry for the magazine,{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=20}} and also contributed a song about "little [[Billy Hughes]]" to an end-of-year [[revue]].{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=24}} Menzies was also president of the Students' Christian Union, a founding member of the Historical Society, and a prominent member of the Law Students' Society. He had "a reputation as an "unusually bright and articulate member of the undergraduate community", and was known as a skilful debater.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=20}} However, he had also begun to develop the traits of pomposity and arrogance that would cause difficulties later in his career. His fellow law student and future parliamentary colleague [[Percy Joske]] noted Menzies as a student "did not suffer fools gladly [...] the trouble was that his opponents frequently were not fools and that he tended to say things that were not only cutting and unkind but that were unjustified".<ref>{{cite book |author=Percy Joske |title=Sir Robert Menzies, 1894–1978: A New, Informal Memoir |year=1978 |publisher=Angus & Robertson |pages=19–20|author-link=Percy Joske }}</ref>

During World War I, Menzies served his compulsory militia service in the [[Melbourne University Regiment|Melbourne University Rifles]] (a part-time militia unit)<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/before-office.aspx | title=Before office - Robert Menzies (26 April 1939 – 29 August 1941; 19 December 1949 – 26 January 1966) and Pattie Menzies | access-date=26 September 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928175709/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/before-office.aspx | archive-date=28 September 2013 | url-status=dead }}</ref> from 1915 to 1919.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=29}} This unit was not efficient and Menzies noted in his diary that training in even basic skills such as rifle shooting was sub-standard.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=29}} He was commissioned a second lieutenant on 6 January 1915.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232451699/25004581 |title=Military Forces of the Commonwealth |newspaper=Commonwealth of Australia Gazette |issue=32 |date=24 April 1915 |page=739 }}</ref> Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not volunteer for overseas service, something that would later be used against him by political opponents; in 1939 he described it as "a stream of mud through which I have waded at every campaign in which I have participated". Menzies never publicly addressed the reasons for his decision not to enlist, stating only that they were "compelling" and related to his "intimate personal and family affairs".{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=275}} His two older brothers did serve overseas. In a 1972 interview, his brother [[Frank Menzies]] recalled that a "family conference" had determined that Robert should not enlist. They believed that having two of the family's three adult sons serving overseas was a sufficiently patriotic contribution to the war effort, and that the family's interests would be served best by Robert continuing his academic career.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=30}} Another reason for keeping one of the elder sons home was the health of their father, James, who was physically unwell and emotionally unstable at the time.<ref>Troy Bramston (2019), ''Robert Menzies: the art of politics'', Melbourne, Scribe, p.35. {{ISBN|9781925713671}}</ref> It has been noted that, as a student, Menzies supported the introduction of [[1916 Australian conscription referendum|compulsory overseas conscription]], which if implemented would have made him one of the first to be conscripted.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993)|page=29}} Promoted to lieutenant, he resigned his commission with effect from 16 February 1921.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232182160/25022835 |title=Australian Military Forces |newspaper=Commonwealth of Australia Gazette |issue=27 |date=24 March 1921 |page=470}}</ref>

=== Legal career ===
After graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1916 with first-class honours in Law, Menzies was admitted to the Victorian Bar and to the High Court of Australia in 1918. Establishing his own practice in Melbourne, Menzies specialised chiefly in constitutional law which he had read with the leading Victorian jurist and future High Court judge, Sir [[Owen Dixon]].<ref name="adb"/> In 1920, Menzies was an advocate for the Amalgamated Society of Engineers which eventually [[Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd|took its appeal to the High Court of Australia]].<ref name="adb"/> The case became a landmark authority for the positive reinterpretation of Commonwealth powers over those of the States. The High Court's verdict raised Menzies's profile as a skilled advocate, and eventually he was appointed a [[King's Counsel]] in 1929.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3997023 |title=Two New King's Counsel |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)]] |issue=25,739 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=8 February 1929 |access-date=24 May 2023 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==Early career in politics==
=== State politics ===
[[File:Robert_Menzies_1930s.png|thumb|Menzies as Deputy Premier of Victoria]]

In 1928, Menzies entered state parliament as a member of the [[Victorian Legislative Council]] from [[East Yarra Province]], representing the [[Nationalist Party of Australia]]. He stood for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, the sanctity of contracts and the jealous preservation of existing institutions. Suspicious of the Labor Party, Menzies stressed the superiority of free enterprise except for certain public utilities such as the railways.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993) |pages=66–67}} His candidacy was nearly defeated when a group of ex-servicemen attacked him in the press for not having enlisted. Within weeks of his entry to parliament, he was made a minister without portfolio in a new minority Nationalist State government led by Premier William McPherson. The new government had formed when the previous Labor government lost the support of the cross-bench Country Progressives.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/before-office.aspx |title = Australia's PMs, Robert Menzies, Before Office |access-date = 26 September 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130928175709/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/before-office.aspx |archive-date = 28 September 2013 |url-status = dead }}</ref> The following year he shifted to the [[Victorian Legislative Assembly]] as the member for the [[Electoral district of Nunawading]]. In 1929, he founded the Young Nationalists as his party's youth wing and was its first president. Holding the portfolios of Attorney-General and Minister for the Railways, Menzies was [[Deputy Premier of Victoria]] from May 1932 until July 1934.

=== Federal politics ===
In August 1934, Menzies resigned from state parliament to contest the federal [[Division of Kooyong]] in the [[1934 Australian federal election|upcoming general election]] for the [[United Australia Party]] (UAP), which was the result of a merger during his tenure as a state parliamentarian of the Nationalists, Labor dissidents and the [[Australian Party]].

The previous member, [[John Latham (judge)|John Latham]], had given up the seat in order to prepare for appointment as [[Chief Justice of Australia]]. Kooyong was a safely conservative seat based on [[Kew, Victoria|Kew]], and Menzies won easily. He was immediately appointed [[Attorney-General of Australia]] and Minister for Industry in the [[Lyons government|government]] of [[Joseph Lyons]]. In late 1934 and early 1935 Menzies, then attorney-general, unsuccessfully prosecuted the government's highly controversial case for the [[Attempted exclusion of Egon Kisch from Australia|attempted exclusion]] from Australia of [[Egon Kisch]], a Czech Jewish communist.<ref>Peter Monteath, "The Kisch visit revisited." ''Journal of Australian Studies'' 16#34 (1992) pp: 69–81.</ref> The initial prohibition on Kisch's entry to Australia, however, had not been imposed by Menzies but by the [[Australian Country Party|Country Party]] minister for the interior, Thomas Paterson.<ref name="adb" /> In 1937 Menzies was appointed a [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Counsellor]].

Menzies had extended discussions with British experts on Germany in 1935, but could not make up his mind whether [[Adolf Hitler]] was a "real German patriot" or a "mad swash-buckler".<ref name="Bird2014">{{cite book |author=David Bird |title=Nazi Dreamtime: Australian Enthusiasts for Hitler's Germany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hWvUAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA405 |date=15 February 2014 |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=978-1-78308-124-0 |page=47}}</ref> He condemned [[Jews in Nazi Germany|Nazi antisemitism]], writing to the organisers of an anti-Nazi protest at the [[Melbourne Town Hall]] in 1933 that "I hope that I may be associated with the protest of the meeting tonight against the barbaric and medieval persecution to which their fellow [[Jews]] in Europe are apparently being subjected".<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.jwire.com.au/lets-stop-this-distortion-of-australian-jewish-history/ |title = Let's stop this distortion of Australian Jewish history|date = 30 November 2017}}</ref> In July 1939, Menzies, by then prime minister, declared in a speech that "history will label Hitler as one of the great men of the century".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75869223 |title=Mr. Menzies' "Departed Friends" |newspaper=[[The Mirror (Western Australia)|The Mirror]]|volume=17 |issue=891 |location=Western Australia |date=15 July 1939 |access-date=10 December 2019 |page=17 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

In August 1938, while Attorney-General, Menzies spent several weeks on an official visit to [[Nazi Germany]]. He was strongly committed to democracy for the British peoples, but he initially thought that the Germans should take care of their own affairs.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} He strongly supported the [[Appeasement of Hitler|appeasement policies]] of the [[First Chamberlain ministry|Chamberlain government]] in London, and sincerely believed that war could and should be avoided at all costs.<ref>Christopher Waters, "Understanding and Misunderstanding Nazi Germany: Four Australian visitors to Germany in 1938," ''Australian Historical Studies'' (2010) 41#3 pp: 369–384</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Andrews |first1 = E. M. |year = 1967 |title = The Australian Government and Appeasement |journal = Australian Journal of Politics & History |volume = 13 |issue = 1 |pages = 34–46|doi = 10.1111/j.1467-8497.1967.tb00310.x }}</ref> after the visit to Germany in 1938, Menzies wrote that the "abandonment by the Germans of individual liberty ... has something rather magnificent about it".<ref name=":0">{{Cite news | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-17/a-history-of-nazis-and-the-far-right-in-australia/10713514 |title = Nazism in Australia has a long history. Here's the short version|newspaper = ABC News|date = 16 January 2019}}</ref> Menzies also praised the "really spiritual quality in the willingness of Germans to devote themselves to the service and well-being of the state".<ref name=":2">{{cite news |last1=Sparrow |first1=Jeff |title=If you oppose Reclaim Australia, remember fascism wasn't always a freakshow {{!}} Jeff Sparrow |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/22/if-you-oppose-reclaim-australia-remember-fascism-wasnt-always-a-freakshow |access-date=10 December 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=22 July 2015}}</ref>

Menzies supported British foreign policy, including appeasement, and was initially reticent about the prospect of going to war with Germany. However, by September 1939 the unfolding crisis in Europe changed his public stance that the diplomatic efforts by Chamberlain and other leaders to broker a peace agreement had failed, and that war was now an inevitability. In his Declaration of War broadcast on 3 September 1939, Menzies explained the dramatic turn of events over the past twelve months necessitating this change of course: 

<blockquote>In those past 12 months, what has happened? in cold-blooded breach of the solemn obligations implied in both the statements I have quoted, Hitler has annexed the whole of the [[Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovak state]]. Has, without flickering an eyelid, made a pact with Russia, a country the denouncing and reviling of which has been his chief stock-in-trade ever since he became chancellor. And has now, under circumstances which I will describe to you, invaded with armed force and in defiance of civilised opinion, the independent nation of [[Poland]]. Your own comments on this dreadful history will need no reinforcement by me. All I need say is, that whatever the inflamed ambitions of the German Führer may be, he will undoubtedly learn, as other great enemies of freedom have learned before, that no empire, no dominion, can be soundly established upon a basis of broken promises or dishonoured agreements.<ref name=":3">Robert Menzies, Declaration of War, broadcast 3 September 1939</ref> </blockquote>

Menzies went on to say that if Hitler's expansionist policy "were allowed to go unchecked there could be no security in Europe and there could be no just peace for the world".<ref>{{cite book |title = Declaration of War|last = Menzies|first = Robert|year = 1939}}</ref> However, in a letter written by Menzies on 11 September 1939, he privately urged for peace negotiations and the continuation of appeasement with Hitler.<ref>{{cite web |title=AM Archive – Letter revealed Menzies' view of Hitler |url=https://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s279548.htm |website=www.abc.net.au |access-date=10 December 2019}}</ref>

Meanwhile, on the domestic front, animosity developed between Sir [[Earle Page]] and Menzies which was aggravated when Page became acting prime minister during Lyons's illness after October 1938. Menzies and Page attacked each other publicly. He later became deputy leader of the UAP.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Menzies Elected Deputy Leader of the UAP |url=https://www.robertmenziesinstitute.org.au/on-this-day/menzies-elected-deputy-leader-of-the-uap |access-date=13 February 2024 |website=Robert Menzies Institute}}</ref> His supporters began promoting him as Lyons's natural successor; his critics accused Menzies of wanting to push Lyons out, a charge he denied.

