By Greg Blood

STANLEY MELBOURNE BRUCE  CH MC PC

NATIONALIST PARTY & UNITED AUSTRALIA PARTY

8^th Prime Minister – 1923-1929

Stanley Bruce is regarded as the first prime minister to actively engage in sport during his political career. He had a lifetime commitment to sport, particularly rowing and golf. As prime minster, he regarded regularly playing golf allowed him to be physically fit and carry out the many arduous tasks of the position. Bruce supported the role of the Olympic and Empire Games but did not feel the need to be associated with successful athletes.

Birth: 15 April 1883, Melbourne Victoria  Death: 25 August 1967, London, England

Major Political Appointments

• Federal Member for Flinders, VIC: 11 May 1918 – 12 October 1929, 19 December 1931 – 6 October 1933
• Ministries: Treasurer 21 December 1921 – 9 February 1923, Minister for External Affairs 9 February 1923 – 22 October 1929, Minister for Health 2 April 1927 – 24 February 1928, Minister for Trade and Customs 8 May 1928 – 24 November 1928, Assistant Treasurer 6 January 1932 – 29 June 1932, Minister without Portfolio 23 June 1932 – 6 October 1933
• Cabinet: 21 December 1921 – 22 October 1929, 6 January 1932 – 6 October 1933
• Prime Minister:  9 February 1923 – 22 October 1929
• High Commissioner in London: 7 October 1933 – 1945
• Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal: 18 March 1947 – 25 August 1967

Background

Bruce as born in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne on 15 April 1883. His parents were John Munro Bruce and Mary Ann Henderson. He was the youngest of five children. His father was a successful businessman with the soft goods importing firm of Paterson. His early years were spent in England and on returning to Australia in 1891 attended in Toorak preparatory school managed by Miss McComas. In 1896, he attended Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and in 1901 was school captain. Whilst at the school, he captained Australian football, cricket and rowing teams his last year. [1] He won the Champion Challenge Cup for the Best General Athlete of the Year (aka the Champion Athletic Cup) an extraordinary three times – in 1899, 1900 and 1901. [2]

In 1902, he enrolled at Trinity College in Cambridge, England to study law. Whilst at the College, he was a member of the crew that won the Boat Race – annual race between Oxford and Cambridge Boat Clubs on the Thames River – in 1904. After graduating in 1905, he was employed by Ashurst, Morris & Crisp, a leading firm in commercial law. In 1907, he was appointed chairman of Paterson, Laing & Bruce in October 1907. On 12 July 1913, he married Ethel Dunlop at Sonning, Berkshire, England. [1]

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 led to him being commissioned in the Worcester Regiment in January 1915 and seconded to the Royal Fusiliers as temporary captain. He fought in the Gallipoli campaign and was awarded the Military Cross and Croix de Guerre. He was injured twice during the war with the second time being a shot in the knee. For several years, he used crutches. Bruce returned to Australia in January 1917 to take over as general manager of Paterson, Laing & Bruce. Prime minister Billy Hughes lobbied the British government on his behalf allow him to relinquish his commission in June 1917. [1]

Political Career

The National Union of Victoria, an influential group of Melbourne businessmen that bankrolled the Nationalist Party, encouraged Bruce to stand for and win the 1918 Flinders by-election. In December 1921, he was appointed Treasurer in failing Hughes government. The Nationalist Party became reliant on the Country Party after the December 1922 federal election. Earle Page, Country Party leader, refused to support Billy Hughes on remaining prime minister and supported Bruce in becoming prime minister. [1]

During his early political career, Bruce developed a strong relationship with leading Australian tennis player Norman Brookes who with his wife Mabel lived at  ‘Cliff House’ at Mount Eliza, in his electorate of Flinders .[1] Brookes shared conservative views of Bruce and was his campaign manager in the 1925 federal election. [3] [4]

Bruce won two federal elections, but his government was defeated in the 1929 federal election to Labor’s James Scullin due to increased public distress over rising unemployment and his perceived confrontational approach to industrial reform. Bruce was also lost his Flinders electorate – the first prime minister to lose their electorate. Whilst prime minister, Bruce was responsible for transferring the federal government from Melbourne to Canberra and the construction of Parliament House that opened on 9 May 1927, just under four years from when construction commenced.

Bruce regained Flinders electorate in 1931 but resigned in 1933 to become Australian High Commissioner to Britain, a position held until 1945. He was Australia’s representative on the British War Cabinet. As high commissioner, Bruce supported prime minister Joseph Lyons in working through issues caused by the cricket’s ‘bodyline’. Refer to article on Lyons.

After World War II, Bruce divided his time between the United Kingdom and Australia. In 1947 he became the first Australian to sit in the House of Lords and in 1952 was appointed the first Chancellor of the Australian National University.

He died on 25 August 1967 in London.

