Billy Hughes William Morris " Billy " Hughes , , ( 25 September 186228 October 1952 ) , Australian politician , was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia , from 1915 to 1923 . Over the course of his 51 - year federal parliamentary career ( and an additional seven years prior to that in a colonial parliament ) , Hughes changed parties five times : from Labor ( 1901 – 16 ) to National Labor ( 1916 – 17 ) to Nationalist ( 1917 – 30 ) to Australian ( 1930 – 31 ) to United Australia ( 1931 – 44 ) to Liberal ( 1944 – 52 ) . He was expelled from three parties , and represented four different electorate s in two states . Originally Prime Minister as leader of the Labor Party , his support of conscription led him , along with 24 other pro - conscription members , to form National Labor . National Labor merged with the Commonwealth Liberal Party to form the Nationalist Party . His prime ministership came to an end when the Nationalist party was forced to form a coalition with the Country Party , who refused to serve under Hughes . He was the longest serving prime minister up to that point , and the fifth longest serving over all . He would later lead the United Australia Party to the 1943 election , though Arthur Fadden served as Coalition leader . He died in 1952 at age 90 , while still serving in Parliament . He is the longest - serving member of the Australian Parliament , and one of the most colourful and controversial figures in Australian political history . Early years . William Morris Hughes was born in Pimlico , London , on 25 September 1862 of Welsh parents . His father William Hughes was Welsh speaking and , according to the 1881 census , born in Holyhead , Anglesey , North Wales in about 1825 . He was a deacon of the Particular Baptist Church and by profession a joiner and a carpenter at the House of Lords . His mother was a farmer ' s daughter from Llansantffraid , Montgomeryshire and had been in service in London . Jane Morris was 37 when she married and William Morris Hughes was her only child . After his mother ' s death when he was seven , William Hughes lived with his father ' s sister in Llandudno , Wales , also spending time with his mother ' s relatives in rural Montgomeryshire , where he also spoke Welsh . A plaque on a guest house in Abbey Road Llandudno bears testament to his residency . When he was 14 he returned to London and worked as a pupil teacher . In 1881 , when he was 19 , William lived with his father and an aunt at 78 Vauxhall Bridge Road , London . In October 1884 , at the age of 22 , he emigrated to Australia , working as a labourer , bush worker and cook . He arrived in Sydney in 1886 and lived in a boarding house in Moore Park and established a common law marriage with his landlady ' s daughter , Elizabeth Cutts . In 1890 they moved to Balmain , where he at first worked for Lewy Pattinson ' s pharmacy before he opened a small mixed shop , where he sold political pamphlets , did odd jobs and mended umbrellas . He joined the Socialist League in 1892 and became a street - corner speaker for the Balmain Single Tax League and an organiser with the Australian Workers ' Union and may have already joined the newly formed Labor Party . Early political career . In 1894 , Hughes spent eight months in central New South Wales organising for the Amalgamated Shearers ' Union and then won the Legislative Assembly seat of Sydney - Lang by 105 votes . While in Parliament he became secretary of the Wharf Labourer ' s Union . In 1900 he founded and became first national president of the Waterside Workers ' Union . During this period Hughes studied law , and was admitted as a barrister in 1903 . Unlike most Labor men , he was a strong supporter of Federation . In 1901 Hughes was elected to the first federal Parliament as Labor MP for West Sydney . He opposed the Barton government ' s proposals for a small professional army and instead advocated compulsory universal training . In 1903 , he was admitted to the bar after several years part time study . He became a King ' s Counsel in 1909 . His common law wife died in 1906 , and his 17 - year - old daughter raised his other five children in Sydney . In 1911 , he married Mary Campbell . He was Minister for External Affairs in Chris Watson ' s first Labor government . He was Attorney - General in Andrew Fisher ' s three Labor governments in 1908 – 09 , 1910 – 13 and 1914 – 15 . He was the real political brain of these governments , and it was clear that he wanted to be leader of the Labor Party . But his abrasive manner ( his chronic dyspepsia was thought to contribute to his volatile temperament ) made his colleagues reluctant to have him as Leader . His on - going feud with King O ' Malley , a fellow Labor minister , was a prominent example of his combative style . Labor Party Prime Minister , 1915 – 16 . Following the 1914 election , the Labor Prime Minister of Australia , Andrew Fisher , found the strain of leadership during World War I taxing and faced increasing pressure from the ambitious Hughes who wanted Australia to be firmly recognised on the world stage . By 1915 Fisher ' s health was suffering and , in October , he resigned and was succeeded by Hughes . In social policy , Hughes introduced an institutional pension for pensioners in benevolent asylums , equal to the difference between the ' act of grace ' payment to the institution and the rate of IP . Hughes was a strong supporter of Australia ' s participation in World War I and , after the loss of 28 , 000 men as casualties ( killed , wounded and missing ) in July and August 1916 , Generals Birdwood and White of the Australian Imperial Force ( AIF ) persuaded Hughes that conscription was necessary if Australia was to