In 1938, as part of the [[1938 Dalfram dispute|Dalfram dispute]], he was ridiculed as ''Pig Iron Bob'', the result of an industrial conflict with the [[Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia]] whose members had refused to load Australian [[pig iron]] being sold to an arms manufacturer in the [[Empire of Japan]], for that [[Second Sino-Japanese War|country's war against China]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Mallory|first=Greg|title=The 1938 Dalfram Pig-iron Dispute and Wharfies Leader, Ted Roach|journal=The Hummer|year=1999|volume=3|issue=2|url=http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-3-no-2/dalfram-pig-iron/|access-date=21 September 2016|archive-date=23 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923042331/http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-3-no-2/dalfram-pig-iron/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Donaldson |first1=Mike |last2=Southall |first2=Nick |date=31 October 2022 |title=Against Fascism and War: Pig Iron Bob and the Dalfram Dispute, Port Kembla 1938 |url=https://commonslibrary.org/against-fascism-and-war-pig-iron-bob-and-the-dalfram-dispute/ |access-date=10 November 2022 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref> In 1939, he resigned from the Cabinet in protest at postponement of [[National Insurance (Australia)|the national insurance scheme]] and insufficient expenditure on defence.

== First prime ministership ==
{{Split portions|existing=y|portions=detail about general government policy|Menzies government (1939–1941)|date=May 2024}}
[[File:Nla.pic-an23217367-v.jpg|thumb|Declaration of War Broadcast, September 1939]]

With Lyons's sudden death on 7 April 1939, Page became caretaker prime minister until the UAP could elect a new leader. On 18 April 1939, Menzies [[1939 United Australia Party leadership election|was elected]] party leader over three other candidates. He was sworn in as prime minister eight days later.

A crisis arose almost immediately, however, when Page refused to serve under him. In an extraordinary personal attack in the House, Page accused Menzies of cowardice for not having enlisted in the [[Great War]], and of treachery to Lyons. Menzies then formed a minority government. When Page was deposed as Country Party leader a few months later, Menzies took the Country Party back into his government in a full-fledged Coalition, with Page's successor, Archie Cameron, as the number-two man in the government. 

===Lead-up to World War II===
During the [[Danzig crisis]], Menzies, who had long felt that the [[Treaty of Versailles]] was too harsh towards [[Germany]], supported having the [[Free City of Danzig]] (modern [[Gdańsk]]) rejoin Germany.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=172}} Though Hitler had only asked for extraterritorial highways across the [[Polish Corridor]] to link [[East Prussia]] with the rest of the ''Reich'', Menzies also supported having the Polish Corridor returned to Germany.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=172}} Despite his support for the Germans' claims to Danzig, Menzies was opposed to the prospect of German domination of Europe. Menzies in a speech on 28 March 1939 declared: "I do not accept this doctrine of an unimpeded march by Germany to a territorial conquest of middle and southeastern Europe".{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=171}} Ultimately, the fear of Japan proved decisive for Menzies, who believed that for Australia to not support [[United Kingdom|Britain]] in the Danzig crisis would lead to Britain eventually abandoning Australia to face Japan alone.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=172}} The prospect of war in Europe threatened to undermine the [[Singapore strategy]] that called for the main British battle fleet to be sent out to Singapore (the major British naval base in Asia) in the event of a threat from Japan.<ref name="Murfett 2010 p. 18">Murfett, Malacom "An Enduring Theme" (2010) p. 18</ref> A war with Germany would require the majority of the Royal Navy's ships to stay within European waters, and an inability to execute the Singapore strategy as planned was widely feared in Canberra to be a strong encouragement for Japan to strike south against Australia.<ref name="Murfett 2010 p. 18"/> However, Menzies had a strong faith in the ability of [[Neville Chamberlain]] to handle the Danzig crisis.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=172}} Menzies believed that the crisis should and would be resolved by a Munich-type deal under which the Free City of Danzig would be peacefully allowed to "go home to the ''Reich''" while at the same time Germany should and would be deterred from going to war against [[Poland]].{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=172}} Though Menzies felt that Poland was in the wrong in opposing the return of the Free City to Germany, he did not want to see the crisis end with Poland being subjected to Germany.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=178}}

Several times, Menzies declared that there were "two sides" both equally worthy of consideration to the Danzig dispute.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=178}} He dismissed the "jitters", as he called it, on the stock market in the summer of 1939 while he spoke of "an outpouring of the sentiments of peace in the minds of the people".{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=178}}  Throughout the summer of 1939,{{when|date=August 2025|reason=northern or southern summer?}} Menzies stressed in his speeches that war was "not inevitable" as he urged Australians to enjoy their summer vacations.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=178}}  In the cabinet, Menzies was opposed to expanding the tiny [[Australian Army]] beyond its current size of 1,571 soldiers on economic grounds.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=178}} The news of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] of 22 August 1939 was greeted with both relief and concern in Menzies's cabinet. It was understood that the German-Soviet non-aggression pact ended the prospect of a "peace front" of Britain, [[France]] and the [[Soviet Union]] to deter Germany from invading Poland, and that war was more likely than not in Europe.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=179}} Conversely, the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact had (temporarily as it proved) alienated Japan from Germany, and within the Australian cabinet, it was felt that Japan would be less likely to enter a war against the [[British Empire]] because of the German-Soviet agreement, which had come as a most unwanted surprise in Tokyo.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=179}} In Tokyo, the failure to achieve an alliance with Germany alongside the shock of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact caused the Japanese prime minister Baron [[Hiranuma Kiichirō]]  to submit his resignation to the Emperor, which was accepted. The possibility that at least for the moment that Japan would stay neutral if the Danzig crisis led to war in Europe encouraged the cabinet in Canberra to stand by Britain.{{sfn|Andrews|1970|p=179}}

===At war===
On 3 September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany due to its [[invasion of Poland]] on 1 September, leading to the start of World War II.<ref name=":0" /> Menzies responded immediately by also declaring Australia to be at war in support of Britain, and delivered a radio broadcast to the nation on that same day, which began "Fellow Australians. It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that, as a result, Australia is also at war."<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> A couple of days after the declaration, Menzies recalled parliament and asked for general support as the government faced the enormous responsibility of leading the nation in war time. Page and Curtin, as party leaders, pledged their support for all that needed to be done for the defence of the country.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993) |page=285}}

Thus, Menzies at the age of 44 found himself a wartime leader of a small nation of 7&nbsp;million people. He was especially worried about the military threat from Japan. Australia had very small forces, and depended on Britain for defence against the looming threat of the Japanese Empire, with its 100&nbsp;million people, a very powerful Army and Navy and an aggressive foreign policy. He hoped that a policy of appeasement would head off a war with Japan, and repeatedly pressured London.<ref>David Day, ''Menzies and Churchill at War'' (1993) pp 9–26</ref> Menzies did his best to rally the country, but the bitter memories of the disillusionment which followed [[World War I]] made his task difficult; this was compounded by his lack of a service record. Furthermore, as attorney-general and deputy prime minister, he had made an official visit to Germany in 1938, when the official policy of the Australian government, supported by the Opposition, was strong support for [[Neville Chamberlain]]'s policy of appeasement. Menzies, then also holding the responsibility for the [[Department of Munitions]] created a couple of months earlier, led the Coalition into the [[1940 Australian federal election|1940 election]] and suffered an eight-seat swing, losing the slender majority he had inherited from Lyons. The result was a [[hung parliament]], with the Coalition two seats short of a majority. Menzies managed to form a minority government with the support of two independent MPs, [[Arthur Coles]] and [[Alexander Wilson (Australian politician)|Alex Wilson]]. Labor, led by [[John Curtin]], refused Menzies's offer to form a war coalition, and opposed using the Australian army for a European war, preferring to keep it at home to defend Australia. Labor agreed to participate in the [[Advisory War Council]].

===Strategic debates===
[[File:Menzies Churchill WW21941.jpg|thumb|Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, with his British counterpart, Winston Churchill, London 1941]]

Menzies sent the bulk of the army to help the British in the Middle East and Singapore, and told [[Winston Churchill]] the Royal Navy needed to strengthen its Far Eastern forces.<ref>Paul Hasluck, ''The Government and the People: 1939–1941'' (1951)</ref> On 11 August 1940, Churchill sent a long letter to Menzies promising that if Japan entered the war, Britain would activate the Singapore strategy by sending a strong Royal Navy force to Singapore.{{sfn|Bell|2014|p=73}}  Menzies continued to be worried about the fact that the Singapore base-despite being billed as the "Gibraltar of the East" was a base, not the fortress that it was presented as; about the shoddy state of the fortifications at Singapore; and about the lack of details in Churchill's promises.{{sfn|Bell|2014|p=73}}  

Just before the September 1940 election, on 13 August 1940, [[1940 Canberra air disaster#Casualties|three members of Menzies's cabinet]] had been killed in an air crash—the [[1940 Canberra air disaster|Canberra air disaster]]—along with General [[Brudenell White]], [[Chief of Army (Australia)|Chief of the General Staff]]; two other passengers and four crew.<ref name="can-times-disaster">{{cite news|date=15 August 1940|title=Nation Mourns Victims of Air Disaster|page=2|newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]]|format=scan|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2535701|via=[[Trove]]}}</ref> This event weakened Menzies's government.<ref name="tink-destroy-gov">[[Andrew Tink|Tink, Andrew]] "[http://www.boffinsbookshop.com.au/books/9781742233574/air-disaster-canberra-the-plane-crash-that-destroyed-a-government Air Disaster Canberra: the plane crash that destroyed a government] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409103205/http://www.boffinsbookshop.com.au/books/9781742233574/air-disaster-canberra-the-plane-crash-that-destroyed-a-government|date=9 April 2013}}". ''[[NewSouth Books]]''. 1 April 2013, {{ISBN|9781742233574}}, Retrieved 17 April 2013 via boffinsbookshop.com.au</ref> On the night of 11 November 1940, aircraft from the carriers of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean fleet disabled a number of Italian capital ships at anchor at the Italian base at [[Battle of Taranto|Taranto]]. In December 1940, Menzies sent Churchill a letter expressing concern that the Imperial Japanese Navy might likewise use air power to cripple the Singapore base.{{sfn|Bell|2014|p=73}} In the same letter, Menzies asked Churchill to activate the Singapore strategy by stationing at least three or four capital ships at Singapore.{{sfn|Bell|2014|p=73}} In response, Churchill wrote back to Menzies that to say he would not have capital ships "sitting idle" at Singapore and that to transfer capital ships to Singapore would mean "ruining the Mediterranean situation. This I am sure you would not want to do unless or until the Japanese danger became far more menacing than at present".{{sfn|Bell|2014|p=73}} In March 1941 and again in August 1941, Menzies appealed to Churchill in letters to activate the Singapore strategy as he wrote that he was highly concerned about Japanese ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region.{{sfn|Bell|2014|p=73}}