Rowing

It was rowing where Bruce had his most success in sport as a young man. Whilst at Melbourne Grammar School, he stroked the school to defeat  Geelong Grammar on Albert Park Lake on 14th October 1899. [3] It is regarded as the first eight oared race for schoolboys in Australia. His results at the Associated Public Schools of Victoria (APS) Head of the River were: third in three seat in 1900 and fourth in the sixth seat in 1901. [5]

Bruce continued rowing when studying law at Trinity College in Cambridge University. Bruce started in the coxed-four boat and was in the number two seat in the Cambridge crew (often referred to as Light Blues) that won the 1904 Boat Race . In 1905, he was appointed captain for the Trinity Hall Boat Club and in 1906 Bruce coached the club that raced for the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley. He came back to coach the Cambridge University crew that won the 1911 Boat Race. [7]

In 1913, he coached the Thames Rowing Club in the Grand Challenge Cup. He later went onto coach Cambridge to a win in the 1914 Boat Race, the last race prior to commencement of World War I. In 1919, Bruce was credited with making the Cambridge University eight a strong contender for the race for the King’s Cup at the Royal Henley Peace Regatta. It lost to AIF No 1 crew in the semi-final. In presenting the 1928 King’s Cup in Sydney, Bruce noted that as coach of the Cambridge University crew at the Royal Henley Peace Regatta “he had done all he could to prevent it coming to Australia” [5]

In 1919, Bruce after finishing as coach of Cambridge University at the Royal Henley Peace Regatta dictated notes on rowing coaching and this was published in 1936 as twenty-three page booklet entitled: Rowing: Notes on Coaching. It is held in several Australian libraries. Bruce followed the coaching principles of significant Steve Fairbairn, a significant Australian and Cambridge coach. [8]

Bruce was also the first Australian to be elected a Steward of the Henley Royal Regatta and President of Leander Club. [6]

Golf

Golf played a significant role maintaining Bruce’s physical and mental health during and after his political career. His father was one of the founders of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in 1891 and its first captain. Golf became Bruce’s choice of sport on his return to Australia in 1917. [1]

The development of the Canberra Golf Club (renamed Royal Canberra Golf Club in 1933) course in its early years can be somewhat attributed with the Bruce moving to Canberra with the opening of Parliament House.  Royal Canberra Golf Club history stated”

“It proved to be no hindrance to the development of the Canberra Club that the Federal Capital Commission knew that the Prime Minister was keenly interested in having a golf course of championship standard in the new capital.”   [9]

There is a photo of Bruce opening the course on the 10 December 1927 by driving off the first tee. It was noted that Bruce was regularly in demand to open new golf courses by hitting the first shot on the first tee. For instance, on 14 May 1927, he opened Victoria Golf Club in Melbourne when on the “first hole hit an excellent tee shot into a howling gale in front of a 1000 strong crowd that included Club President and former leader of the Victorian Legislative Council, William Lawrence Baillieu.” [10] There is film of Bruce opening the Heidelberg Golf Club on the 23rd of June 1928. It includes footage of Bruce and his wife playing. [11] [12]

In September 1927, a newspaper report on Bruce playing in the Royal Melbourne Golf Club men’s bogey handicap listed the following poem: [13]

Some people used to heap abuse
Upon our Stanley Melbourne Bruce
Because his ankles were encased
In spats of snowy hue
But now he follows golfing vogues
And stalks the links in sturdy brogues
A-Swinging sticks and driving balls
As players ought to do

He’s thorough too, to say the least
He doffed his trousers neatly crossed
And garbed his classic nether limbs’
In bags they dub plus fours
His top hat sleek was left at home
With golfing cap be roofed his dome.
When putting on the fairways green
He challenged bogey’s scores

Our worthy P.M. did his best
With mashie, niblick and the rest
But if he swore a golfer’s swear
Then that to us is news
For in that field we must opine
With due respect, he ‘couldn’t shine
Possessing’ even half the vim
Of William Morris Hughes

In his farewell speech in 1929 at Canberra Golf Club highlighted the importance of golf whilst being prime minister:

“Some people are under the delusion that you have to have brains to be a Prime Minister, but only one qualification is necessary: an amazing amount of physical strength. The only way to maintain that is to play golf. I could not have remained Prime Minister for nearly seven years and retired as fit as when I started but for the fact that I played golf the whole time. Look at the Prime Ministers who are going to succeed me. If they play golf they can rest assured they will last for a reasonable period. If they do not they will not last very long.” [14]

Bruce after finishing up as High Commissioner in 1945, Bruce spent a great deal of time in United Kingdom and in 1954 was appointed captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. He was the first Australian appointed to this prestigous golf position. Bruce’s ceremonial ‘captain’s coat’ is now in the National Archives of Australia’s collection. Bruce’s wife Ethel was a regular golfer. [15]

Finally, Bruce stated that golf ‘is the world’s best and only game”.

