Skip to main content

Home

Main navigation

  • Explore the collection
    • Search the collection: RecordSearch
      • What's in the collection
      • Defence and war service records
      • First Australians
      • Immigration and citizenship
      • Cabinet
      • Intelligence and security
      • Prime ministers
      • Search for people
      • Visit our other websites
      • #ArchivesAtHome
      • Stories from the archives
  • Help with your research
      • Getting started
      • What's in the collection
      • Using the collection
      • International movement records
      • Research centres
      • Research guides
      • Research grants and scholarships
      • Research agents
      • Ask us about the collection
  • Students and teachers
      • Classroom resources
      • School visits
      • Teacher professional learning
      • Virtual excursions
      • Student research portal
      • Competitions and special programs
  • Information management
      • Getting started
      • Building trust in the public record
      • Public release schedule
      • Ask for advice
      • Information governance
      • Build data interoperability
      • Check-up survey
      • Legislation
      • Manage information assets
      • GAIN Australia
      • Standards
      • Metadata
      • Records authorities
      • Federal election 2025
      • Learning and skills
  • Visit us
      • Events and exhibitions
      • Research centres
      • Our locations
      • Cafe Constitution
      • Venue hire
      • Contact us
  • About us
      • What we do
      • Support us
      • Employment
      • Who we are
      • Partnerships
      • Volunteer
      • Our services
      • Members
      • Media and publications
      • Contact us
  • Toggle search
  • Toggle menu

Offscreen Menu

Menu

MAIN MENU

  • Explore the collection
    • What's in the collection
    • Defence and war service records
    • First Australians
    • Immigration and citizenship
    • Cabinet
    • Intelligence and security
    • Prime ministers
    • Search for people
    • Visit our other websites
    • #ArchivesAtHome
    • Stories from the archives
  • Help with your research
    • Getting started
    • What's in the collection
    • Using the collection
    • International movement records
    • Research centres
    • Research guides
    • Research grants and scholarships
    • Research agents
    • Ask us about the collection
  • Students and teachers
    • Classroom resources
    • School visits
    • Teacher professional learning
    • Virtual excursions
    • Student research portal
    • Competitions and special programs
  • Information management
    • Getting started
    • Building trust in the public record
    • Public release schedule
    • Ask for advice
    • Information governance
    • Build data interoperability
    • Check-up survey
    • Legislation
    • Manage information assets
    • GAIN Australia
    • Standards
    • Metadata
    • Records authorities
    • Federal election 2025
    • Learning and skills
  • Visit us
    • Events and exhibitions
    • Research centres
    • Our locations
    • Cafe Constitution
    • Venue hire
    • Contact us
  • About us
    • What we do
    • Support us
    • Employment
    • Who we are
    • Partnerships
    • Volunteer
    • Our services
    • Members
    • Media and publications
    • Contact us

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that the National Archives' website and collection contain the names, images and voices of people who have died.

Some records include terms and views that are not appropriate today. They reflect the period in which they were created and are not the views of the National Archives.

Portrait of Stanley Bruce

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Explore the collection
  3. Australia's prime ministers
  4. Stanley Bruce
  5. Stanley Bruce: before office

Stanley Bruce: before office

Stanley Bruce was the prime minister of Australia from 1923 to 1929.

Born in Melbourne in 1883, Stanley Melbourne Bruce was the youngest of 5 children. When he was 10 years old, Paterson Laing & Bruce, the importing firm on which the family wealth depended, became one of many colonial casualties of the 1893 London bank collapse. The family mansion in Toorak was sold, and Bruce was taken from school. His father had rebuilt the firm 4 years later and bought out his partners. Bruce was then enrolled at Melbourne Grammar, where he captained the cricket, football, athletics and rowing teams. In his final year, he captained the school itself.

Newspaper article titled '"Bruggins" of Cambridge." Subtitled "Australian Prime Minister on His Varsity Days."

British newspapers provided enthusiastic coverage of Bruce's visit to England for the 1923 Imperial Conference. NAA: A1486, 1, p.17

His father died in 1901, the year that Bruce finished school. After a year working in the family firm, Bruce moved to England with his mother and sister. Bruce entered Trinity Hall at Cambridge University in January 1903, and his achievements there were capped with a rowing Blue. He graduated in 1906, and was admitted as a barrister. He continued to coach for Cambridge and was known on the tow-path as ‘Bruggins’.