From 24 January 1941, Menzies spent four months in Britain discussing war strategy with Churchill and other Empire leaders, while his position at home deteriorated. ''En route'' to the UK he took the opportunity to stop over to visit Australian troops serving in the [[North African Campaign]]. On 20 February 1941, Churchill asked Menzies to give his approval to send the Australian forces in North Africa to Greece.{{sfn|Stockings|Hancock|2013|p=558}} Like many other Australians of his generation, Menzies was haunted by the memory of the [[Gallipoli campaign|Battle of Gallipoli]]-which came about because of Churchill's plans to send an Allied fleet up the Dardanelles-and he was highly suspicious of another of Churchill's plans for victory in the Mediterranean.{{sfn|Stockings|Hancock|2013|p=558}} On 25 February 1941, Menzies  reluctantly gave his approval to send the [[6th Division (Australia)|6th Division]] to Greece.{{sfn|Stockings|Hancock|2013|p=558}} Professor [[David Day (historian)|David Day]], an Australian historian, has posited that Menzies might have replaced Churchill as British prime minister, and that he had some support in the UK for this. Support came from [[Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor|Viscount Astor]], [[Lord Beaverbrook]] and former First World War Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]],<ref name="autogenerated2">Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary "Menzies and Churchill at War" (2008) by Film Australia.</ref> who were trenchant critics of Churchill's purportedly autocratic style, and favoured replacing him with Menzies, who had some public support for staying on in the [[War Cabinet]] for the duration, which was strongly backed by Sir [[Maurice Hankey]], former First World War Colonel and member of both the world wars' War Cabinets. Writer [[Gerard Henderson]] has rejected this theory, but history professors [[Judith Brett]] and [[Joan Beaumont]] support Day, as does Menzies's daughter, Heather Henderson, who claimed Lady Astor "even offered all her sapphires if he would stay on in England".<ref name="autogenerated2" />

Menzies came home to a hero's welcome. However, his support in Parliament was less certain. Not only did some Coalition MPs doubt his popularity in the electorate, but they also believed that a national unity government was the only long-term solution. Menzies's reputation was badly damaged by the failure of the Allied expedition to Greece, in which Australian troops played a prominent role.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=56}} ''[[The Australian Worker]]'' newspaper in an editorial on 11 June 1941 attacked Menzies for having "too readily acquiesced in the ill-starred Greek campaign, of which the Cretan misadventure was the inevitable sequel&nbsp;... As a military adventure, it was madness. As a political gesture, it was stupid because it was doomed to failure."{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=56}} Menzies sought to blame General Sir [[Thomas Blamey]] for the Greek expedition as he maintained that he had only given permission to send the Australians to Greece after Blamey did not oppose it.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=56}} Menzies maintained that if Blamey had given his disapproval in his opinion as a professional soldier, he would never have sent the Australians to Greece.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=56}} Matters came to a head in August, when the cabinet voted to have Menzies return to London to speak for Australia's interests in the War Cabinet. However, since Labor and the Coalition were level (both sides had 36 MPs), Menzies needed the support of the Labor Party in order to travel to Britain.<ref name=inoffice/> Amid rumours that Menzies's real intention was to launch a political career in Britain, Labor insisted that the crisis was too dire for Menzies to leave the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/curtin/before-office.aspx|title=John Curtin: before office|publisher=[[National Archives of Australia]]|access-date=19 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713183602/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/curtin/before-office.aspx|archive-date=13 July 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Downfall===
With Labor unwilling to support him travelling to London and his position within his own party room weakening, Menzies called an emergency cabinet meeting. He announced his intention to resign and advise the [[Governor-General of Australia|Governor-General]], [[Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie|Lord Gowrie]] to commission Curtin as prime minister. The Cabinet instead urged Menzies to make another overture to Labor for a national unity government, but Labor turned the offer down. With his position now untenable, Menzies resigned the prime ministership on 27 August 1941.<ref name=inoffice/>

A joint UAP-Country Party conference chose Country Party leader [[Arthur Fadden]] as Coalition leader—and hence Prime Minister—even though the Country Party was the junior partner in the Coalition.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/fadden/before-office.aspx|title=Before office – Arthur Fadden – Australia's PMs – Australia's Prime Ministers|publisher=Primeministers.naa.gov.au|access-date=17 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120819134749/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/fadden/before-office.aspx|archive-date=19 August 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> Menzies was bitter about this treatment from his colleagues, and nearly left politics,<ref>{{cite book|title=Australia's Prime Ministers|author=Scott Brodie|year=1984|publisher=PR Books|location=NSW, Australia|isbn=0-86777-006-6}}</ref> but was persuaded to become Minister for Defence Co-ordination in Fadden's cabinet.<ref name=phb>{{cite web|title=Ministries and Cabinets|work=parliamentary Handbook|publisher=[[Parliament of Australia]]|url=http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;page=0;query=Scullin%20Ministry%20(ALP);rec=0;resCount=Default|access-date=17 September 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008065519/http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p%3Bpage%3D0%3Bquery%3DScullin%20Ministry%20%28ALP%29%3Brec%3D0%3BresCount%3DDefault|archive-date=8 October 2012}}</ref> The [[Fadden government]] lasted only 40 days before being defeated on a confidence motion. On 9 October 1941, Menzies resigned as leader of the UAP after failing to convince his colleagues that he should become [[Leader of the Opposition (Australia)|Leader of the Opposition]] in preference to Fadden. He [[1941 United Australia Party leadership election|was replaced]] as UAP leader by former prime minister [[Billy Hughes]], who was 79 years old at the time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/hughes/after-office.aspx#section3|title=After office – William Morris Hughes – Australia's PMs|publisher=Primeministers.naa.gov.au|access-date=17 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626022231/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/hughes/after-office.aspx#section3|archive-date=26 June 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Interregnum==
=== Menzies's ''Forgotten People'' ===
During his time in the political wilderness Menzies built up a large popular base of support by his frequent appeals, often by radio, to ordinary non-elite working citizens whom he called 'the Forgotten People'—especially those who were not suburban and rich or members of organised labour. From November 1941, he began a series of weekly radio broadcasts reaching audiences across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. A selection of these talks was edited into a book bearing the title of his most famous address, ''[[The Forgotten People]]'', delivered on 22 May 1942. In this landmark address, Menzies appealed to his support base:

<blockquote>I do not believe that the real life of this nation is to be found either in great luxury hotels and the petty gossip of so-called fashionable suburbs, or in the officialdom of the organised masses. It is to be found in the homes of people who are nameless and unadvertised, and who, whatever their individual religious conviction or dogma, see in their children their greatest contribution to the immortality of their race. The home is the foundation of sanity and sobriety; it is the indispensable condition of continuity; its health determines the health of society as a whole.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liberals.net/theforgottenpeople.htm|title=The Forgotten People – Speech by Robert Menzies (22 May 1942)|work=Liberals.net|date=22 May 1942|access-date=4 November 2011|archive-date=19 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819221826/http://www.liberals.net/theforgottenpeople.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

Menzies himself described ''The Forgotten People'' collection as 'a summarised political philosophy'. Representing the blueprint of his liberal philosophy, ''The Forgotten People'' encompassed a wide range of topics including Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, the control of the war, the role of women in war and peace, the future of capitalism, the nature of democracy and especially the role of the middle class, 'the forgotten people' of the title and their importance to Australia's future as a democracy.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7DvtgAACAAJ |title=The Forgotten People and Other Studies in Democracy |last1=Menzies |first1=Robert |last2=Kemp |first2=David |publisher=The Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division) |year=2011 |isbn=9780646555171 |location=Melbourne |page=12}}</ref> The addresses frequently emphasised the values which Menzies regarded as critical to shaping Australia's wartime and postwar policies. These were essentially the principles of liberalism: individual freedom, personal and community responsibility, the rule of law, parliamentary government, economic prosperity and progress based on private enterprise and reward for effort.<ref name=":1" />

After losing the UAP leadership, Menzies moved to the backbench. Besides his overall sense of duty, the war would have made it nearly impossible for him to return to his legal practice in any event.<ref name=inoffice>{{cite web|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/in-office.aspx|title=In office – Robert Menzies – Australia's PMs|publisher=Primeministers.naa.gov.au|access-date=17 October 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113103332/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/in-office.aspx|archive-date=13 November 2013}}</ref> Labor won a crushing victory at the [[1943 Australian federal election|1943 election]], taking 49 of 74 seats and 58.2 percent of the [[two-party-preferred vote]] as well as a Senate majority. The Coalition, which had sunk into near-paralysis in opposition, was knocked down to only 19 seats. Hughes resigned as UAP leader, and Menzies [[1943 United Australia Party leadership election|was elected]] as his successor on the second ballot, defeating three other candidates. The UAP also voted to end the joint opposition arrangement with the Country Party, allowing Menzies to replace Fadden as opposition leader.

=== Formation of the Liberal Party ===
Soon after his return, Menzies concluded that the UAP was at the end of its useful life. Menzies called a conference of anti-Labor parties with meetings in Canberra on 13 October 1944 and again in Albury (NSW) in December 1944. At the Canberra conference, the fourteen parties, with the UAP as the nucleus, decided to merge as one new non-Labor party—the [[Liberal Party of Australia]]. The organisational structure and constitutional framework of the new party was formulated at the Albury Conference. Officially launched at the Sydney Town Hall on 31 August 1945, the Menzies-led Liberal Party of Australia inherited the UAP's role as senior partner in the Coalition. Curtin died in office in 1945 and was succeeded by [[Ben Chifley]].

The reconfigured Coalition faced its first national test in the [[1946 Australian federal election|1946 election]]. It won 26 of 74 seats on 45.9 percent of the two-party vote and remained in minority in the Senate. Despite winning a seven-seat swing, the Coalition failed to make a serious dent in Labor's large majority.

====1949 election campaign====
Over the next few years, however, the [[anti-communist]] atmosphere of the early [[Cold War]] began to erode Labor's support. In 1947, Chifley announced that he intended to nationalise Australia's private banks, arousing intense middle-class opposition which Menzies successfully exploited. In addition to campaigning against Chifley's bank nationalization proposal, Menzies successfully led the 'No' case for a referendum by the Chifley government in 1948 to extend commonwealth wartime powers to control rents and prices.<ref name=adb/> In the election campaign of 1949, Menzies and his party were resolved to stamp out the communist movement and to fight in the interests of free enterprise against what they termed as Labor's 'socialistic measures'. If Menzies won office, he pledged to counter inflation, extend child endowment and end petrol rationing.<ref name=adb/> With the lower house enlarged from 74 to 121 seats, the Menzies Liberal/Country Coalition won the [[1949 Australian federal election|1949 election]] with 74 House seats and 51.0 percent of the two-party vote but remained in minority in the Senate. Whatever else Menzies's victory represented, his anti-communism and advocacy for free enterprise had captured a new and formidable support base in postwar Australian society.<ref name=adb/>

==Second prime ministership==
[[File:Robert Menzies headshot.jpg|thumb|Menzies in 1952]]
{{Main|Menzies government (1949–1966)}}
After his election victory, Menzies returned to the office of prime minister on 19 December 1949.

