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Rt Hon Frank Forde
15th Prime Minister of Australia
In office 6 July 1945 – 13 July 1945
Preceded by	John Curtin
Succeeded by	Ben Chifley
Born	18 July 1890(1890-07-18) Mitchell, Queensland, Australia
Died	28 January 1983 (aged 92)
Political party	Labor

Francis Michael Forde (18 July 1890 – 28 January 1983) was an Australian politician and the 15th Prime Minister of Australia.

Born at Mitchell, Queensland (where his father was a grazier), Forde was educated at Catholic schools and became a teacher. Settling in Rockhampton, he became active in the Labor Party and in workers' education groups.

In 1917 he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as Labor MP for Rockhampton. In 1922 he resigned and was elected to the Australian House of Representatives for Capricornia.

Forde soon advanced in the Labor ranks. When Labor won the 1929 election, he became Assistant Minister for Trade and Customs in the Scullin government. In the last days of the government he became Minister for Trade and Customs. As one of the few senior Labor MPs to survive defeat at the 1931 election, Forde became Deputy Opposition Leader in 1932. He remains the only Federal Deputy Leader of the ALP to have come from Queensland. When Scullin retired in 1935, Forde contested the leadership ballot but was defeated by one vote by John Curtin, mainly because he had supported Scullin's economic policies.

Forde was a loyal deputy, and in 1941 when Labor returned to power he became Minister for the Army, a vital role in wartime. In 1945 Curtin died, and as Deputy Leader Forde was commissioned by the Governor-General as Prime Minister on 6 July. Again he contested the leadership with Ben Chifley and Norman Makin. Chifley won, and Forde left office on 13 July. Nevertheless he continued to carry out important political functions, as Deputy Prime Minister, and as Minister for Defence. In the latter role he was much criticised for the slowness with which Army personnel were being demobilised. As a result, he lost his seat at the 1946 election, though the Labor Party itself comfortably retained office.

Chifley appointed Forde High Commissioner to Canada, and he held this position until 1953. He returned to Australia and tried to re-enter Parliament at the 1954 election, but without success. In 1955 he returned to the Queensland state Parliament as MP for Flinders. (He is the only former Prime Minister, and the only Privy Councillor since Federation, to have served in a State Parliament.) However, in 1957 the Labor Party split resulted not only in Labor falling from power, but in Forde being defeated in his own electorate. Save for this blow, he would probably have become Labor leader in Queensland, given that Premier Vince Gair and most of Gair's followers had been expelled from the party.

Forde retired to Brisbane where he devoted himself to Catholic charity work. He died in 1983.

The shortest-serving Prime Minister in Australian history - his term of office lasted only a week - Forde was also the longest-lived Australian Prime Minister, living to the age of 92 years, six months and ten days. He had one of the unluckiest careers in Australian political history, missing out repeatedly upon the highest offices. His feat in serving as Deputy Leader under three ALP Leaders (Scullin, Curtin and Chifley) was one that would not be repeated by anyone else until Jenny Macklin. The electoral Division of Forde and the Canberra suburb of Forde are named after him.

Portrait of Frank Forde

Forde married Veronica (Vera) Catherine O’Reilly in 1925 and they had four children::

• Mary (b. 1928)
• Mercia (b. 1930)
• Clare (b. 1932)
• Francis Gerard Forde (1935-1966); married Leneen Kavanagh, later Governor of Queensland.

• Forde Ministry

• Frank Forde - Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archives of Australia