Australian politician who was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. He was the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He was notable for being the head of a reformist and socially progressive administration that extraordinarily ended with his removal as prime minister after controversially being dismissed by the governor-general of Australia, Sir John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam is the only Australian prime minister to have been removed from office.
Whitlam joined the ALP in 1945 and on 29 November 1952 won the federal seat of Werriwa. 7 March 1960 he was elected Deputy leader of the Labor Party and on 27 April 1966, failed in a leadership challenge against Arthur Calwell. On 8 February 1967 he was elected ALP leader and on 25 October 1969 was defeated by John Gorton in the federal election.
On 2 December 1972 Whitlam became the first Labor Prime Minster in 23 years. He was the first Australian PM to make a visit to China, on 31 October 1973, and was re-elected on 18 May 1974. After the Senate blocked supply, he and his government were dismissed on 11 November 1975 and on 13 December 1975, Malcolm Fraser’s Liberals swept into power. Whitlam resigned from Parliament on 31 July 1978 and he was appointed ambassador to UNESCO on 4 May 1983. Whitlam published “The Truth of the Matter” in 1979.
Whitlam served in the RAAF during WW II and passed the Bar in 1947. He married Margaret Dovey on 22 April 1942; three sons, one daughter.
Gough Whitlam died aged 98 in the morning of 21 October 2014 at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney.
Link to Wikipedia biography