Middle Names of Aussie PMs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Winston

John Winston Howard served as Prime Minister from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. In his 4th term at the helm he became the second longest serving Australian Prime Minister, eclipsed only by his hero and fellow Liberal, Robert Menzies. Howard was born in 1939 (the last Australian PM to be born before the outbreak of the Second World War) to parents who admired Winston Churchill.

Answer: Malcolm

The full name of Australia's 22nd Prime Minister was John Malcolm Fraser, although he was generally known by his middle name. He was elected to Parliament in 1955 aged just 25, and became Prime Minister in controversial circumstances 20 years later. After a little over 7 years in the top job Fraser's government was defeated at election by the Labor Party and its charismatic new leader, Bob Hawke. Fraser retired from politics shortly afterwards and in his later years became known as a prominent voice for human rights, eventually parting ways with the conservative-leaning party that he once led. Malcolm Fraser died in 2015.

Answer: Bligh

Malcolm Bligh Turnbull became Australia's 29th Prime Minister in September 2015 after successfully challenging incumbent Tony Abbott for the Liberal Party leadership. Six years earlier he had lost the leadership role to Abbott, albeit when in Opposition, rather than government. Before his election to parliament in 2003 Turnbull had a career as a barrister, investment banker and, most famously, head of the Australian Republican Movement.

While Turnbull is not related to the captain of the Bounty mutiny fame, "Bligh" has been a traditional middle name in his family for almost 200 years since an ancestor named his son in honour of the captain, who later became Governor of New South Wales.

Answer: Christmas

Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page was the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, holding office for three weeks in 1939 in between the sudden death in office of Joseph Lyons and the election of Robert Menzies as leader of the United Australia Party. While his term as PM was one of the nation's shortest, his term in federal parliament (as the Member for Cowper) is one of the longest, lasting 41 years and 361 days.

Page was born in the New South Wales town of Grafton, which accounts for one of his unusual middle names - but in August, not December!

Answer: Houston

Sir George Houston Reid, born in 1845, was Australia's fourth Prime Minister, having previously served as Premier of colonial New South Wales. He was a member of the new nation's first federal parliament, representing the Free Trade Party, and was Australia's first Leader of the Opposition. Reid led a minority government in 1904, holding office for 11 months.

Answer: Eileen

This one should be a giveaway as the only traditionally female name in the list! Julia Eileen Gillard, born in Wales in 1961, became Deputy to Kevin Rudd's Prime Minister when the Labor Party swept to power in 2007. She deposed Rudd in a party leadership content in 2010, and in doing so became Australia's first female Prime Minister.

Her government returned, although in minority, at a federal election shortly afterwards. Leadership instability within the Labor Party continued, with Rudd eventually returning to power in 2013.

Answer: Aloysius

Joseph Aloysius Lyons bears the unfortunate distinction of being the first Australian Prime Minister to die in office. A minister in the Labor government that became divided over the question of how to respond to the Great Depression, Lyons quit the party he had belonged to since his youth and became the leader of a new group, the United Australia Party. Lyons went on to become Prime Minister after soundly beating Labor at election in 1932 and subsequently won another two terms in office.

He died suddenly of a heart attack on the eve of the Second World War, aged just 59.

Answer: Melbourne

Stanley Melbourne Bruce, later known as 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, was the 8th person to serve as Prime Minister of Australia. A businessman and veteran of the Gallipoli campaign in WWI, Bruce entered politics after the war and was elevated to the highest office within 5 years. He is notable as the first Prime Minister not to have been involved in the campaign for federation, as well as for his relatively long (at the time) tenure of 6 years and 8 months in office.

Despite his government securing three terms in office Bruce is perhaps best known in the modern era as the first Australian Prime Minister to lose his own seat at election, in a campaign fought over industrial relations. Almost 80 years later John Howard met a similar fate.

Answer: Grey

Harold Holt's shock disappearance in December 1967 (presumed drowned at sea) triggered a national crisis. John McEwen was appointed as interim Prime Minister for 3 weeks until, after considerable turmoil, John Grey Gorton was elected leader of the governing Liberal Party. Three years later Gorton effectively sacked himself when he broke the tie in a party vote of no confidence by voting 'no'.

Gorton's life before politics was even more tumultuous. A fighter pilot in the Second World War, he experienced two serious plane crashes - one of which left his face permanently disfigured - and spent a day on a lifeboat surrounded by sharks after his rescue ship was sunk by a Japanese torpedo.

Answer: Gough

A name that should be familiar to aficionados of Australian politics, "Gough" was actually the great man's second given name. Edward Gough Whitlam was the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. His three short years in office, from 1972 to 1975, represent either the birth of independent, progressive Australia or a disaster for economic management and good governance - depending on who you ask! Whitlam is known for his government's ambitious policy agenda on multiple fronts, for being at the centre of a constitutional crisis which led to his government being dismissed by the Governor-General rather than the electorate, and for having a popular band named in his honour.