Harry Frederick Ernest "Fred" Whitlam (3 April 1884 – 8 December 1961) was Australia's
Crown Solicitor
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
from 1936 to 1949, and a pioneer of international human rights law in Australia. He was the father of
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the ...
, and had a great influence on his son's values and interests.
Early life
Whitlam was born in
Prahran
Prahran (), also pronounced colloquially as Pran, is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Stonnington local government area. Prahran recorded a po ...
, a suburb of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, and was educated at a local state school before winning a scholarship to
Wesley College, Melbourne
, motto_translation = Dare To Be Wise
, slogan = A ''True'' Education (2010 – Present)
, established = 18 January 1866
, type = Independent, day & boarding
, gender ...
. In 1900 he took first place in the Victorian Public Service clerical examination and joined the Department of Lands and Survey. After
Federation
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...
he transferred to the Commonwealth Public Service, joining the
Commonwealth Crown Solicitor's Office. In 1911 he moved to the land tax branch of the Treasury, where he employed the young
John McEwen
Sir John McEwen, (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980) was an Australian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia, holding office from 1967 to 1968 in a caretaker capacity after the disappearance of Harold Holt. He was the ...
(later Prime Minister) as a clerk. He studied at the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...
, graduating in law in 1914.
Whitlam married Martha ('Mattie') Maddocks in September 1914. Their house at
'Ngara' 46 Rowland St. Kew in Melbourne was built for them by Edward Maddocks, Mattie's father. Future
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the ...
was born there in 1916, and
Freda Whitlam in Sydney in 1920 – she became principal of
Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney
The Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney (PLC Sydney) is an independent school, independent Presbyterian Church of Australia, Presbyterian Single-sex school, single-sex Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primary and Secondary sc ...
and later moderator of the
New South Wales Synod of the
Uniting Church
The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Unio ...
.
Public servant
In 1918 Whitlam transferred to the Sydney office of the Crown Solicitor's office, and in 1920 he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the
High Court of Australia. He became deputy Crown Solicitor in 1921, assistant Crown Solicitor (based in
Canberra) in 1927, and Crown Solicitor in December 1936. In this position he was senior legal adviser to the government for 12 years, and his views were respected and influential.
Cameron Hazlehurst writes:
:"On the
Lyons government's
controversial national insurance initiative, for example, he drafted legislation for the National Insurance Commission, recommended the appointment of
J. B. Brigden as chairman, and drew up the agreement between the commission and the Australian branch of the
British Medical Association. He also briefed
W. R. Dovey, his son's future father-in-law, as counsel assisting the subsequent royal commission. Closer in political sentiment to
John Curtin
John Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945) was an Australian politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Australia from 1941 until his death in 1945. He led the country for the majority of World War II, including all but the last few ...
and
J. B. Chifley than to their predecessors, Whitlam was largely responsible for preparing the documentation for the 1944 referendum on Commonwealth powers and, with the solicitor-general, for advising
H. V. Evatt
Herbert Vere Evatt, (30 April 1894 – 2 November 1965) was an Australian politician and judge. He served as a judge of the High Court of Australia from 1930 to 1940, Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs from 1941 to 1949, and l ...
during the bank nationalisation litigation (1947–49)."
[Hazlehurst, "Whitlam, Harry Frederick Ernest"]
As a public servant, Whitlam had no formal involvement in politics, but he was active in civic and community affairs in Canberra, then a small and isolated town, and was also active in the local Presbyterian Church. In 1933 he led a campaign against Canberra residents being required to pay a hospital tax when they had no elected local government and no parliamentary representation. He was known to have pro-Labor views. In a 1973 interview, Gough Whitlam said that had his parents been British, they would have been
Liberals. "In the Australian context they would vote Labor as the party of change and public responsibility – things being done by elected persons rather than by self-perpetuating directorates." Whitlam was also a friend of Evatt, who was Attorney-General in the 1941–49 Labor government and later Leader of the Opposition.
Influence on son
Early biographers of Gough Whitlam were quick to detect his father's influence:
:"The key to Fred Whitlam's character was tolerance – he loathed any form of prejudice on grounds of class, religion or race – and his overwhelming preoccupation was human rights... Related to his concern for fair treatment of minorities and individuals was a deep interest in foreign affairs. Fred Whitlam was the driving force in the Canberra branch of the Institute of International Affairs in its early years... All this rubbed off on his son."
Whitlam was a pioneer of international human rights law in Australia, and this was the area in which he exercised his most powerful influence over his son Gough Whitlam's career. As a member of the Australian delegation to the
Paris Peace Conference in 1946, Whitlam argued Australia's case for a permanent international human-rights court, an idea whose time was yet to come. "Instructed by Evatt not to compromise, he reported to his wife that he had 'stiffened the sinews and summoned up the blood', but to no avail.".
He contributed to drafts of the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...
.
Whitlam retired as Crown Solicitor in April 1949, but continued to be closely involved in United Nations matters as an adviser to the Department of External Affairs. He was an Australian representative at the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of ...
in 1950 and 1954. He died in Canberra in 1961, by which time his son was Deputy Leader of the Federal Labor Party.
Graham Freudenberg writes of Fred Whitlam's influence on Gough Whitlam:
:"Whitlam's family background
n Canberraand his father's career had three crucial influences on his thinking: on the role and nature of the Federal Government, the role and nature of the public service, and the problems of urban life in a new suburb."
Paul Hasluck
Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck, (1 April 1905 – 9 January 1993) was an Australian statesman who served as the 17th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1969 to 1974. Prior to that, he was a Liberal Party politician, holding min ...
, a public servant before becoming a
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
politician in 1949 (and no admirer of Gough Whitlam), wrote of Fred Whitlam:
:"I came to know him as a public-spirited, meticulous and dutiful man with an inquiring but cautious mind, who was always very concerned to make sure that whatever was done was right, both in the sense of legally unexeptionable and soundly based on principle. He was a good churchman. He was certainly not intolerant or censorious, but his meticulous concern about what was right, though it would lead him often to differ from the accepted views, sometimes made it seem that he was rigidly orthodox. He was held in very high regard and respect. He was kindly and modest."
[Paul Hasluck, ''The Chance of Politics'', Text Publishing 1997, 198]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitlam, Fred
1884 births
1961 deaths
Australian public servants
Gough Whitlam
Lawyers from Melbourne
Public servants from Melbourne
20th-century Australian public servants
People educated at Wesley College (Victoria)
Melbourne Law School alumni
Parents of prime ministers of Australia
People from Prahran, Victoria