Gough

Edward Gough Whitlam was born in Kew (Melbourne) in 1916. In 1918 the Whitlams moved to Sydney and Gough attended the Mowbray House Preparatory School and later attended Knox Grammar School. With the shift of Federal Parliament from Melbourne to Canberra, his family were among the first to move there - it also made him the only prime minister to actually grow up in the national capital. There he attended Telopea Park High School and Canberra Grammar School before leaving Canberra at the age of 18 to do a full Arts course and three years of Law at the University of Sydney. He then became Associate to Mr. Justice Maxwell. In 1942 he married Margaret Elaine Dovey, they had four children. A few months before he was married, when Japan came into the war, Gough joined the RAAF. He was based at Gove in the Northern Territory, at the time of the 1944 Fourteen Points referendum; Gough campaigned for Labor. While still in the air force, he joined the Darlinghurst Branch of the Labor Party in 1945. After the war, he went back to the university for a year before becoming Associate to Mr. Justice Owen. Gough became a barrister in 1947 and stood as a Labor candidate but failed to win either the Sydney City Council seat or the Sutherland seat. In November 1952 he won the federal seat of Werriwa in western Sydney. In 1960 Whitlam won the deputy leadership of the Labor party. After the 10 November 1963 election, Gough began to challenge Calwell for the leadership but was not successful until the 16 November 1966 poll. In the years to follow Gough won a seat from the government in a by-election, held three Labor seats in by-elections, reduced the governments majority at two senate elections and won 17 seats at the House of Representatives election in 1969. On the 2 December 1972, Gough led Labor back into office for the first time since 1949 when he offered the electors a list of 140 reforms.

One of the first things Whitlam did when he became prime minister was end conscription