Advisory War Council, 1940-1945

Component identifier:

Series 46

Content Summary:

The Advisory War Council (AWC) was established by Menzies under the National Security (Advisory War Council) Regulations in October 1940, and abolished in August 1945. Hughes was a member throughout, with the exception of a brief period early in 1944 when he temporarily obeyed a United Australia Party ruling that its representatives withdraw from the Council. On Curtin's request, he returned in April 1944, and was expelled from a political party for the third time in his career. All of the AWC material in the collection is in Series 46.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The W. M. Hughes Papers were presented to the National Library of Australia by Dame Mary Hughes in 1953. The collection was received in two consignments. One consisted of papers taken from the Perpetual Trustee Company comprising material from Hughes' Lindfield home and from his office rooms at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney; the other came directly from Lindfield. Lists of the contents of both consignments are held in the Library's Manuscript Branch. With the agreement of the executors and the Library, much of the collection, was for a time, held at the Australian National University by Fitzhardinge. He was permitted sole access to the collection while writing the biography Hughes commissioned in 1951. Fitzhardinge's own papers documenting the writing of the biography are also held by the Library (MS 5400). The papers transferred to the Library in 1953 are by no means the total collection of Hughes' personal papers, although it is impossible to say what proportion has survived. (see Fitzhardinge, p.936).

Names:

Hughes, W. M. (1862-1952)

Contents

Access and use