In 1913, Bruce married Ethel Dunlop Anderson, who was from Melbourne, and the couple made their home in London. A year later Britain declared war on Germany and Bruce served as a captain in the British Army. He was awarded the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre avec Palme for his actions on Gallipoli in 1915. Wounded on Gallipoli, he was invalided to London.

In 1917, the Bruces returned to Australia so that Bruce could take over as general manager of Paterson Laing & Bruce. They reached Australia when attempts by Prime Minister William Hughes to introduce conscription had been rejected in a referendum. This divisive issue produced violent clashes like those in Melbourne, home to leading pacifists like Vida Goldstein.

As a decorated hero of Gallipoli, Captain Bruce – although no great orator and with a decidedly British manner – was involved in Australia’s recruitment campaigns for the remaining years of the war. He became the Nationalist Party’s candidate in the seat of Flinders, in Victoria. By the time the war ended, Bruce was a Member of the House of Representatives for Flinders, having won a by-election on 11 May 1918.

In 1921, the Bruces spent 9 months on business in London. Their return in September was delayed when William Hughes pressed Bruce into service in Geneva, as Australia’s delegate to the General Assembly of the newly established League of Nations. They reached Australia late in October, to a warm welcome from Hughes and an offer of the Trade and Customs ministerial portfolio. However, Bruce was more interested in succeeding Joseph Cook as Treasurer, an ambition he achieved on 21 December. Typically firm and efficient in the role, one of Bruce’s early proposals was to reduce the salaries of members of parliament.

Note from WM Hughes to SM Bruce welcoming him as Treasurer on 21 December 1921.

Note from WM Hughes to SM Bruce welcoming him as Treasurer on 21 December 1921. NAA: A1492, 1, p. 9 

The 8th Parliament sat for the last time on 12 October 1922. When the 9th parliament assembled the following year, Bruce replaced Hughes as prime minister.

Sources

  • Edwards, Cecil, Bruce of Melbourne: A Man of Two Worlds, Heinemann, London, 1965.

From the National Archives of Australia collection

  • Correspondence between Prime Minister WM Hughes and SM Bruce, 1921–23, NAA: A1492, 1
  • Papers relating to negotiations between the Nationalist Party and Country Party in 1923, NAA: A1493, 1
  • Volume of press writings concerning visit to Imperial Conference, 1923–24, NAA: A1486, 1

In this section: Stanley Bruce

  • Fast facts
  • Timeline
  • Before office
  • Elections
  • During office
  • After office
  • Partner
  • Key people
  • Records

Want some help?

Our research tips and guides could help you find what you need

Help with your research

Explore Prime Ministers

Portrait of William Hughes

William Hughes

1915–1923

Portrait of James Scullin

James Scullin

1929–1932

Portrait of Joseph Lyons

Joseph Lyons

1932–1939

Old Parliament House, Canberra

All prime ministers

Explore the stories of each prime minister's time in office through official and personal records held by the National Archives.

Acknowledgement of Country

National Archives of Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia and acknowledges their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to the people, their cultures and Elders past, present and emerging.

Connect with us

  • Facebook Facebook
  • Instagram Instagram
  • X X
  • Linkedin LinkedIn
  • YouTube YouTube

Subscribe to our newsletter

Site map

  • Contact us

    • Contact form
  • For researchers

    • RecordSearch
    • What's in the collection
    • Using the collection
    • Ask us a question about our records
    • Getting started with your research
    • Research guides
    • Grants and scholarships
    • Our other websites
  • For government

    • Agency Service Centre
    • Check-up survey
    • Building trust in the public record policy
    • Getting started with information management
    • Information governance
    • Records authorities

    For students & teachers

    • School programs
    • Plan a school visit
    • Competitions and special programs
    • Learning resources
  • Shop

    • Browse our products

    Visit us

    • Events and exhibitions
    • Research centres
    • Our locations
    • Admission to the Archives is free
  • About us

    • What we do
    • Our organisation
    • Our services
    • Our history
    • Partnerships
    • Work for us
    • ABN: 36 889 228 992
National Archives of Australia
  • Privacy
  • Freedom of information
  • Copyright
  • Disclaimer
  • Accessibility
National Archives of Australia