The Rt Hon Sir William McKell, GCMG
12th Governor-General of Australia
In office 11 March 1947 – 8 May 1953
Preceded by	The Duke of Gloucester
Succeeded by	Sir William Slim
Born	26 September 1891(1891-09-26) Pambula, New South Wales
Died	11 January 1985 (aged 93) Sydney

Sir William John McKell GCMG (26 September 1891 - 11 January 1985), Australian politician, was Premier of New South Wales from 1941 to 1947, and was the twelfth Governor-General of Australia. The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. ... is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 128th day of the year (129th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (Henry William Frederick Albert; 31 March 1900 – 10 June 1974) was a member of the British Royal Family, the third son of George V of the United Kingdom and Queen Mary, and thus uncle to Elizabeth II. He was appointed regent for his niece... Field Marshal Sir William Slim (pictured here as a Major General) Field Marshal William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim (6 August 1897 - 14 December 1970), British military commander and 13th Governor-General of Australia, was born near Bristol, Gloucestershire. ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Pambula (36°55′S 149°53′E) is located 473 km south of Sydney via the Princes Highway on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia. ... NSW redirects here. ... is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... This article is about the metropolitan area in Australia. ... On the Orders insignia, St Michael is often depicted subduing Satan. ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... List of Premiers of New South Wales Before the 1890s there was no formal party system in New South Wales. ... The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. ...

McKell was born in Pambula, New South Wales, the son of a butcher. He was educated in Sydney at Bourke Street public school and became a boilermaker, and was state secretary of the Boilermakers' Union from 1915. Pambula (36°55′S 149°53′E) is located 473 km south of Sydney via the Princes Highway on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia. ... NSW redirects here. ... This article is about the metropolitan area in Australia. ...

He was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as a Labor member for Redfern in 1917 and retained the seat until he resigned to become Governor-General in 1947, except for the period of proportional representation (1920-1927), when he was a member for Botany. In 1920 he married Mary Pye. While in Parliament he studied law, and became a barrister in 1925. In Jack Lang's Labor governments of 1925-27 and 1931-32 he was Minister for Justice, and was also Minister for Local Government in 1930-31.^[1] The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. ... Redfern was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, originally created in 1880, and named after and including the Sydney suburb of Redfern. ... Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation, or PR), is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates (grouped by a certain measure) obtain in elections and the percentage of seats they receive (usually in legislative assemblies). ... John Thomas Lang (21 December 1876 - 27 September 1975), Australian politician, usually referred to as J.T. Lang during his career, familiarly known as Jack and nicknamed The Big Fella, was Premier of New South Wales for two terms (1925-27, 1930-32). ...

During the 1930s McKell became a leader of the opposition within the Labor Party to what was felt to be Lang's dictatorial rule and his electoral failures. In 1939 he displaced Lang as Labor leader and Leader of the Opposition. In 1941 he became Premier when he led Labor to a convincing victory in the state elections, mainly by concentrating on country seats.

During World War II he became a close collaborator of Labor Prime Ministers John Curtin and Ben Chifley, being a particularly close friend of the latter. In February 1947 Chifley appointed him Governor-General. At the time the appointment was announced, McKell was still Premier of New South Wales, although he had already decided to retire from active politics. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article is about the Australian Prime Minister. ... Joseph Benedict Chifley (22 September 1885 – 13 June 1951), Australian politician and 16th Prime Minister of Australia, was one of Australias most influential Prime Ministers. ...

