Arthur Fadden
Australian politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (1894-1973)
Sir Arthur William Fadden (13 April 1894 – 21 April 1973) was the 13th prime minister of Australia, serving from 29 August to 7 October 1941. He held office as the leader of the Country Party from 1940 to 1958 and served as treasurer of Australia from 1940 to 1941 and 1949 to 1958.
Fadden was born in Ingham, Queensland, to Irish immigrant parents. He was raised in Walkerston, and left school at the age of 15. He was appointed town clerk of Mackay in 1916, but following the 1918 cyclone moved to Townsville and opened an accountancy firm. He was elected to the Townsville City Council in 1930, and in 1932 was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly for the Country and Progressive National Party. Fadden lost his seat in 1935, but the following year won a by-election to the federal Division of Darling Downs.
In March 1940, Fadden was named a minister without portfolio in the government of Robert Menzies, who led the United Australia Party in a coalition with the Country Party. A few months later, following the deaths of three senior ministers in an air crash, he took over as Minister for Air and Minister for Civil Aviation. In October 1940, Fadden was elected acting leader of the Country Party as a compromise candidate, following a deadlocked leadership vote between Earle Page and John McEwen.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Arthur Fadden” as australian politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (1894-1973). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as australian politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (1894-1973). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23369. VIAF identifies the subject as 75794869. The Library of Congress control number is n2008076724. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1894, 1973, 1941 and 1940.
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This entry incorporates text from “Arthur Fadden” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.