Percival Clarence Millar (; 15 June 1925 – 28 November 2017) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the National Party and served in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 1974 to 1990, representing the

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

seat of Wide Bay. Prior to entering politics he was a public servant, soldier and farmer.

Early life

Millar was born on 15 June 1925 in

Norwood, South Australia Norwood is a suburb of Adelaide, about east of the Adelaide city centre. The suburb is in the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters, whose predecessor was the oldest South Australian local government municipality. History Before British colonis ...

, the son of Elsie (née Klaebe) and Percival John Turbill. His father, a clerk, salesman and tram driver, died of tuberculosis in 1935. His mother subsequently married William Donald Millar and he was given his stepfather's surname. As a child, Millar's family "followed an itinerant life across Victoria and Tasmania" in the aftermath of the Great Depression. He left school at the age of thirteen, by which time the family had settled in Hobart. As a teenager he worked as an assayist at the Rosebery zinc mines and as a salesman in a Hobart department store, before joining the

Postmaster-General's Department The Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) was a department of the Australian federal government, established at Federation in 1901, whose responsibilities included the provision of postal and telegraphic services throughout Australia. It was ...

in 1940. He worked for the department as a messenger boy, post office assistant, and junior assistant telgraphist.

Military service

Millar enlisted in the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

(RAAF) in 1943, at the age of 18. He joined the

Central Bureau The Central Bureau was one of two Allied signals intelligence (SIGINT) organisations in the South West Pacific area (SWPA) during World War II. Central Bureau was attached to the headquarters of the Allied Commander of the South West Pacific area ...

as a radio operator conducting signals intelligence. He was initially stationed in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

and later in the Northern Territory, where he intercepted the Japanese message of surrender in 1945. He was discharged from the RAAF in 1946 with the rank of leading aircraftman.

Politics

Millar served in the military between 1943 and 1946 before becoming a public servant, and then a farmer. In 1974, he was elected to the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members o ...

as the Country Party member for Wide Bay in

. He served as chairman of committees from 1978 to 1983. He retired in 1990. Together with

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

Tom Uren Thomas Uren (28 May 1921 – 26 January 2015) was an Australian politician and Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1975 to 1977. Uren served as the Member for Reid in the Australian House of Representatives from 1958 to 1990, bei ...

, Millar was the last

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

combat veteran to serve in the House, though Russ Gorman who was a non-combat WWII veteran would serve until 1996. He was the father of ABC journalist Lisa Millar.

References

1925 births 2017 deaths National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Wide Bay Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Order of Australia Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-National-politician-stub