sustain its contribution to the war effort . However a two - thirds majority of his party , which included Roman Catholics and union representatives as well as the Industrialists ( Socialists ) such as Frank Anstey , were bitterly opposed to this , especially in the wake of what was regarded by many Irish Australians ( most of whom were Roman Catholics ) as Britain ' s excessive response to the Easter Rising of 1916 . In October Hughes held a national plebiscite for conscription , but it was narrowly defeated . Melbourne ' s Roman Catholic archbishop , Daniel Mannix , was his main opponent on the conscription issue . The enabling legislation was the " Military Service Referendum Act 1916 " and the outcome was advisory only . The narrow defeat ( 1 , 087 , 557 Yes and 1 , 160 , 033 No ) , however , did not deter Hughes , who continued to vigorously argue in favour of conscription . This revealed the deep and bitter split within the Australian community that had existed since before Federation , as well as within the members of his own party . Conscription had been in place since the 1910 Defence Act , but only in the defence of the nation . Hughes was seeking via a referendum to change the wording in the act to include " overseas " . A referendum was not necessary but Hughes felt that in light of the seriousness of the situation , a vote of " Yes " from the people would give him a mandate to by - pass the Senate . To add to that , while it is true that the Lloyd George Government of Britain did favour Hughes , they only came into power in 1916 , several months after the first referendum . The predecessor Asquith government however greatly disliked Hughes considering him to be " " a guest , rather than the representative of Australia " " . On 15 September 1916 the NSW executive of the Political Labour League , Frank Tudor ( the Labor Party organisation at the time ) expelled Hughes from the Labor Party , after Hughes and 24 others had already walked out to the sound of Hughes ' s finest political cry " Let those who think like me , follow me . " Hughes took with him almost all of the Parliamentary talent , leaving behind the Industrialists and Unionists , thus marking the end of the first era in Labor ' s history . Years later , Hughes said , " I did not leave the Labor Party , The party left me . " The timing of Hughes ' expulsion from the Labor Party meant that he became the first Labor leader who never led the party to an election . Nationalist Party Prime Minister 1916 – 23 . Hughes and his followers , which included many of Labor ' s early leaders , called themselves the National Labor Party and began laying the groundwork for forming a party that they felt would be both avowedly nationalist as well as socially radical . Hughes was forced to conclude a confidence and supply agreement with the opposition Commonwealth Liberal Party in order to stay in office . A few months later , Hughes and Liberal Party leader Joseph Cook ( himself a former Labor man ) decided to turn their wartime coalition into a new party , the Nationalist Party of Australia . Although the Liberals were the larger partner in the merger , Hughes emerged as the new party ' s leader , with Cook as his deputy . The presence of a working - class man like Hughes leading what was basically an upper - and middle - class conservative party allowed the Nationalists to convey an image of national unity . At the 1917 federal election Hughes and the Nationalists won a huge electoral victory . At this election Hughes gave up his working - class Sydney seat and was elected for Bendigo , Victoria , becoming the first of only a handful of people who have represented more than one state or territory in the Parliament . Hughes had promised to resign if his Government did not win the power to conscript . A second plebiscite on conscription was held in December 1917 , but was again defeated , this time by a wider margin . Hughes , after receiving a vote of no confidence in his leadership by his party , resigned as Prime Minister but , as there were no alternative candidates , the Governor - General , Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson , immediately re - commissioned him , thus allowing him to remain as Prime Minister while keeping his promise to resign . Introduction of preferential voting for federal elections . The government replaced the first - past - the - post electoral system applying to both houses of the Federal Parliament under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1903 with a preferential system for the House of Representatives in 1918 . That preferential system has essentially applied ever since . A multiple majority - preferential system was introduced at the 1919 federal election for the Senate , and that remained in force until it was changed to a quota - preferential system of proportional representation in 1948 . Those changes were considered to be a response to the emergence of the Country Party , so that the non - Labor vote would not be split , as it would have been under the previous first - past - the - post system . Hughes attends Paris peace conference . In 1919 , Hughes and former Prime Minister Joseph Cook travelled to Paris to attend the Versailles peace conference . He remained away for 16 months , and signed the Treaty of Versailles on behalf of Australia – the first time Australia had signed an international treaty . At Versailles , Hughes claimed ; " I speak for 60 000 [ Australian ] dead " . He went on to ask of Woodrow Wilson ; " How many do you speak for ? " when the United States President failed to acknowledge his demands . Hughes , unlike Wilson or South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts , demanded heavy