Sir Percy Claude Spender (5 October 18973 May 1985) was an Australian politician, diplomat, and judge. He served in the

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

from 1937 to 1951, including as a cabinet minister under

Robert Menzies The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

and Arthur Fadden. He was later Ambassador to the United States (1951–1958) and a member of the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

(1958–1967), including as president of the court from 1964 to 1967.

Early life

Spender was born on 5 October 1897 in Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales. He was the fifth of six children born to Mary () and Frank Henry Spender; his father was a locksmith originally from

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. Spender's mother died in 1902 and his father remarried, giving him a stepsister and later two half-siblings. He began his education at Darlinghurst Public School, and later attended

Fort Street High School Fort Street High School (FSHS) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, New South Wales government run, Mixed-sex school, co-educational, Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective, secondary school, secondary day school, ...

. After failing his

matriculation Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used no ...

exam, he found work as a clerk with the Sydney City Council. Spender eventually passed the entrance exam to the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, where he graduated

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in 1918. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in September 1918, but did not see active service before the war ended a few months later. Spender subsequently completed a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

, graduating in 1922 with first-class honours and the University Medal in law. He was admitted to the bar in 1923 and made a

King's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1935.

Entry into politics

Spender entered politics at the 1937 election when he was elected to the

as member for Warringah. He ran as an "independent UAP" candidate, unexpectedly defeating the sitting member, Sir Archdale Parkhill. On 20 October 1938, Spender announced that he would join the UAP, but that he would "continue to stand for independent expression of thought and action and against the principle of

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presel ...

of candidates".

World War II

Treasurer

became prime minister in April 1939 and appointed himself as

Treasurer A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization. Government The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...

, as was common at the time. Spender was promoted to cabinet as a

minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is a government minister without specific responsibility as head of a government department. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet with decision-making authorit ...

, but effectively ran the Department of the Treasury in Menzies' stead. He was initially given the title "Minister without portfolio assisting the Treasurer", and then in November 1939 was named Acting Treasurer. He was a member of two subcommittees within cabinet – the Economic Cabinet and War Cabinet – and in January 1940 was additionally made Vice-President of the Executive Council. Spender was officially appointed Treasurer a few months later, in March 1940. He would later recall in his memoirs that he had been "in full charge of Treasury throughout". Spender's primary objective as Treasurer was to accelerate the country's transition to a war economy. Australian troops were already fighting in Europe and the Middle East, and although the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

would not begin until December 1941 it was believed by many that the appeasement of Japan had failed and fighting closer to home was inevitable. Spender was concerned that permanent officials at Treasury, including departmental secretary Stuart McFarlane, were not taking the situation seriously enough. He began to rely more on the advice of temporary staff and independent economists like Lyndhurst Giblin.Hawkins (2011), p. 152. According to political historian John Hawkins, Spender was "the most academically qualified economist among pre-WWII treasurers". He promoted interventionist

Keynesian Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...

policies, such as borrowing money and raising taxes to spend on defence-related projects and thereby reduce unemployment. He also wished to control private investing so that capital would be available to the government for defence purposes, introducing requirements for private banks to place a set proportion of deposits with the

Commonwealth Bank The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), also known as Commonwealth Bank or simply CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of fi ...

(which at the time was Australia's

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

).Hawkins (2011), p. 153.

Later activities

After the 1940 federal election, Arthur Fadden was elected leader of the Country Party, the UAP's coalition partner, and demanded the position of Treasurer. Spender was instead made Minister for the Army, which he would hold until the government's defeat on a confidence motion in October 1941. Anticipating Japan's entry into the war, he pressed for Australian troops to be moved from the Middle Eastern theatre closer to home. He "invited Australian generals to communicate directly with him and challenged British reassurances about the defences of Singapore". Menzies resigned as UAP leader in October 1941, and Spender was an unsuccessful candidate for the leadership. He was eliminated on the first ballot, with

Billy Hughes William Morris Hughes (25 September 1862 – 28 October 1952) was an Australian politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923. He led the nation during World War I, and his influence on national politics s ...

subsequently defeating Allan McDonald by a narrow margin. Spender was also a candidate for the UAP leadership in 1943, when Hughes resigned. He was again eliminated on the first ballot, polling only a handful of votes. In February 1944, the UAP voted to withdraw its members from the Advisory War Council. Spender refused to resign from the council, and was expelled from the UAP as a result on 23 February 1944. The party reportedly voted 21 to 5 in favour of an expulsion motion moved by Robert Menzies – who had been largely responsible for the creation of the council as a nonpartisan body. John Curtin subsequently sent Spender a letter thanking him for staying on. Billy Hughes was expelled in similar circumstances two months later. Spender sat as an independent after being expelled from the UAP. He was approached to join the Liberal Democratic Party, a small UAP breakaway, but declined. In May 1945, Spender became a financial member of the Mosman branch of the

Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia (LP) is the prominent centre-right political party in Australia. It is considered one of the two major parties in Australian politics, the other being the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The Liberal Party was fo ...

