Gorton, Sir John
Sir John Gorton
Flying Officer, RAAF, 400793
No 77 Squadron
John Gorton's Royal Australian Air Force enlistment papers, dated 8 November 1940, when he was 29 years old.
John Grey Gorton was probably born on 9 September 1911, the second child of John Rose Gorton and Alice Sinn. Gorton's father told him some time before 1932 that his birthplace was actually Wellington, New Zealand. Gorton therefore gave his place of birth as Wellington when applying for a pilot's licence in the United Kingdom, when he enrolled at Brasenose College, Oxford, and when he enlisted in the RAAF.
He finished school as a boarder at Geelong Grammar, remembering these two years as the most productive and happiest of his school years. He was a prefect, and represented the school in rowing, football and Athletics. Gorton was admitted to Brasenose College in October 1932. He later claimed that he had 'majored in rowing', but he left Oxford in 1935 with a good upper second degree and a strong grounding in history, politics and economics.
Photo: FO Gorton, back row, 4th from left with other pilots of No 77 Sqadron RAAF Northern territory 1943
War service 1940-45
After war broke out in 1939, Gorton joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Reserve. He formally enlisted in 1940. He trained at Essendon, Victoria and Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, and then sailed for England where he completed training at Hendon. His squadron was to be sent to the Middle East, but the British government sent them instead to Singapore. The troopship arrived on 13 January 1942, four weeks before the Japanese army occupied the island. On the morning of 21 January, Gorton was forced to crash land his Hurricane on Bintarn Island near Palembang, Sumatra. His harness was not fully tightened, and his face was seriously injured on the gunsight of the plane. Eventually rescued, he left Singapore on an ammunition ship that was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. He spent 24 hours on a crowded life raft before HMAS Ballarat rescued the survivors.
Photo: Gorton arrowed among survivors of the Derrymore being taken on board HMAS Ballarat in February 1942.
When he had recovered, Gorton joined No. 77 Squadron and was posted to Darwin. Here a mistake nearly cost him his life, but he executed an 'extremely successful' crashlanding on a beach after inadvertently cutting the fuel supply.
In February the squadron was sent to Milne Bay in New Guinea to assist with the 'mopping-up' operations as US forces pushed the Japanese from the islands they had occupied for a year. At Milne Bay on 8 March 1943, Gorton had a third flying accident - he miraculously escaped when his Kittyhawk stalled and flipped over at take-off.
The following month Gorton was posted back to Australia to the RAAF operational training unit at Mildura, Victoria. In 1944 Flight Lieutenant Gorton went to Heidelberg hospital for surgery which could not fully repair his facial injuries. A conventionally handsome man, he had become an instantly recognisable one - an invaluable quality for a future politician.
After the war, Gorton returned to the orchard which Bettina Gorton had been running while raising their three young children, Johanna, Michael and Robin (born in 1937, 1938 and 1941 respectively). Entering politics he firmly advocated resisting totalitarianism in all its forms so there would be no repeat of the Second World War. On domestic matters, he defended or promoted what he saw as Victoria's interests against those of other States. But he was equally concerned to advance the Commonwealth's role in national affairs.
It was a crucial moment. Gorton's new-found popularity among worried government backbenchers assisted his bid for the party leadership after Harold Holt disappeared off Cheviot Beach, Portsea, on 17 December 1967. Gorton won the ballot of 81 Liberal Party parliamentarians on 9 January 1968, probably by a small margin of three to five votes. He enjoyed strong support among the Senators, and a number of ministers and younger backbenchers in the House believed he would have the necessary popular appeal. Importantly, he seemed the best person to deal with Gough Whitlam, the Leader of the Opposition.
As a senator, however, Gorton first had to resign and win a seat in the House of Representatives. This was achieved when he won Harold Holt's former seat of Higgins on 24 February 1968, and was sworn in to the House of Representatives. Edited from War Memorial web site