reparations from Germany suggesting a staggering sum of ₤24 , 000 , 000 , 000 of which Australia would claim many millions , to off - set its own war debt . Hughes frequently clashed with President Wilson , who described him as a ' pestiferous varmint ' . Hughes demanded that Australia have independent representation within the newly formed League of Nations . Despite the rejection of his conscription policy , Hughes retained his popularity , and in December 1919 his government was comfortably re - elected . At the Treaty negotiations , Hughes was the most prominent opponent of the inclusion of the Japanese racial equality proposal , which as a result of lobbying by him and others was not included in the final Treaty . His position on this issue reflected the mindset of ' racial categories ' during this time . Japan was notably offended by Hughes ' position on the issue . Like Jan Smuts of South Africa , Hughes was concerned by the rise of Japan . Within months of the declaration of the European War in 1914 ; Japan , Australia and New Zealand seized all German possessions in the South West Pacific . Though Japan occupied German possessions with the blessings of the British , Hughes was alarmed by this policy . In 1919 at the Peace Conference the Dominion leaders , New Zealand , South Africa and Australia argued their case to keep their occupied German possessions of German Samoa , German South West Africa , and German New Guinea ; these territories were given a " Class C Mandates " to the respective Dominions . In a same - same deal Japan obtained control over its occupied German possessions , north of the equator . Of Hughes ' actions at the Peace Conference , the historian Seth Tillman described him as " a noisesome demagogue " , the " bete noir of Anglo - American relations . " Unlike Smuts , Hughes was totally opposed to the concept of the League of Nations , as in it he saw the flawed idealism of ' collective security ' . Political eclipse . After 1920 Hughes ' political position declined . Many of the more conservative elements of his own party never trusted him because they thought he was still a socialist at heart , citing his interest in retaining government ownership of the Commonwealth Shipping Line and the Australian Wireless Company . However , they continued to support him for some time after the war , if only to keep Labor out of power . A new party , the Country Party ( now the National Party ) , was formed , representing farmers who were discontented with the Nationalists ' rural policies , in particular Hughes ' acceptance of a much higher level of tariff protection for Australian industries ( that had expanded during the war ) and his support for price controls on rural produce . In the New Year ' s Day Honours of 1922 , his wife Mary was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire ( GBE ) . At the 1922 federal election , Hughes gave up Bendigo and was elected in the upper - class electorate of North Sydney , thus giving up the last link to his working - class roots . However , the Nationalists lost their outright majority . The Country Party , despite its opposition to Hughes ' farm policy , was the Nationalists ' only realistic coalition partner . However , party leader Earle Page let it be known that he and his party would not serve under Hughes . Under pressure from his party ' s right wing , Hughes resigned in February 1923 and was succeeded by his Treasurer , Stanley Bruce . His term as Australian Prime Minister was a record until overtaken by Robert Menzies . He remained Australia ' s second longest - serving Prime Minister until overtaken by Malcolm Fraser in late February 1983 . Hughes was furious at this betrayal by his party and nursed his grievance on the back - benches until 1929 , when he led a group of back - bench rebels who crossed the floor of the Parliament to bring down the Bruce government . Hughes was expelled from the Nationalist Party , and formed his own party , the Australian Party . After the Nationalists were heavily defeated in the ensuing election , Hughes initially supported the Labor government of James Scullin . He had a falling - out with Scullin over financial matters , however . In 1931 he buried the hatchet with his former colleagues and joined the Nationalists and several right - wing Labor dissidents under Joseph Lyons in forming the United Australia Party ( UAP ) , under Lyons ' leadership . He voted with the rest of the UAP to bring the Scullin government down . Political re - emergence . Joseph Lyons ' newly formed United Australia Party won office convincingly at the 1931 election . Lyons sent Hughes to represent Australia at the 1932 League of Nations Assembly in Geneva and in 1934 Hughes became Minister for Health and Repatriation in the Lyons government . Later Lyons appointed him Minister for External Affairs , but Hughes was forced to resign in 1935 after his book " Australia and the War Today " exposed a lack of preparation in Australia for what Hughes correctly supposed to be a coming war . Soon after , the Lyons government tripled the defence budget . Hughes was brought back by Lyons as Minister for External Affairs in 1937 . By the time of Lyons ' death in 1939 , Hughes was also serving as Attorney - General and Minister for Industry . He also served as Minister for the Navy , Minister for Industry and Attorney - General at various times under Lyons ' successor , Robert Menzies . Defence issues became increasingly dominant in public affairs with the rise of Fascism in Europe and militant Japan in Asia . From 1938 , Prime Minister Joseph Lyons had Hughes head a recruitment drive for the Australian Defence Force . On 7 April 1939 , Lyons died in office . The United Australia