=== Cold War and national security ===
The spectre of [[communism]] and the threat it was deemed to pose to national security became the dominant preoccupation of the new government in its first phase. Menzies introduced legislation in 1950 to ban the [[Australian Communist Party]], hoping that the Senate would reject it and give him a trigger for a [[double dissolution]] election, but Labor let the bill pass. It was subsequently [[Australian Communist Party v Commonwealth|ruled unconstitutional]] by the [[High Court of Australia|High Court]]. But when the Senate rejected his banking bill, he [[1951 Australian federal election|called a double dissolution election]]. At that election, the Coalition suffered a five-seat swing, winning 69 of 121 seats and 50.7 percent of the two-party vote. However, it won six seats in the Senate, giving it control of both chambers. Later in 1951 Menzies decided to hold a [[1951 Australian Communist Party ban referendum|referendum]] on the question of changing the Constitution to permit the parliament to make laws in respect of Communists and Communism where he said this was necessary for the security of the Commonwealth. If passed, this would have given a government the power to introduce a bill proposing to ban the Communist Party. Chifley died a few months after the [[1951 Australian federal election|1951 election]]. The new Labor leader, [[H. V. Evatt]], campaigned against the referendum on civil liberties grounds, and it was narrowly defeated. Menzies sent Australian troops to the [[Korean War]]. 

Economic conditions deteriorated in the early 1950s and Labor was confident of winning the [[1954 Australian federal election|1954 election]]. Menzies engaged in [[red-baiting]] of political opponents.<ref name="Crean">{{Cite book |last=Crean |first=Jeffrey |title=The Fear of Chinese Power: an International History |date=2024 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |isbn=978-1-350-23394-2 |edition= |series=New Approaches to International History series |location=London, UK |pages=}}</ref>{{Rp|page=93}} Shortly before the election, Menzies announced that a Soviet diplomat in Australia [[Vladimir Mikhaylovich Petrov (diplomat)|Vladimir Petrov]], had defected, and that there was evidence of a Soviet spy ring in Australia, including members of Evatt's staff. Evatt felt compelled to state on the floor of Parliament that he'd personally written to Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], who assured him there were no Soviet spy rings in Australia, bringing the House into silence momentarily before both sides of Parliament laughed at Evatt's naivety.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://moadoph.gov.au/exhibitions/online/petrov/royal-commission.html|title=Royal Commission – The Petrov Affair|access-date=22 June 2013|archive-date=17 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017053039/http://moadoph.gov.au/exhibitions/online/petrov/royal-commission.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

This [[Cold War]] scare was claimed by some to enable the Menzies government to win the election. The Menzies government won 64 of 121 seats and 49.3 percent of the two-party vote. Evatt accused Menzies of arranging Petrov's defection. The aftermath of the 1954 election caused a split in the Labor Party, with several anti-Communist members from [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]] defecting to form the [[Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist)]]. The new party directed its preferences to the Liberals, with the Menzies government re-elected with an increased majority at the [[1955 Australian federal election|1955 election]]. Menzies was re-elected almost as easily at the [[1958 Australian federal election|1958 election]], again with the help of preferences from what had become the [[Democratic Labor Party (Australia, 1955)|Democratic Labor Party]].

=== Foreign policy ===
[[File:Robert_Menzies_1960_colour.jpg|thumb|Menzies in 1960]]
[[File:HMQ and R Menzies.jpg|right|thumb|Menzies hosting a royal visit of Queen Elizabeth II]]
[[File:MenziesAndGorton.jpg|thumb|right|Menzies with Minister for the Navy [[John Gorton]] in 1961]]

The Menzies era saw immense regional changes, with post-war reconstruction and the withdrawal of the old European Powers and the British Empire from the [[Far East]] (including independence for [[India]] and [[Indonesia]]). In response to these geopolitical developments, the Menzies government maintained strong ties with Australia's traditional allies such as Britain and the [[United States]] while also reorienting Australia's foreign policy focus towards the [[Asia Pacific]]. With his first Minister for External Affairs, [[Percy Spender]], the Menzies government signed the [[ANZUS treaty]] in [[San Francisco]] on 1 September 1951. Menzies later told parliament that this security pact between Australia, [[New Zealand]] and the United States was 'based on the utmost good will, the utmost good faith and unqualified friendship' saying 'each of us will stand by it'.<ref name="joshfrydenberg1">{{cite web|url =http://www.joshfrydenberg.com.au/guest/SpeechesDetails.aspx?id=252|title =Josh Frydenberg, 2014 Sir Robert Menzies Lecture|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20170406032811/http://joshfrydenberg.com.au/guest/SpeechesDetails.aspx?id=252|archive-date =6 April 2017|url-status =dead}}</ref> At the same time as strengthening the alliance with the United States, Menzies and Spender were committed to Australia being on 'good neighbour terms' with the countries of [[South Asia|South]] and [[Southeast Asia]]. To help forge closer ties in the region, the Menzies government initiated the [[Colombo Plan]] that would see almost 40,000 students from the region come to study in Australia over the four subsequent decades.<ref>{{cite web|url =http://www.joshfrydenberg.com.au/guest/SpeechesDetails.aspx?id=252|title =Josh Frydenberg 2014 Sir Robert Menzies Lecture|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20170406032811/http://joshfrydenberg.com.au/guest/SpeechesDetails.aspx?id=252|archive-date =6 April 2017|url-status =dead}}</ref> Recognising the economic potential of a burgeoning postwar Japan, Menzies, together with Trade Minister Jack McEwan and his new minister for External Affairs, Richard Casey, negotiated the Commerce Agreement with Japan in 1957. This trade agreement was followed by bilateral agreements with [[Federation of Malaya|Malaya]] in 1958 and Indonesia in 1959.<ref name="joshfrydenberg1"/>

=== Economic policy ===
[[File:Holt and Menzies.jpg|thumb|Menzies with Treasurer [[Harold Holt]]]]

Throughout his second period in office, Menzies practised classical liberal economics with an emphasis on private enterprise and self-sufficiency in contrast to Labor's 'socialist objective'. Accordingly, the economic policy emphasis of the Menzies government moved towards tax incentives to release productive capacity, boosting export markets, research and undertaking public works to provide power, water and communications.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Menzies and Post-War Prosperity|last = Starr|first = Graeme|date = 2001|journal = Liberalism and the Australian Federation Edited by John Nethercote}}</ref>

In 1951, the top marginal tax rate for incomes above £10,000 (equivalent to $487,272.73 in 2022<ref>{{Cite web |last=contact=Media Office |first=Information Department |date=30 October 2015 |title=Inflation Calculator |url=https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html |access-date=18 December 2023 |website=Reserve Bank of Australia |language=en-AU}}</ref>) was 75 per cent under Menzies; from 1955 until the mid-1980s, the top marginal tax rate was 67 per cent.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/opinion/hit-the-very-wealthy-with-more-tax-as-robert-menzies-did/news-story/8953321ef14d6074db39803d3a722776 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422063629/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/opinion/hit-the-very-wealthy-with-more-tax-as-robert-menzies-did/news-story/8953321ef14d6074db39803d3a722776 | archive-date=22 April 2023 | title=Hit the very wealthy with more tax, as Robert Menzies did &#124; the Australian | date=9 January 2019 }}</ref>

=== Social reform ===
[[File:RobertMenzies.jpg|right|thumb|Menzies in 1963, towards the end of his reign in office]]

In 1949, Parliament legislated to ensure that all [[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal]] ex-servicemen should have [[Suffrage|the right to vote]]. In 1961 a Parliamentary Committee was established to investigate and report to the Parliament on Aboriginal voting rights, and in 1962, Menzies's ''Commonwealth Electoral Act'' provided that all Indigenous Australians should have the right to enrol and vote at federal elections.<ref>{{cite web |title=Indigenous Vote |url=http://aec.gov.au/Voting/indigenous_vote/history.htm}}</ref>

In 1960, the Menzies government introduced a new pharmaceutical benefits scheme, which expanded the range of prescribed medicines subsidised by the government. Other social welfare measures of the government included the extension of the Commonwealth Child Endowment scheme, the pensioner medical and free medicines service, the Aged Persons' Homes Assistance scheme, free provision of life-saving drugs; the provision of supplementary pensions to dependent pensioners paying rent; increased rates of pension, unemployment and sickness benefits, and rehabilitation allowances; and a substantial system of [[tax incentives]] and rewards.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nethercote |first=John |title=Liberalism and the Australian Federation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bxBsANHDlzMC |publisher=Federation Press |location=Sydney |year=2001 |page=191 |isbn=978-1862874022}}</ref> In 1961, the ''Matrimonial Causes Act'' introduced a uniform divorce law across Australia, provided funding for marriage counselling services and made allowances for a specified period of separation as sufficient grounds for a divorce.<ref>{{cite web |title=Australia's Prime Ministers, Robert Menzies, Timeline |url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/timeline/results.aspx?type=pm&pm=Robert%20Menzies |url-status=dead |access-date=10 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221955/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/timeline/results.aspx?type=pm&pm=Robert%20Menzies |archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref>

In response to the decision by the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn|Catholic Diocese of Goulburn]] in July 1962 to close its schools in protest at the lack of government assistance, the Menzies government announced a new package of state aid for independent and Catholic schools. Menzies promised five million pounds annually for the provision of buildings and equipment facilities for science teaching in secondary schools. Also promised were 10 000 scholarships to help students stay at school for the last two years with a further 2 500 scholarships for technical schools.{{sfn|Howard|2014|pages=320–321}} Despite the historically firm Catholic support base of the Labor Party, the Opposition under [[Arthur Calwell]] opposed state aid before eventually supporting it with the ascension of [[Gough Whitlam]] as Labor leader.

[[File:Official Portrait of Robert Menzies by Ivor Hele.jpg|thumb|Parliament House Portrait of Menzies by [[Ivor Hele|Ivor Henry Thomas Hele]], 1955]]

In 1965, the Menzies government took the decision to end open discrimination against married women in the public service, by allowing them to become permanent public servants, and allowing female officers who were already permanent public servants to retain that status after marriage.{{sfn|Howard|2014|p=351}}

=== Immigration policy ===
The Menzies government maintained and indeed expanded the Chifley Labor government's postwar immigration scheme established by Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell in 1947. Beginning in 1949, Immigration Minister Harold Holt decided to allow 800 non-European war refugees to remain in Australia, and Japanese war brides to be admitted to Australia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/08abolition.htm |title=Fact Sheet – Abolition of the "White Australia" Policy |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901105340/http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/08abolition.htm |archive-date =1 September 2006}}</ref> In 1950, External Affairs Minister Percy Spender instigated the Colombo Plan, under which students from Asian countries were admitted to study at Australian universities, then in 1957, non-Europeans with 15 years' residence in Australia were allowed to become citizens. In a watershed legal reform, a 1958 revision of the Migration Act introduced a simpler system for entry and abolished the "dictation test" which had permitted the exclusion of migrants on the basis of their ability to take down a dictation offered in any European language. Immigration Minister [[Alick Downer]] announced that "distinguished and highly qualified Asians" might immigrate. Restrictions continued to be relaxed through the 1960s in the lead-up to the Holt government's watershed ''Migration Act, 1966''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fact Sheet – Abolition of the "White Australia" Policy |url=https://www.border.gov.au/about/corporate/information/fact-sheets/08abolition |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213003440/http://www.border.gov.au/about/corporate/information/fact-sheets/08abolition |archive-date=13 December 2017}}</ref>

This was despite a discussion with radio 2UE's Stewart Lamb in 1955, in which Menzies was a defender of the [[White Australia policy]]:

<blockquote>(Menzies) "I don't want to see reproduced in Australia the kind of problem they have in South Africa or in America or increasingly in Great Britain. I think it's been a very good policy and it's been of great value to us and most of the criticism of it that I've ever heard doesn't come from these oriental countries it comes from wandering Australians.