. However, he was not admitted to the parliamentary Liberal Party until 13 September 1945, when the Advisory War Council was abolished. Hughes was also re-admitted at that point.

Post-war politics

Upon Menzies' return to power in 1949, Spender was made Minister for External Affairs (19 December 194926 April 1951) and Minister for External Territories. Spender's greatest influence on Australian politics occurred during this period. He led Australian delegations to the

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the British Commonwealth or simply the Commonwealth, is an international association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire The B ...

Conference in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

and to the Fifth Session of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...

(of which he was the vice-president). At the conference in Colombo, Spender was instrumental in the development of the

Colombo Plan The Colombo Plan is a regional intergovernmental organization that began operations on 1 July 1951. The organization was conceived at an international conference, The Commonwealth Conference on Foreign Affairs held in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri ...

(which had originally been known as the Spender Plan). He also played a large part in the signing of the ANZUS Pact and the

Treaty of San Francisco The , also called the , re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war, military occupation and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and inclu ...

(Japanese Peace Treaty; 1951). Spender expressed more desire to secure alliances with 'great powers' than contribute to collective security, stating that international organisations like the UN may "contain those who are at work to disrupt the order we believe in". In this sense Spender was more akin to the realist tradition of Australian foreign politics linked to former Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies.

Diplomatic and judicial posts

On leaving politics, Spender was appointed Australia's Ambassador to the United States (1951–58). Spender's appointment as Ambassador to the United States was seen as a possible motive by Menzies to remove a potential rival in Spender from Parliament and notwithstanding Spender had unsuccessfully stood against Menzies for the UAP leadership in 1943. However Spender said in 1968 that Menzies only made the ambassador's offer after Spender informed Menzies that he (Spender) was leaving politics. Spender was the first Australian appointed to the

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

(1958–1964) and was the Court's President 1964–67. Spender died in May 1985, aged 87.

Marriages and family

Spender married Jean Maud Henderson on 6 April 1925 at St Mary Magdalene Church of England,

Coraki, New South Wales Coraki is a small town that sits on the confluence of the Richmond and Wilsons Rivers in northern New South Wales, Australia in Richmond Valley Shire. At the 2021 census, Coraki had a population of 1,155. Material was copied from this source ...

. She became a crime-fiction writer and they had two sons. One son, John Spender, was also a politician and diplomat who married Australian fashion designer Carla Zampatti. Jean Spender died in 1970 and on 4 October 1975 at St Mark's Church of England, Darling Point, he married Averil Watkins Trenerry, née McLeod. The marriage was short-lived and they divorced soon after. He married Eileen Esdaile, née Congreve, in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

in 1983. His granddaughter, Allegra Spender is also a member of parliament for Wentworth.

Honours

Spender was knighted in 1952 as a

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

. In 1957, he was further created a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. He was conferred the Grande Ufficiale Order of Merit by the

Republic of Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in 1976. He also received ten honorary doctorates. However, a personal rift between himself and Menzies prevented him from receiving the honour which he most desired, appointment to the Privy Council. He gave the

commencement address In the United States, a commencement speech or commencement address is a speech given to graduating students, generally at a university, although the term is also used for secondary education institutions and in similar institutions around the ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1953.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spender, Percy 1897 births 1985 deaths Australian Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Australian Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Ministers for foreign affairs of Australia Knights of the Order of St John Australian King's Counsel 20th-century King's Counsel Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Warringah Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Cabinet of Australia Treasurers of Australia Ambassadors of Australia to the United States Independent members of the Parliament of Australia Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia United Australia Party members of the Parliament of Australia People educated at Fort Street High School Presidents of the International Court of Justice Articles containing video clips Australian judges of United Nations courts and tribunals International Court of Justice judges Burials at Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens University of Sydney alumni Australian MPs 1937–1940 Australian MPs 1940–1943 Australian MPs 1943–1946 Australian MPs 1946–1949 Australian MPs 1949–1951