Liberal Party of Australia, 1945-1952

Component identifier:

Series 49

Content Summary:

When the Advisory War Council was disbanded in August 1945 the final obstacle between Hughes and Menzies disappeared and two weeks after the end of the war Hughes joined the Liberal Party. He stood successfully as its candidate in North Sydney and the 1946 general election, and following the distribution three years later, defeated H. B. Turner for preselection for the new electorate of Bradfield. Most of the papers in the collection on Hughes' membership in the Liberal Party form this series. Other papers are in Series 1, Series 28 and Series 48.The present series has been divided into four subseries.

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

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