(Lamb) "For these years of course in the past Sir Robert you have been described as a racist."

(Menzies) "Have I?"

(Lamb) "I have read this, yes."

(Menzies) "Well if I were not described as a racist I'd be the only public man who hasn't been."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/news/what-menzies-really-thought-of-the-commonwealth |title=What Menzies really thought of the Commonwealth|work=SBS News }}</ref></blockquote>

=== Higher education expansion ===
The Menzies government extended Federal involvement in higher education and introduced the Commonwealth scholarship scheme in 1951, to cover fees and pay a generous means-tested allowance for promising students from lower socioeconomic groups.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/the-way-we-were-quiet-maybe-but-certainly-not-dull-20110425-1du0l|title = The way we were: quiet, maybe, but certainly not dull|date = 26 April 2011|website =The Sydney Morning Herald|last = Henderson|first = Gerard}}</ref> In 1956, a committee headed by Sir Keith Murray was established to inquire into the financial plight of Australia's universities, and Menzies's pumped funds into the sector under conditions which preserved the autonomy of universities.<ref name=adb/> In its support for higher education, the Menzies government tripled Federal government funding and provided emergency grants, significant increases in academic salaries, extra funding for buildings, and the establishment of a permanent committee, from 1961, to oversee and make recommendations concerning higher education.{{Sfn|Howard|2014|p=246}}

=== Development of Canberra ===
The Menzies government developed the city of Canberra as the national capital. In 1957, the Menzies government established the National Capital Development Commission as independent statutory authority charged with overseeing the planning and development of Canberra.{{Sfn|Howard|2014|p=350}} During Menzies' time in office, the great bulk of the federal public service moved from the state capitals to Canberra.{{Sfn|Howard|2014|p=350}}

==Later life==
[[File:ABC Petrov Affair.ogv|thumb|1970 [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]] interview with Menzies and [[Allan Fraser (Australian politician)|Allan Fraser]], discussing the [[Petrov Affair]]]]

Menzies turned 71 in December 1965 and began telling others of his intention to retire in the new year. He informed cabinet of his decision on 19 January 1966 and resigned as leader of the Liberal Party the following day; Harold Holt was [[1966 Liberal Party of Australia leadership election|elected unopposed as his successor]]. Holt's swearing-in was delayed by the death of Defence Minister [[Shane Paltridge]] on 21 January. Menzies and Holt were pallbearers at Paltridge's state funeral in [[Perth]] on 25 January, before returning to Canberra where Menzies formally concluded his term on 26 January.<ref>{{cite book|author=Frame, Tom|title=The Life and Death of Harold Holt|publisher=Allen & Unwin / National Archives of Australia|year=2005|isbn=978-1-74114-672-1|page=137}}</ref>

Menzies's farewell press conference was the first political press conference telecast live in Australia.<ref>Alan Ramsey, "Your humble servant, Sir", ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 2 October 1999, p. 47</ref> He resigned from Parliament on 17 February, ending 32 years in Parliament (most of them spent as either a cabinet minister or opposition frontbencher), a combined 25 years as leader of the non-Labor Coalition, and 38 years as an elected official. To date, Menzies is the last Australian prime minister to leave office on his or her own terms. He was succeeded as Liberal Party leader and prime minister by his former treasurer, [[Harold Holt]]. He left office at the age of 71 years, 1 month and 6 days, making him the oldest person ever to be prime minister. Although the coalition remained in power for almost another seven years (until the [[1972 Australian federal election|1972 Federal election]]), it did so under four different prime ministers, in part due to his successor's death, only 22 months after taking office.

On his retirement he became the thirteenth chancellor of the University of Melbourne and remained the head of the university from March 1967 until March 1972. Much earlier, in 1942, he had received the first honorary degree of Doctor of Laws of Melbourne University. His responsibility for the revival and growth of university life in Australia was widely acknowledged by the award of honorary degrees in the Universities of Queensland, Adelaide, Tasmania, New South Wales, and the Australian National University and by thirteen universities in Canada, the United States and Britain, including Oxford and Cambridge. Many learned institutions, including the [[Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons|Royal College of Surgeons]] (Hon. FRCS) and the [[Royal Australasian College of Physicians]] (Hon. FRACP), elected him to Honorary Fellowships, and the [[Australian Academy of Science]], for which he supported its establishment in 1954, made him a fellow (FAAS) in 1958.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.science.org.au/fellowship/fellows/sir-robert-gordon-menzies|title=Sir Robert Gordon Menzies|author=Australian Academy of Science|year=2018|access-date=24 January 2018}}</ref> On 7 October 1965, Menzies was installed as the ceremonial office of [[Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports]] and Constable of [[Dover Castle]] as appointed by the Queen, which included an official residence at [[Walmer Castle]] during his annual visits to Britain. At the end of 1966 Menzies took up a scholar-in-residence position at the [[University of Virginia]]. He presented a series of lectures, published the following year as ''Central Power in the Australian Commonwealth''. He later published two volumes of memoirs. In March 1967 he was elected Chancellor of Melbourne University, serving a five-year term.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://legalopinions.ags.gov.au/opinionauthor/menzies-robert-gordon |title=MENZIES Robert Gordon |work=Legal Opinions |publisher=Australian Government Solicitor |access-date=7 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508061958/http://legalopinions.ags.gov.au/opinionauthor/menzies-robert-gordon |archive-date=8 May 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unimelb.edu.au/unisec/calendar/formoffi.html |title=Former Office-Bearers |work=University Secretary's Department University Calendar |publisher=The University of Melbourne |access-date=7 May 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328145830/http://www.unimelb.edu.au/unisec/calendar/formoffi.html |archive-date=28 March 2014}}</ref> In 1971, Menzies suffered a severe stroke and was permanently paralysed on one side of his body for the remainder of his life. He suffered a second stroke in 1972. His official biographer, Lady McNicoll wrote after his death in ''[[The Australian]]'' that Menzies was "splendid and sharp right up until the end" also that "each morning he underwent [[physiotherapy]] and being helped to face the day." In March 1977, Menzies accepted his knighthood of the [[Order of Australia]] ([[List of Knights and Dames of the Order of Australia|AK]]) from Queen Elizabeth in a wheelchair in the Long Room of the [[Melbourne Cricket Ground]] during the [[Centenary Test]].<ref>http://menziesvirtualmuseum.org.au/the-1970s/menzies-reflects-australia-matures|{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Menzies Research Center – Retrieved 7 February 2016</ref>

== Personal life ==
On 27 September 1920, Menzies married [[Pattie Menzies|Pattie Leckie]] at [[Kew, Victoria|Kew]] [[Presbyterian Church]] in Melbourne. Pattie Leckie was the eldest daughter of [[John Leckie (Australian politician)|John Leckie]], a Deakinite [[Commonwealth Liberal Party|Commonwealth Liberal]] who was elected the member for the [[Electoral district of Benambra]] in the [[Victorian Legislative Assembly]] in 1913. Soon after their marriage, the Menzies bought the house in Howard Street, [[Kew, Victoria|Kew]], which would become their family home for 25 years. They had three surviving children: Kenneth (1922–1993), Robert Jr (known by his middle name, Ian; 1923–1974)<ref name="menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au">{{cite web|url=http://www.menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au/biogs/E000548b.htm |title=Menzies, Robert Ian - Biographical entry - The Robert Menzies Collection: A Living Library |publisher=Menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au |access-date=21 February 2017}}</ref> and a daughter, Margery (known by her middle name, Heather; born 1928).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au/biogs/E002155b.htm |title=Henderson, Margery Heather - Biographical entry - The Robert Menzies Collection: A Living Library |publisher=Menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au |access-date=21 February 2017}}</ref> Another child died at birth.

Kenneth was born in [[Hawthorn, Victoria|Hawthorn]] on 14 January 1922. He married Marjorie Cook on 16 September 1949,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10450/argus-melbourne-vic-sep-19-1949?itemId=28985182&action=showRecord |title=Argus (Melbourne, VIC) - Australian Newspapers |publisher=MyHeritage |access-date=21 February 2017}}</ref> and had six children: Alec, Lindsay, Robert III, Diana, Donald, and Geoffrey. He died in [[Kooyong, Victoria|Kooyong]] on 8 September 1993.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au/biogs/E000119b.htm |title=Menzies, Kenneth Leckie - Biographical entry - The Robert Menzies Collection: A Living Library |publisher=Menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au |access-date=21 February 2017}}</ref> Ian and Heather were both born in [[Kew, Victoria|Kew]], on 12 October 1923 and 3 August 1928, respectively. Ian was afflicted with an undisclosed illness for most of his life. He never married, nor had children, and died in 1974 in [[East Melbourne]] at the age of 50.<ref name="menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au"/> Heather married [[Peter Henderson (Australian public servant)|Peter Henderson]], a [[diplomat]] and [[public servant]] (working at the Australian Embassy in [[Jakarta, Indonesia]] at the time of their marriage, and serving as the [[Departmental secretary|Secretary]] of the [[Department of Foreign Affairs (Australia)|Department of Foreign Affairs]] from 1979 to 1984), on 1 May 1955. A daughter, Roberta, named after Menzies, was born in 1956.

According to [[Mungo Wentworth MacCallum|Mungo MacCallum]], Menzies as prime minister engaged in an affair with Betty Fairfax, the first wife of Sir [[Warwick Oswald Fairfax]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/05/1025667059462.html |author=Mungo MacCallum |date=6 July 2002 |title= Sex, power and politics |work=[[The Age]] |access-date=17 June 2018|author-link=Mungo Wentworth MacCallum }}</ref> That claim was subsequently disputed by [[Gerard Henderson]] and Menzies's own family.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.crikey.com.au/2006/11/03/menzies-fairfax-and-that-affair-mungo-maccallum-replies/ |title=Menzies, Fairfax and that affair: Mungo MacCallum replies |magazine=Crikey |date=3 November 2006 |access-date=17 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title= Rumours of Menzies's philandering greatly exaggerated |url=https://www.crikey.com.au/2006/11/06/rumours-of-menziess-philandering-greatly-exaggerated/ |magazine=Crikey |date=6 November 2006 |access-date=17 June 2018}}</ref>

==Death and funeral==
[[File:Grave_of_Robert_and_Pattie_Menzies,_Melbourne_General_Cemetery2017.jpg|thumb|right|Grave of Sir Robert and Dame Pattie Menzies, [[Melbourne General Cemetery]]]]

Menzies died from a heart attack<ref>https://www.menziesrc.org/sir-robert-menzies/history-of-sir-robert-menzies {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206230847/https://www.menziesrc.org/sir-robert-menzies/history-of-sir-robert-menzies |date=6 February 2016 }} | Menzies Research Centre – Retrieved 6 February 2016</ref> while reading in his study at his Haverbrack Avenue home in [[Malvern, Victoria|Malvern]], [[Melbourne]] on 15 May 1978. Tributes from across the world were sent to the Menzies family. Notably among those were from [[Elizabeth II]], [[Queen of Australia]]: "I was distressed to hear of the death of Sir Robert Menzies. He was a distinguished Australian whose contribution to his country and the Commonwealth will long be remembered", and from [[Malcolm Fraser]], [[Prime Minister of Australia]]: "All Australians will mourn his passing. Sir Robert leaves an enduring mark on Australian history."<ref>{{cite news|title = Menzies dies at 83|last = Bowers|first = Peter|newspaper = [[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|date = 16 May 1978|page = 1}}</ref>

Menzies was accorded a [[state funeral]], held in [[Scots' Church, Melbourne]] on 19 May, at which [[Charles III of the United Kingdom|Prince Charles]] represented the Queen.<ref name="TheAge19780517">{{cite news|title=Prince here tomorrow – Rush trip to Menzies funeral |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=MDQ-9Oe3GGUC&dat=19780517&printsec=frontpage |access-date=12 August 2010 |work=The Age |date=17 May 1978 |location=Melbourne |page=1}}{{dead link|date=August 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Other dignitaries to attend included current and former [[Prime Minister of Australia|Prime Ministers of Australia]] Malcolm Fraser, [[John McEwen]], [[John Gorton]] and [[William McMahon]] (the two surviving Labor Prime Ministers, [[Frank Forde]] and Gough Whitlam, did not attend the funeral), as well as the [[Governor General of Australia]], Sir [[Zelman Cowan]]. Former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom]] [[Alec Douglas-Home]] and [[Harold Wilson]] also attended.

