Don Devitt
Australian politician (1921–2008)

Donald Michael Devitt (11 July 1921 – 10 July 2008) was an Australian politician. He served as a Senator for Tasmania from 1965 to 1978, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP).
Early life
Devitt was born on 11 July 1921 in Launceston, Tasmania. He was the son of Irish Catholic parents Kathleen Mary (née Maloney) and William Francis Devitt; his father was a police inspector. He was said to be a great-grandson of Irish nationalist Michael Davitt.
Devitt was raised in Smithton and attended the local state school, leaving in 1937. He joined the Citizen Military Forces in January 1942 and transferred to the Australian Imperial Force in August 1942. He transferred again to the Royal Australian Air Force in August 1944 and was posted to the No. 1 Initial Training School in Somers, Victoria. He was discharged from the air force in July 1945 with the rank of leading aircraftman.
“Don Devitt” enters the record as australian politician (1921–2008). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Devitt, Australian and politician can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Don Devitt” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Devitt, Australian and politician provides the most credible route into that argument.
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 Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5292514. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1921, 2008, 1965 and 1978.
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This entry incorporates text from “Don Devitt” 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.