John Curtin

In 1917, John Curtin married Elsie Needham. She was the sister of Senator Ted Needham of the Labor Party. The marriage was good for Curtin for it made him comparatively more serene and stable. The couple had two children; a daughter, Elsie, and a son, John.

Curtin had always suffered from stress related illness. In November 1944, he was hospitalized in Melbourne with coronary occlusion. Next in April 1945 his lungs became congested and he was admitted for few weeks in a private hospital at Canberra.

Curtin died peacefully on 5 July 1945 in his home at Canberra. Services and lying-in-state was held in King's Hall on 6 July. His body was then flown to Perth where he was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery on 8 July 1945.

John Curtin was born on 8 January 1885, at Creswick, Victoria to John Curtin and Catherine Agnes, née Bourke. Both his parents were of Irish origin. John was the eldest of his parents’ four children.

At the time of his birth John Sr. was policeman at Creswick. When John was five years old ill heath forced his father to leave his job. Later the family settled in Brunswick in poverty. Although he was a good student he left school and took up employment at the age of thirteen.

He began as a copyboy at The Age newspaper. Later, he worked as a page boy in a city club, a printer's assistant on Rambler and a laborer at a pottery. Finally, in 1903, he got a steady job and was employed as an estimate clerk at the Titan Manufacturing Company at a salary of £2 per week.

While working during the day his nights were spent studying at the Public Library. Political works interested him most; but he also liked poems and novels. Football also interested him a lot and between 1903 and 1907, he played for Brunswick.

John Curtin developed an interest in politics early in his life. In 1902, he met Frank Anstey, a member of East Bourke Boroughs. Under Anstey’s influence, he turned to socialism. He became a member of Brunswick Labor Party and began to attend ‘Sunday Morning Study Circle’.

By 1906, Curtin also met Thomas Mann of Victorian Socialist Party and began to attend his ‘Economic Study Circle’. He also began writing for ‘Socialist’, a paper edited by Mann. In 1909, he became the honorary secretary of V.S.P.

In February 1911, Curtin became the organizing secretary of the Timber Workers' Union, Victoria Branch. Immediately he began consolidating scattered groups and started campaigning for better working conditions.

In 1912, Curtis reestablished the Union’s Tasmania Branch. From February 1913, he began publishing ‘Timber Worker’. It not only acted as a medium for promoting socialist propaganda, but also played an important part in steering industrial agitation.

In 1914, Curtin became the first Federal President of Timber Workers’ Union and sat on the Trades Hall Council's disputes committee. This was also the year when he began campaigning for Workers’ Compensation Act (1914) and stood unsuccessfully for the seat of Balaclava in the House of Representatives.

During his tenure, aboriginal Australians were provided with increased welfare benefits, deserted women and widows were provided with pensions, pension for the elderly and sick was increased, child allowance was introduced, and Universities Commission was established etc.