The service was and is to this day one of the largest state funerals ever held in Australia, with over 100,000 people lining the streets of Melbourne<ref>{{cite web |title=Guide to archives of Australia's prime ministers |url=https://www.naa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-06/research-guide-robert-menzies.pdf |access-date=3 May 2022 |archive-date=26 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220326233617/https://www.naa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-06/research-guide-robert-menzies.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> from Scots' Church to [[Springvale Botanical Cemetery|Springvale Crematorium]], where a private service was held for the Menzies family and a [[21-gun salute|19-gun salute]] was fired at the end of the ceremony. In July 1978, a [[Burials and memorials in Westminster Abbey|memorial service]] was held for Menzies in the United Kingdom at [[Westminster Abbey]].<ref>http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/after-office.aspx {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221929/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/after-office.aspx |date=3 March 2016}} | NAA – Former Prime Ministers, Menzies after office – Retrieved 6 February 2016</ref> Sir Robert and Dame Pattie Menzies's ashes are interred in the 'Prime Ministers Garden' within the grounds of [[Melbourne General Cemetery]].

Some of Menzies's detractors also commemorated his passing in 1978, with a screenprinted poster, ''Pig Iron Bob / Dead at last'', designed by [[Chips Mackinolty]] from the Earthworks Poster Collective.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ma.as/365418 |title=Poster, 'Pig Iron Bob dead at last' |author=Powerhouse Museum |access-date=22 September 2016 |publisher=Powerhouse Museum, Australia}} The poster is part of the Di Holloway collection at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum</ref>

== Religious views ==
Menzies was the son of a Presbyterian-turned-Methodist lay preacher and imbibed his father's Protestant faith and values. During his studies at the University of Melbourne, Menzies was president of the Students' Christian Union.{{sfn|Martin, Allan (1993) |pages=22–23}} Proud of his Scottish Presbyterian heritage with a living faith steeped in the Bible, Menzies nonetheless preached religious freedom and non-sectarianism as the norm for Australia. Indeed, his cooperation with Australian Catholics on the contentious state aid issue was recognised when he was invited as guest of honour to the annual Cardinal's Dinner in Sydney in 1964, presided over by Cardinal [[Norman Thomas Gilroy|Norman Gilroy]].{{Sfn|Howard|2014|p=325}}

==Legacy and assessment==
[[File:R. G. Menzies House-Front view.jpg|thumb|R. G. Menzies House in [[Barton, Australian Capital Territory]], with his [[Bust (sculpture)|bust]] in the out front]]

Menzies was by far the longest serving [[Prime Minister of Australia]], in office for a combined total of 18 years, five months and 12 days. His second period of 16 years, one month and seven days is by far the longest unbroken tenure in that office. During his second period he dominated Australian politics as no one else has ever done. He managed to live down the failures of his first period in office and to rebuild the conservative side of politics from the nadir it hit at the [[1943 Australian federal election|1943 election]]. However, it can also be noted that while retaining government on each occasion, Menzies lost the [[two-party-preferred vote]] at three separate elections – in [[1940 Australian federal election|1940]], [[1954 Australian federal election|1954]] and [[1961 Australian federal election|1961]].<ref>{{cite book |url=http://epress.anu.edu.au/apps/bookworm/view/JULIA%202010:%20The%20caretaker%20election/8291/Text/ch26.html |title=Julia 2010: The caretaker election |year=2012 |publisher=ANU Press |doi=10.22459/J2010.02.2012 |isbn=9781921862632 |editor1-last=Simms |editor1-first=Marian |editor2-first=John |editor2-last=Wanna |doi-access=free}}{{dead link|date=December 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/Australian_Electoral_History/House_of_Representative_1949_Present.htm|title=House of Representatives – Two party preferred results 1949 – present|website=Australian Electoral Commission}}</ref>

He was the only Australian prime minister to recommend the appointment of four [[Governor-General of Australia|governors-general]] ([[William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim|Viscount Slim]], and Lords [[William Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil|Dunrossil]], [[William Sidney, 1st Viscount De L'Isle|De L'Isle]], and [[Richard Casey, Baron Casey|Casey]]). Only two other prime ministers have ever chosen more than one governor-general.<ref>[[Governor-General of Australia]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=August 2025}}

The Menzies era saw Australia become an increasingly affluent society, with average weekly earnings in 1965 50% higher in real terms than in 1945. The increased prosperity enjoyed by most Australians during this period was accompanied by a general increase in leisure time, with the five-day workweek becoming the norm by the mid-1960s, together with three weeks of paid annual leave.<ref>Stuart Macintyre. ''A Concise History of Australia''.<!-- more info needed and ISBN number --></ref>

Several books have been filled with anecdotes about Menzies. While he was speaking in [[Williamstown, Victoria]], in 1954, a heckler shouted, "I wouldn't vote for you if you were the [[Gabriel|Archangel Gabriel]]"{{spaced ndash}}to which Menzies coolly replied, "If I were the Archangel Gabriel, I'm afraid you wouldn't be in my constituency."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/in-office.aspx|title=In office – Robert Menzies (26 April 1939 – 29 August 1941; 19 December 1949 – 26 January 1966) and Pattie Menzies|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113103332/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/in-office.aspx|archive-date=13 November 2013}}</ref>

[[Jo Gullett]], who first knew him as a family friend of his father, [[Henry Gullett]], wartime [[Minister for External Affairs]], and who later served under Menzies as a Liberal Party member of parliament himself in Canberra in the 1950s, offered this assessment:

{{blockquote|It is difficult to exaggerate the pre-eminence enjoyed by Menzies for over a quarter of a century in the federal Parliament. He had many natural gifts, of which the greatest lay in the quality of his mind. His capacity to absorb and retain information, facts, opinion, prejudices was most unusual. He had a particularly logical mind, so that even in his conversation, let alone his set speeches and arguments, his remarks were always in sequence. Whether he was drawing on his memory, or making up his mind as he went along, each point he made reinforced the others and added to a logical and rounded whole. He spoke like this because it was the way he thought. He would have succeeded in anything that demands a logical intellect—science, generalship, high finance, the control of great organisations ... He had a beautiful speaking voice, clear, resonant and flexible. His appearance was impressive. Finally he had most of the virtues his countrymen and women liked and respected. He was not greedy. "I have never believed in making every bob ([[shilling]]) a prisoner," he once remarked to me. So he was generous. He was a good family man, a regular churchgoer. Yet he enjoyed a party, good food and drink, loved to watch the [[test cricket]] and was an [[Australian Rules football]] fan. He shared the tastes of the people he led. At the same time none was more able than he to touch chords of loyalty and pride in the traditions and history of the British people, especially that section of them who had settled in Australia. He made us proud of ourselves. We associated him with this pride.<ref>Henry "Jo" Gullett (1992), ''Good company; Horseman, soldier, politician'', Brisbane, University of Queensland Press, pp.226-7. {{ISBN|0-7022-2443-X}}</ref>}}

Planning for an official biography of Menzies began soon after his death, but it was long delayed by Dame [[Pattie Menzies]]'s protection of her husband's reputation and her refusal to co-operate with the appointed biographer. {{Why?|date=January 2014}} In 1991, the Menzies family appointed [[A. W. Martin]] to write a biography, which appeared in two volumes, in 1993 and 1999. In 2019, Troy Bramston, a journalist for ''[[The Australian]]'' and a political historian, wrote the first biography of Menzies since Martin's two volumes, titled ''Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics''. Bramston had access to previously unavailable Menzies family papers, conducted new interviews with Menzies' contemporaries and it was endorsed by Menzies' daughter, Heather Henderson. It was described as having "the most attractive combination of research and readability" of all the Menzies biographies.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2019/251-june-july-2019-no-412/5515-michael-sexton-reviews-robert-menzies-the-art-of-politics-by-troy-bramston|author=Michael Sexton|newspaper=[[Australian Book Review]]|title=Robert Menzies: The art of politics|date=June 2019|access-date=21 September 2021}}</ref> The [[National Museum of Australia]] in Canberra holds a significant collection of memorabilia relating to Robert Menzies, including a range of medals and civil awards received by Sir Robert such as his Jubilee and Coronation medals, Order of Australia, Order of the Companions of Honour and US Legion of Merit. There are also a number of special presentation items including a walking stick, cigar boxes, silver gravy boats from the Kooyong electorate and a silver inkstand presented by Queen Elizabeth II.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=114068|title=Inkstand presented to Sir Robert Menzies in Commemoration of the Commonwealth Royal Tour 1954, National Museum of Australia|publisher=Nma.gov.au|access-date=4 November 2011|archive-date=28 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028035208/http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=114068|url-status=dead}}</ref> Robert Menzies's personal library of almost 4,000 books is held at the University of Melbourne Library.<ref>[http://www.menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au The Robert Menzies Collection: A Living Library]; retrieved 18 October 2013.</ref>

==Published works==
* ''To the people of Britain at war from the Prime Minister of Australia. Speeches delivered in Great Britain in 1941''. (Longmans Green and Co, 1941)
* ''[[The Forgotten People]] and Other Studies in Democracy'' (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1942)
* ''Speech Is of Time: Selected Speeches and Writings'' (London: Cassell, 1958)
* ''Afternoon Light: Some Memories of Men and Events'' (Melbourne: Cassell Australia, 1967)
* ''Central Power in the Australian Commonwealth: An Examination of the Growth of Commonwealth Power in the Australian Federation'' (London: Cassell, 1967)
* ''The Measure of the Years'' (Melbourne: Cassell Australia, 1970)
* ''Dark and Hurrying Days: Menzies's 1941 Diary'' (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1993)
* ''Letters to My Daughter'' (Miller's Point: Murdoch Books, 2011)

== <span class="anchor" id="Spire"></span> Titles and honours==
<!--Please leave the Anchor template. Text in Jeparit article links here.-->
[[File:Jeparit Menzies Spire.JPG|thumb|upright|The Menzies Spire at [[Jeparit, Victoria]]. In part, the inscription reads: "The spire symbolises the rise to world recognition of a boy who was born in Jeparit and who rose by his own efforts to become Australia's Prime Minister and a statesman recognised and honoured throughout the world."]]