Olympic Games and Empire Games

The Bruce government provided some funding to Australian Olympic teams: 3000 pounds in 1924 and 2000 pounds in 1928. [16] The Australian Olympic Federation was expected to raise additional funds for sending the team. In 1923, in federal parliament he was asked a question by Labor’s Moses Gabb regarding government funding for the 1924 Australian Olympic team being dependant on the Murray Cods, a successful South Australian eights crew, being selected. Several states opposed their selection based on their long stroke not suited to the 1924 Paris course. Bruce’s reply indicated the government should not have a role in team selection:

The honorable member’s question is not of such pressing importance that it might not have been placed on the notice-paper, but in order to prevent him having to say over again all that he has said, I point out that the contribution by the Commonwealth is made to the council organizing Australia’s representation, and the Government does not propose to interfere with the discretion vested in that body. [17]

Interestingly, Bruce view of the government recognisingsuccessful Olympic athletescan be viewed from this July 1924 federal parliament question time exchange:

Labor’s Frederick McDonald question: [18]

Swimming is one of the healthiest national pastimes- indulged in by Australians. That being, so, will the Prime Minister send a cablegram to the Australian swimmers participating in the Olympic games, congratulating them, and particularly “Boy” Charlton, on their successes?

Bruce’s reply:

“The Government shares in the general appreciation of the success that has been achieved by Australian competitors in the Olympic sports and particularly that of the swimmer referred to. The athletic achievements of Australians are so great and so. numerous, however, that I am afraid it would be an unfortunate precedent to send a cablegram in this instance.”

After the 1928 Amsterdam Games, the Canadian Olympic Committee held a meeting in London to discuss the establishment of the British Empire Games. Bruce was asked his thoughts on these proposed Games and replied “that he was sympathetic; but added that lie would not express an opinion one way or the other until his knew exactly what the proposals were”. [19]

These responses indicate that Bruce and his government believed sport should look after itself in terms of decision making and funding. It was not overly interested on riding coattails of athletes.

Conclusion

Bruce during his youth and adulthood highlighted the importance of rowing and golf to his physical and mental wellbeing. Besides, participation, he contributed as a coach and official.

It can be seen that he viewed the Olympic Games as an important competition from a national perspective but did not want to bask in the success of athletes.

In conclusion, Ferry’s view of Bruce might summarise the importance of sport in his political life:

“Some of Bruce’s supporters tried to counter negative perceptions of him by pointing to the fact that he was such a ‘good sport‘. Golf was also said to ‘keep him in good fettle’. This makes Bruce perhaps the first in a long line of Australian prime ministers who have tried to cultivate their public image through sport”.

Photographs and Film

• Golf images in Australia’s golf champion prime minister , National Archives of Australia, 2 July 2021
• Opening of the extended Canberra Golf Course by Rt. Hon S. M. Bruce. Golfer preparing to tee off before spectators, 1927, National Archives of Australia
• Right Honourable SM Bruce presenting the Prime Ministers Cup and group of golfers at the Royal Canberra Golf Club, National Archives of Australia
• Right Honourable SM Bruce on the putting green at the Royal Canberra Golf Club, 1929, National Archives of Australia
• Bruce hitting off at St Andrews
• Photo of Melbourne Grammar School crew at the 1901 Head of the River, Australian Rowing History
• Heidelberg Golf Club 1927 to 1934 footage (includes Bruce opening the course and playing with his wife), YouTube

References

1. Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Archives of Australia, Museum of Australian Democracy articles on Stanley Melbourne Bruce.

2. Connections across time through sporting prowess, Melbourne Grammar School, 16 June 2020.

3.  Brookes, Mabel. Memoirs, South Melbourne, Vic. : Macmillan, 1974. p.188

4. Naughton, Richard, The wizard : the story of Norman Brookes, Australia’s first Wimbledon, Melbourne,  Slattery Media Group, 2011, p. 68

5. Head of the River 1901, Australian Rowing History

6. Andrew Guerin, Viscount Stanley M Bruce CH, MC, PC, FRS, Australian Rowing History, 2023

7. University Boat Race, The Ballarat Star, 9 March 1911, p. 6

8. HTBS Quiz: Stanley Bruce!, Hear the Boat Sing, 13 September 2011

9. The Royal Canberra Golf Club ‘The First Seventy Years: 1926-2001′. Canberra, Royal Canberra Golf Club, 2001, p. 107

10. History, Victoria Golf Club website.

11. Heidelberg Golf Club: official opening, National Film and Sound Archive

12. Heidelberg Golf Club 1927 to 1934 footage (includes Bruce opening the course and playing with his wife), YouTube

13. Random Rhymes. The Mail (Adelaide, SA), 17 September 1927. p. 2:

14. Benefits of Golf ,The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 October 1929, p. 10

15. Patrick Ferry, Australia’s golf champion prime minister, National Archives of Australia, 2 July 2021

16. Greg Blood, The Relationship between the Australian Olympic Committee and the Australian Sports Commission, Sporting Traditions, V35 (1) May 2018 (republished Australian Sport Reflections)

17. Stanley Bruce, Olympic Games, House of Representatives Hansard, 7 August 1923

18. Stanley Bruce, Australian Olympic Swimmers, House of Representatives Hansard, 16 July 1924

19. Olympic Games : Mr Bruce Said to Favour Empire Games,  The Herald (Melbourne, Vic), 8 August 1928, p. 8

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