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Fast facts: Ben Chifley
Personal profile
Born:
22 September 1885, Bathurst, New South Wales
Education:
Patrician Brothers high school, Bathurst (c.1899–c.1901)
Employment:
engine-driver
Memberships:
Roman Catholic Church; trades unions
Marriage:
6 June 1914, Glebe, Sydney
Children:
none
Died:
13 June 1951, Canberra
Buried:
Bathurst Cemetery
Honours:
Privy Councillor (1945)
Born:
1 August 1886
Died:
9 September 1962
Political profile
Terms as PM:
13 July 1945 – 19 December 1949
Terms as MP:
House of Representatives: 6 February 1929 – 19 December 1931 and 20 November 1940 – 13 June 1951 (Macquarie)
Leader of the Opposition: 19 December 1949 – 13 June 1951
Portfolios:
Defence: 3 March 1931 – 6 January 1932
Treasurer: 7 October 1941 – 19 December 1949
Postwar Reconstruction: 22 December 1942 – 2 February 1945
Political memberships:
Abercrombie Shire Council (1933–47); Australian Labor Party
After:
Leader of the Opposition (19 December 1949 – 13 June 1951)
Quiz facts
- became an engine-driver at 27
- twice refused pre-selection, in a State election in 1922 and the 1937 federal election
- refused to wear ceremonial clothes and became a Privy Councillor in his own suit
- lost two elections (1931 and 1934) then won his seat back while in hospital in 1940
- died two days after he was re-elected leader of the federal parliamentary Labor Party on 11 June 1951



