* In 1950 Menzies was awarded the [[Legion of Merit]] (Chief Commander) by US President [[Harry S. Truman]] for "exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services 1941–1944 and December 1949 – July 1950".
* On 1 January 1951, he was appointed to the [[Order of the Companions of Honour]] as a Member (CH)<ref>{{cite web |title=It's an Honour: CH |publisher=Australian Government |access-date=15 October 2009 |url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1065985 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222042056/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1065985 |archive-date=22 February 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* On 29 August 1952, the [[University of Sydney]] conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) on Menzies.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Right Honourable Robert Gordon Menzies |publisher=[[University of Sydney]] |url=http://www.usyd.edu.au/senate/committees/advisoryMenzies.shtml#Citation |access-date=15 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100818035918/http://www.usyd.edu.au/senate/committees/advisoryMenzies.shtml |archive-date=18 August 2010}}</ref> Similarly, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by the Universities of [[University of Bristol|Bristol]], [[University of Belfast|Belfast]], [[University of Melbourne|Melbourne]], [[University of British Columbia|British Columbia]], [[McGill University|McGill]], [[Université de Montréal|Montreal]], [[University of Malta|Malta]], [[Université Laval|Laval]], [[Université du Québec|Quebec]], [[University of Tasmania|Tasmania]], [[Cambridge]], [[Harvard University|Harvard]], [[University of Leeds|Leeds]], [[University of Adelaide|Adelaide]], [[University of Queensland|Queensland]], [[University of Edinburgh|Edinburgh]], [[University of Birmingham|Birmingham]], [[Drury University|Drury]] and [[University of California|California]].<ref name=hc/> 
* In 1954, the [[portrait painting]] ''Rt. Hon. R. G. Menzies, PC, CH, KC, MP'' by [[Ivor Hele|Sir Ivor Hele]] won the [[Archibald Prize]] 
* On 4 April 1960, a portrait of Menzies by [[William Dargie|Sir William Dargie]] was the front cover of [[Time magazine]]. This portrait is held by the [[Art Gallery of New South Wales]]
* In 1963, Menzies was appointed a Knight of the [[Order of the Thistle]] (KT),<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=42964|date=9 April 1963|page=3155}}</ref> the order being chosen in recognition of his Scottish heritage. He is the only Australian ever appointed to this order. He was the second of only two Australian prime ministers to be knighted during their term of office (the first prime minister, [[Edmund Barton]], was knighted during his term in 1902).
* On 29 April 1964, Menzies was awarded the honorary degree of a Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by the [[University of Western Australia]].<ref>{{cite web
|title=Speech by Sir Robert Menzies in Winthrop Hall, University of Western Australia |publisher=[[University of Western Australia]] |url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1966316 |access-date=15 October 2009}}</ref> Menzies was also awarded with an Honorary Doctor of Science by the [[University of New South Wales]].<ref name="hc">{{cite web |title=University Secretary's Department – Former Office-Bearers |publisher=[[University of Melbourne]] |url=http://www.unimelb.edu.au/unisec/calendar/formoffi.html |access-date=15 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303123215/http://www.unimelb.edu.au/unisec/calendar/formoffi.html |archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref>
* In 1973, Menzies was awarded Japan's [[Order of the Rising Sun]], Grand Cordon, First Class (other Australian prime ministers to be awarded this honour were [[Edmund Barton]], [[John McEwen]], [[Malcolm Fraser]] and [[Gough Whitlam]]).<ref>Honour awarded 1973 – [http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/fastfacts.asp?pmSelectName=12 National Archives of Australia] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520093025/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/fastfacts.asp?pmSelectName=12 |date=20 May 2009}}</ref>
* On 7 June 1976, he was appointed a Knight of the [[Order of Australia]] (AK). The category of Knight of the order had been created only on 24 May, and the Chancellor and Principal Knight of the Order, the [[Governor-General of Australia|Governor-General]] Sir [[John Kerr (governor-general)|John Kerr]], became the first appointee, ''ex officio''. Menzies's was the first appointment made after this.
* In 1984, the [[Australian Electoral Commission]] proclaimed at a redistribution on 14 September 1984, the [[Division of Menzies]] for representation in the [[Australian House of Representatives]] in honour of the former prime minister. The division neighbours Menzies's old [[division of Kooyong]] in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria.
* In 1994, the year of the centenary of Menzies's birth, the [[Menzies Research Centre]] was created as an independent public policy think tank associated with the Liberal Party.
* In 2009, during the [[Australia Day]] celebrations, the ''R.G. Menzies Walk'' was officially opened by the then Governor-General, [[Quentin Bryce]]. The walk runs alongside the northern shore of [[Lake Burley Griffin]] in Australia's capital, [[Canberra]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalcapital.gov.au/index.php/attractions-managed-by-the-nca/rg-menzies-walk |title=R. G. Menzies Walk 'National Capital' |access-date=8 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313145932/https://www.nationalcapital.gov.au/index.php/attractions-managed-by-the-nca/rg-menzies-walk |archive-date=13 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* In 2012, a life-sized bronze statue of Menzies was erected on the R.G. Menzies Walk.<ref>http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/permanent-place-for-menzies-in-nations-heart-20120323-1vpob.html | Permanent Place for Menzies in nations heart, Canberra Times – Retrieved 20160308</ref>  
* Sir Robert Menzies Park, in [[Wahroonga, New South Wales]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kmc.nsw.gov.au/Facilities_Data_Upload/Sir_Robert_Menzies_Park |title=Ku-Ring Gai Council - Retrieved 20161214 |access-date=14 December 2016 |archive-date=21 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221060320/http://www.kmc.nsw.gov.au/Facilities_Data_Upload/Sir_Robert_Menzies_Park |url-status=dead}}</ref> 
* Sir Robert Menzies Reserve, in [[Malvern, Victoria]]
* The high-rise Menzies building on the [[Clayton, Victoria|Clayton]] campus of [[Monash University]].

===Orders and decorations===
<div class="center">
[[File:Order of the Thistle UK ribbon.svg|100px]]
<br/>
[[File:AUS Order of Australia (civil) BAR.svg|100px]]
[[File:Lint van de Orde Compaions of Honour.jpg|100px]]
[[File:King George V Silver Jubilee Medal ribbon.svg|100px]]
[[File:GeorgeVICoronationRibbon.png|100px]]
<br/>
[[File:UK Queen EII Coronation Medal ribbon.svg|100px]]
[[File:UK Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal ribbon.svg|100px]]
[[File:US Legion of Merit Chief Commander ribbon.png|100px]]
[[File:JPN Kyokujitsu-sho 1Class BAR.svg|100px]]
</div>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|[[File:King George V Silver Jubilee Medal ribbon.svg|70px]] || [[King George V Silver Jubilee Medal]], 1935.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204363085 |title=COMMONWEALTH LIST. |newspaper=[[The Age]] |location=Victoria, Australia |date=6 May 1935 |access-date=7 April 2023 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=George V Jubilee Medal 1935 to Sir Robert Menzies |publication-date=1935 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234385074 |access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref>
|-
|[[File:GeorgeVICoronationRibbon.png|70px]] || [[King George VI Coronation Medal]], 1937.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203870384 |title=THE FEDERAL LIST. |newspaper=The Age|location=Victoria, Australia |date=12 May 1937 |access-date=7 April 2023 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=George VI Coronation Medal 1937 to Sir Robert Menzies |publication-date=1937 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234353793 |access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref>
|-
|[[File:US Legion of Merit Chief Commander ribbon.png|70px]] || 1950, he was appointed a [[Legion of Merit|Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit]] {{flagicon|USA}}
|-
|[[File:Lint van de Orde Compaions of Honour.jpg|70px]] || 1951, he was appointed a [[Order of the Companions of Honour|Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]] (CH) {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}<ref>{{Citation | title=Neck Decoration for the Order of the Companion of Honour to Sir Robert Menzies |publication-date=1951 | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234410175 |access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref>
|-
|[[File:UK Queen EII Coronation Medal ribbon.svg|70px]] || [[Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal]], 1953.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2883220 |title=CORONATION MEDAL LIST |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=2 June 1953 |access-date=7 April 2023 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953 to Sir Robert Menzies |publication-date=1953 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234418750 |access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref>
|-
|[[File:Order of the Thistle UK ribbon.svg|70px]] || 1963, he was appointed a [[Knight of the Order of the Thistle]] (KT) {{flagicon|Scotland}}
|-
|[[File:JPN Kyokujitsu-sho 1Class BAR.svg|70px]] || 1973, he was appointed a [[Order of the Rising Sun|Grand Cordon First Class of the Order of the Rising Sun]] {{flagicon|Japan}}<ref>{{Citation |title=Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, First Class, to Sir Robert Menzies |publication-date=1973 | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234408620 |access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref>
|-
|[[File:AUS Order of Australia (civil) BAR.svg|70px]] || 1976, he was appointed a [[Knight of the Order of Australia]] (AK) {{flagicon|Australia}}<ref>{{Citation |title=Knight of the Order of Australia to Sir Robert Menzies | publication-date=1976 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234402050 |access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Breast badge for the Knight of the Order of Australia to Sir Robert Menzies |publication-date=1976 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234405106 |access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref>
|-
|[[File:UK Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal ribbon.svg|70px]] || [[Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal]], 1977.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article237152137 |title=Government Gazette Notices |newspaper=Commonwealth Of Australia Gazette. Periodic |issue=P7 |location=Australia |date=1 August 1977 |access-date=7 April 2023 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
|-
|}

===Freedom of the City===
* {{flagicon|Wales}} '''29 April 1941''': [[Swansea]]<ref>{{cite web |title=All the people who have the Freedom of Swansea and what it actually means |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/people-who-freedom-swansea-what-15831860 |date=20 February 2019}}</ref>
* {{flagicon|Scotland}} '''18 November 1948''': [[Edinburgh]]
* {{flagicon|England}} '''6 June 1953''': [[Oxford]]
* {{flagicon|Australia}} '''1966''': [[Melbourne]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dBZVAAAAIBAJ&pg=4942%2C1303930 |title=Freedom of city for Sir Robert |work=The Age |date=9 April 1966 |page=3}}</ref>

