By Christopher
Early life
* Born 9th September 1911, Melbourne Victoria.
* His father was an immigrant from England via South Africa.
* He was educated at Headford Prep School, Sydney Church of England
Grammar (Shore) School, then Geelong Grammar School.
* He finished his education at Oxford University in England.
* He returned back to Australia to run his father's orchard at Kerang,
Victoria in 1935.
* He married Bettina Brown and had three children, Bettina died suddenly
in 1983.
* Gorton served in the Australian Air Force as a fighter pilot in
the Second World War.
Achievements in Parliament
* Gorton was a Liberal Senator from 1945 to 1968.
* When Harold Holt disappeared he became the Prime Minister on the
10th of January 1968.
* Prime Minister John Gorton resigned from the Upper House because
Senators can't be Prime Minister.
* Elected to the House of Representatives in Harold Holt's seat in February,
1968.
* John Gorton announced that there would be no increase of Australian
soldiers to Vietnam.
* Gorton pledged to stop oil drilling on the Great Barrier Reef.
* John Gorton's government lost the 1969 elections.
* William McMahon succeeded him, and Gorton became Minister for Defence,
10th March 1971.
* John Gorton did not stand in the 1972 elections.
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Timeline
of his life
1911 - John Gorton is born.
1935 - Graduated from Oxford University, England.
1934 - John Gorton meet's Bettina Brown.
1949 - 1968 Liberal Senator.
1968 - John Gorton becomes Prime Minister.
1971 - Lost election John Gorton is no longer Prime Minister.
1972 - Dismissed from the cabinet by McMahon.
1983 - John Gorton's wife dies suddenly.
1993 - John Gorton marries second wife Nancy Brown.
2001 - John Gorton dies.
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Bibliography
Prime Ministers of Australia, by Jill B. Bruce, Illustrated by: Errol
Nathaniel
Encyclopaedia Britannica 1994-2002
Internet Sites
http://www.nma.gov.au/primeministers/11.htm