Chifley was determined that the Governor-General who succeeded the Duke of Gloucester should be an Australian, and he seems to have deliberately chosen a Labor man with a working-class background to make a political point. There was an outcry from the Liberal opposition and the conservative press: Robert Menzies called the appointment "shocking and humiliating." There was some resistance in London; but the days when the King could question an Australian Prime Minister on this matter had passed. McKell kept a dignified silence on the matter of his appointment, rather than conducting a public defence of it. Nevertheless Chifley publicly argued that any suitable Australian should be capable of being chosen as governor-general. The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (Henry William Frederick Albert; 31 March 1900 – 10 June 1974) was a member of the British Royal Family, the third son of George V of the United Kingdom and Queen Mary, and thus uncle to Elizabeth II. He was appointed regent for his niece... This article is about the modern Australian political party. ... Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, KT, AK, CH, FRS, QC (20 December 1894 – 15 May 1978), Australian politician, was the twelfth and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia, serving eighteen and a half years. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

Once McKell took office, however, the continuing respect for the Crown and its representative meant that there was no further criticism. McKell carried out the usual round of his formal duties with dignity, and succeeded in winning over all but the most inflexible Anglophiles. When Menzies succeeded Chifley as Prime Minister in December 1949, his relations with McKell were cordial, if not exactly friendly.

The most controversial moment in McKell's career came in March 1951, when Menzies asked him for a double dissolution election. Labor had retained control of the Senate after the 1949 election, and the Senate had referred the government's banking bill to a committee. Menzies argued that this constituted "failure to pass" in terms of Section 57 of the Australian Constitution. This article deals with elections to the Australian Parliament. ... Type Upper house President Alan Ferguson, Liberal since 14 August 2007 Members 76 Political groups Coalition (39) ALP (28) Green (4) Democrat (4) FFP (1) Last elections 9 October 2004 Meeting place Parliament House, Canberra, ACT Web site Senate Entrance to the Senate Judicial High Court Lower Courts Constitution State... The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (in full, An Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia) is the primary constitutional text of the Commonwealth of Australia. ...

Many in the Labor Party, though not Chifley, thought that McKell should and would refuse Menzies a double dissolution, but the Governor-General agreed (with little hesitation) to provide one. McKell took the view that it was for the voters, not the Governor-General, to determine whether the Senate or Menzies was right: he saw it as his duty to act on the advice of his Prime Minister.

Also in 1951, McKell accepted a knighthood from King George VI. This caused considerable controversy in the Labor Party, as it was Labor policy to have nothing to do with knighthoods (a policy confirmed by the case of Queensland union leader Jack Egerton a generation afterwards); but there was nothing Labor could do about it, since McKell had severed all connections with the party on assuming office. Also it was unprecedented, and was still considered somewhat inappropriate, for a governor-general not to be a peer — or at least a knight — so the public accepted the honour. McKell was the first and only Australian governor-general to be knighted during his term. He could use the title "Sir" once gazetted in 1951, but he was not formally bestowed the honour until 1953, when he was able to travel to Britain to see the monarch. By that time, the King had died, and Queen Elizabeth II performed the ceremony. George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his death. ... Sir John (Jack) Alfred Roy Egerton (11 March 1918 - December 1998) was an Australian trade union organiser and member of the Australian Labor Party. ... Elizabeth II in an official portrait as Queen of Canada (on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee in 2002, wearing the Sovereigns badges of the Order of Canada and the Order of Military Merit) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary) (born 21 April 1926), styled HM The...

McKell retired in May 1953. He served as a member of the Reid Commission from June 1956 to 1957. The Reid Commission was responsible for drafting the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia). The Reid Commission was an independent commission responsible for drafting the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya prior to Malayan independence from Britain on 31 August 1957. ... The Constitution of Malaysia, comprising more than 180 articles, is the supreme law of Malaysia. ...

McKell lived in Sydney for another 30 years, becoming one of the grand old men of the New South Wales Labor Party. He died in Sydney in 1985.

The Hon. ... List of Premiers of New South Wales Before the 1890s there was no formal party system in New South Wales. ... цJames McGirr was born in Parkes on 6 February 1890, and was the Labor Premier of New South Wales 6 February 1947 - 3 April 1952. ... The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (Henry William Frederick Albert; 31 March 1900 – 10 June 1974) was a member of the British Royal Family, the third son of George V of the United Kingdom and Queen Mary, and thus uncle to Elizabeth II. He was appointed regent for his niece... The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. ... Field Marshal Sir William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970) was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia. ...

References

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