Stanley Melbourne Bruce

Stanley Melbourne Bruce (born April 15, 1883, Melbourne, Victoria [Australia]—died August 25, 1967, London, England) was a statesman and diplomat who was prime minister of Australia from 1923 to 1929. He then became his country’s leading emissary to Great Britain.

Bruce studied at the University of Cambridge and then practiced law in England. After serving in the British army during World War I, he entered the Australian Parliament in 1918 and was his country’s representative to the League of Nations (1921). After serving as federal treasurer from 1921 to 1923, he became prime minister upon the resignation of William Morris Hughes, forming a coalition of the National and Country parties. During his administration, Bruce strove to develop the Australian economy, especially by integrating it with that of Great Britain. He fostered research in public health and applied science. His government was eventually defeated, and he himself lost his seat in a general election in 1929.

As Australia’s minister to England in 1932 and Australian high commissioner from 1933 to 1945, Bruce successfully lobbied for the lowering of interest rates for Australia during the Great Depression. As the Australian representative to the British War Cabinet from 1942 to 1945, he opposed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in arguing for lenient postwar treatment of Germany. In 1947 Bruce became chairman of the World Food Council and chairman of Britain’s Finance Corporation for Industry, which contributed to postwar recovery in Britain.

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Bruce was awarded a viscountcy in 1947—the first Australian to be so honoured. He served as the first chancellor of the Australian National University, Canberra (1951–61), although he lived in England from 1932 until his death. There were no children from his marriage, and the viscountcy lapsed.