Party selected Robert Menzies as his successor to lead a minority government on the eve of World War Two . Australia entered the Second World War on 3 September 1939 and a special War Cabinet was created after war was declared – initially composed of Prime Minister Menzies and five senior ministers including Billy Hughes . Labor opposition leader John Curtin declined to join and Menzies lost his majority at the 1940 Election . With the Allies suffering a series of defeats and the threat of war growing in the Pacific , the Menzies Government ( 1939 - 1941 ) relied on two independents , Arthur Coles and Alex Wilson for its parliamentary majority . Unable to convince Curtin to join in a War Cabinet and facing growing pressure within his own party , Menzies resigned as Prime Minister and leader of the UAP on 29 August 1941 . Although the UAP had been in government for a decade , it was so bereft of leadership that it was forced to elect Hughes as its leader . However , Hughes was only a month shy of 78 and had been in declining health for some time . For this reason , he was deemed too old and frail to be a wartime Prime Minister , and gave up the leadership of the UAP - Country Coalition — and the Prime Ministership — to Country Party leader Arthur Fadden . He remained as the # 2 man in the Fadden government , serving as Attorney - General and Minister for the Navy . A month later , Coles and Wilson joined with the Labor opposition to defeat the budget and bring down the government . The independents , under prodding from Governor - General Lord Gowrie , then threw their support to Opposition Leader John Curtin , who was sworn in as Prime Minister on 7 October 1941 . Eight weeks later , Japan attacked Pearl Harbor . Hughes led the UAP into the 1943 election largely by refusing to hold any party meetings and by agreeing to let Fadden lead the Opposition as a whole . The Coalition was severely defeated , winning only 19 seats . After the election , Hughes — who had widely been reckoned as a stopgap leader — yielded the leadership of the UAP back to Menzies . In February 1944 the UAP withdrew its members from the Advisory War Council in protest against the Curtin government . Hughes rejoined the council , and was expelled from the UAP . In 1944 Menzies formed a new party , the Liberal Party , and Hughes became a member . His final change of seat was to the new division of Bradfield in 1949 . He remained a member of Parliament until his death in October 1952 , sparking a Bradfield by - election . He had been a member of the House of Representatives for 51 years and seven months . Including his service in the New South Wales colonial Parliament before that , Hughes had spent a total of 58 years as an MP , and had never lost an election . His period of service remains a record in Australia . He was the last member of the original Australian Parliament elected in 1901 still serving in Parliament when he died . He was not however , the last member of that first Parliament to die — this was King O ' Malley , who had lost his seat in 1917 and outlived Hughes by fourteen months . At the age of 90 years , one month and three days , Hughes was the oldest person ever to have been a member of the Australian parliament . Death . Hughes died on 28 October 1952 , aged 90 , at his home in Lindfield . His state funeral was held at St . Andrew ' s Cathedral , Sydney and was one of the largest Australia has seen : some 450 , 000 spectators lined the streets . He was later buried at Northern Suburbs Anglican Cemetery . He was survived by the six children of his first ( common law ) marriage and by his wife Mary . Their daughter Helen had died in childbirth in 1937 in London , aged 21 from septicaemia . Their grandson now lives in Sydney under another name . This was not generally known until 2004 , when the ABC screened a program about those events . It was presented by the actor Martin Vaughan , who had played Billy Hughes in the 1975 film " Billy and Percy " and whose continuing interest in him led to the unearthing of Helen ' s fate . His widow , Dame Mary Hughes , died in 1958 . Legacy . Hughes , a tiny , wiry man with a wizened face and a raspy voice , was an unlikely national leader , but during the First World War he acquired a reputation as a war leader — the troops called him the " Little Digger " — that sustained him for the rest of his life . He is remembered for his outstanding political and diplomatic skills , for his many witty sayings , and for his irrepressible optimism and patriotism . At the 50th jubilee dinner of the Commonwealth Parliament , a speaker paid tribute to him as a man " who sat in every Parliament since Federation – and every party too " . Arthur Fadden interjected : " Not the Country Party ! " " No , " said Hughes , still able to hear when he wanted , " I had to draw the line somewhere . " , potentially due to the fact it was the Country Party who was responsible for bringing his Prime Ministership down in 1923 . Honours . In the New Year ' s Honours of 1941 , Hughes was named a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour ( CH ) , in recognition of his service as Prime Minister 1915 - 23 . The electoral division of Hughes and the Canberra suburb of Hughes are named after him . In 1972 , he was honoured on a postage stamp bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post . After marrying his wife Mary in 1911 , the couple went on a long drive , because he did not have time for a honeymoon . Their car crashed where the Sydney – Melbourne road crosses the Sydney – Melbourne railway north of Albury , New South Wales , leading to the level crossing there being named after him ; it was later replaced by the Billy Hughes Bridge .