===Arms===
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = Arms of Sir Robert Gordon Menzies.svg
|name= Sir Robert Gordon Menzies
|notes = Granted by the [[Lord Lyon King of Arms]].
|year_adopted = 3 September 1965<ref>{{Cite book|last=Low|first=Charles|title=A Roll of Australian Arms|year=1971|publisher=Rigby Limited|location=Adelaide|pages=133–134|isbn=0-85179-149-2|oclc=246821}}</ref>
|escutcheon = Per chevron Argent and Azure, in base the constellation of the Southern Cross of the first, on a Chief indented Gules a seven-point Star between two Boars' heads couped Or, armed the first.
|helm= A Knight's helm.
|supporters = Dexter, a Kangaroo proper, supporting on its sinister shoulder a banner-stave Gules, therefrom displaying a Banner of the foresaid Arms; sinister, a Lion guardant per fess indented Gules and Argent, about its head a chaplet of Menzies heath and issuant therefrom a panache of five Plumes gules and argent.
|crest = On a Wreath Argent and Gules, a demi-Lion Gules, its dexter paw upon a Baton Sable, about its head a chaplet of Menzies heath proper, issuant therefrom a panache of five Plumes Gules and Argent.
|compartment = Desert and stones proper.
|orders = Collar  and circlet of a Knight of the [[Order of the Thistle]]
|other_elements = [[Mantling]] Azure doubled Argent.
|motto = {{langx|gd|Vil God I Haif}} (With the Help of God I Have)
|symbolism = The red and white colours are taken from the [[Clan Menzies]] Full Dress Tartan, as is the Menzies heath ([[Rowan]]).<ref>{{cite web |title=Clan Menzies > Menzies Tartans |url=https://clanmenzies.org/menzies-tartan/ |publisher=Clan Menzies |access-date=11 September 2023}}</ref> The motto is an altered version from the Clan Menzies motto ("Vil God I Zal" or "With God I Will") that replaces "Will" with "Have" to represent Menzies' achievements.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105878499 |title=PM's card bears his crest |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=17 December 1965 |access-date=11 September 2023 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Sir Robert's coat of arms |publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=17 December 1965 |page=1}}</ref> The basis for the escutcheon is from the Menzies family coat of arms. The two gold boar heads in the escutcheon are taken from the arms of [[Clan Gordon]] to represent Menzies' middle name, while the gold seven-pointed star is the [[Commonwealth Star]] from the [[coat of arms of Australia]]. The blue pile at the bottom with the white [[Southern Cross]] is taken from both the [[Flag of Australia]] and [[Coat of arms of Victoria (state)|the coat of arms]] of Menzies' home state of [[Victoria (state)|Victoria]]. The escutcheon is repeated in the banner held by the Kangaroo supporter, which represents Menzies' Thistle Banner which was displayed in [[St Giles' Cathedral]] in Edinburgh until his death. The red [[Royal Banner of Scotland|Scottish Lion]] further represents Menzies' Scottish heritage.
}}

==Actors who have played Menzies==
* In the 1984 miniseries ''[[The Last Bastion]]'', Menzies was portrayed by [[John Wood (actor, born 1946)|John Wood]].
* In the 1987 miniseries ''[[Vietnam (TV series)|Vietnam]]'', he was portrayed by [[Noel Ferrier]].
* In the 1988 miniseries ''[[True Believers (TV series)|True Believers]]'', he was portrayed by [[John Bonney (actor)|John Bonney]].
* In the 1996 Egyptian film ''[[Nasser 56]]'', he was portrayed by Egyptian actor [[Hassan Kami]].
* In the 2007 film ''[[Curtin (2007 film)|Curtin]]'', he was portrayed by [[Bille Brown]].
* In the 2008 television documentary ''[[Menzies and Churchill at War]]'', he was portrayed by [[Matthew King (Australian actor)|Matthew King]].
* [[Max Gillies]] has caricatured Menzies on stage and in the comedy satire series ''[[The Gillies Report]]''.
* In the 2015 documentary ''The Dalfram Dispute 1938'', Menzies was portrayed by [[Bob Baines]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thedalframdispute1938.com.au/index.php/buy-dvd |title=''The Dalfram Dispute 1938 : Pig Iron Bob'' DVD |publisher=Why Documentaries |access-date=11 May 2018 |archive-date=11 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511081718/http://thedalframdispute1938.com.au/index.php/buy-dvd |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* In 2016, Menzies was portrayed by Alan Dearth in the ''[[A Place to Call Home (TV series)|A Place to Call Home]]'' episode "[[A Place to Call Home (season 4)|Home to Roost]]".

==Eponyms of Menzies==
{{refimprove|date=September 2025}}<!--any without links need citations--->
* [[Division of Menzies]], an Australian federal election division<ref>[http://www.aec.gov.au/Electorates/Electoral_DPM/Origin_Current_Division.htm Origins of Current Divisions Name – Current Divisions], [[Australian Electoral Commission]] web site</ref>
* [[Menzies Australia Institute]], a research centre in the School of Global Affairs at King's College London
* [[Menzies College, La Trobe University]]
* [[Menzies Institute for Medical Research]], a research centre at the University of Tasmania in Hobart
* [[Menzies Research Centre]], a public policy think tank aligned with the Liberal Party
* Menzies Wing, [[St John's College, University of Sydney]]
* Menzies Wing, [[Wesley College, Melbourne]]
* R. G. Menzies Building, [[Australian National University Library]]
* [[Robert Menzies College]], Macquarie University
* Sir Robert Menzies Building, [[Monash University, Clayton campus]]
* Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Foundation

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Library resources box |viaf=59889298}}
* {{cite book |last=Andrews |first=E. M. |title=Isolationism and Appeasement in Australia |publisher=Australian National University Press |location=Canberra |date=1970}}
* {{cite book |last=Bell |first=Christopher |chapter=Winston Churchill, Pacific Security, and the Limits of British Power, 1921-1941 |editor-last=Maurer |editor-first=John |title=Churchill and the Strategic Dilemmas Before the World Wars Essays in Honor of Michael I. Handel |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=London |date=2014 |pages=51–87 |isbn=9781135294984}}
* Bramston, Troy (2019). ''Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics'', Scribe. {{ISBN|9781925713671}}.
* Brett, Judith (1992). ''Robert Menzies's Forgotten People'', Macmillan, (a sharply critical psychological study)
* Chavura, Stephen A. and Melleuish, Greg (2021). ''The Forgotten Menzies: The World Picture of Australia's Longest-Serving Prime Minister'', Melbourne University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-522-87768-7}}.
* Cook, Ian (1999). ''Liberalism in Australia'', Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Victoria, Ch. 7 'Robert Menzies'. {{ISBN|0-19-553702-5}}.
* Day, David (1993). ''Menzies and Churchill at War'', Oxford University Press
* Hazlehurst, Cameron (1979). ''Menzies Observed'', George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, New South Wales. {{ISBN|0-86861-320-7}}.
* Henderson, Anne (2014). ''Menzies at War''.
* {{cite book |last=Hill |first=Maria |title=Diggers and Greeks The Australian Campaigns in Greece and Crete |date=2010 |publisher=University of New South Wales Press |location=Sydney |isbn=9781742230146}}
* {{cite book |last=Howard |first=John |title=The Menzies era : the years that shaped modern Australia |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-7322-9612-4 |location=Sydney, NSW |publisher=HarperCollins |oclc=915942699 |author-link=John Howard}}
* [[Colin Hughes|Hughes, Colin A]] (1976), ''Mr Prime Minister. Australian Prime Ministers 1901–1972'', (Melbourne: Oxford University Press) Chs. 13 and 18. {{ISBN|0-19-550471-2}}
* {{cite book |first=Allan |last=Martin |author-link=A. W. Martin |title=Robert Menzies: A Life – 1894–1943 |volume=1 |year=1993 |publisher=Melbourne University Press |isbn=0522844421 |ref=CITEREFMartin, Allan (1993) |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/robertmenzieslif0000mart}}
* {{cite book |first=Allan |last=Martin |title=Robert Menzies: A Life - 1944–1978 |volume=2 |year=1999 |publisher=Melbourne University Press |isbn=9780522848649 |ref=CITEREFMartin, Allan (1999) |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/robertmenzieslif0000mart}}
* {{cite journal |first=Allan|last=Martin |author-mask=1 |date=May 1996 |title=Mr Menzies's anticommunism |department=History |journal=Quadrant |volume=40 |issue=5 |pages=47–56}}
* Martin, Allan (2000). "Sir Robert Gordon Menzies", in [[Michelle Grattan|Grattan, Michelle]], ''Australian Prime Ministers'', New Holland Publishers, pp. 174–205. {{ISBN|1-86436-756-3}}. Very good summary of his life and career.
* {{cite book|last=Murfett|first=Malcolm|pages=1–19|chapter=An Enduring Theme: "The Singapore Strategy"|editor=Brian Farrell|date=2010|title=A Great Betrayal? The Fall of Singapore Revisited|location=London|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=9789814435468}}
* {{cite book |last=Prasser |first=Scott |title=Robert Menzies: Man or Myth |series=Australian Biographical Monographs |volume=3 |date=2020 |publisher=Connor Court Publishing |location=Redland Bay, Qld |isbn=9781925826906}}
* Starr, Graeme (1980). ''The Liberal Party of Australia: A Documentary History'', Drummond/Heinemann, Richmond, Victoria. {{ISBN|0-85859-223-1}}.
* {{cite book|last1=Stockings|first1=Craig|author1-link=Craig Stockings|last2=Hancock|first2=Eleanor|title=Swastika over the Acropolis: Re-interpreting the Nazi Invasion of Greece in World War II|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden|year=2013|isbn=9-789-004-254-572}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2941360 Papers of Robert Menzies, 1905–1978], [[National Library of Australia]], approximately 82.30 m. (588 boxes) + 99 fol. boxes.
* {{cite web |title=Robert Menzies |url=https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/australias-prime-ministers/robert-menzies |work=Australia's Prime Ministers |publisher=[[National Archives of Australia]] |access-date=17 February 2022 |archive-date=12 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221112211540/https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/australias-prime-ministers/robert-menzies |url-status=dead}}
* {{cite web |title=Robert Menzies |publisher=[[National Museum of Australia]] |url=http://www.nma.gov.au/education/school_resources/websites_and_interactives/primeministers/robert_menzies/ |access-date=29 June 2010 |archive-date=28 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028035202/http://www.nma.gov.au/education/school_resources/websites_and_interactives/primeministers/robert_menzies/ |url-status=dead}}
* [http://www.menziesfoundation.org.au/ The Menzies Foundation]
* [https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20180408224743/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/39155/20180409-0709/menziesvirtualmuseum.org.au/index.html The Menzies Virtual Museum]
* [https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study-legacy/postgraduate/research-courses/menzies-centre-for-australian-studies-mphil-phd The Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, London] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217103338/https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study-legacy/postgraduate/research-courses/menzies-centre-for-australian-studies-mphil-phd |date=17 February 2022}}
* [http://www.liberals.net/sirrobertmenzies.htm The Liberal Party's Robert Menzies website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109005655/http://www.liberals.net/sirrobertmenzies.htm |date=9 November 2020}}
* Listen to Menzies's [https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/menzies-speech-declaration-war declaration of war] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217103328/https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/menzies-speech-declaration-war |date=17 February 2022}} at the [[National Film and Sound Archive]]
* [http://www.menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au/ The Robert Menzies Collection: A Living Library]
* [https://digitised-collections.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/55385 Robert Menzies Notebook Collection], The University of Melbourne
* [http://collectionsearch.nma.gov.au/ce/Menzies#Menzies?object=56895&_suid=1432172293427043022633087603445/ Charcoal Sketch] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904014055/http://collectionsearch.nma.gov.au/ce/Menzies#Menzies?object=56895&_suid=1432172293427043022633087603445/ |date=4 September 2015}} – Menzies Collection
* {{PM20|FID=pe/061581}}

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{{Prime Ministers of Australia}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Menzies, Robert}}
[[Category:Robert Menzies| ]]
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