William McMahon - Early Life

Early Life

William McMahon was born in Sydney, the son of Mary Ann (née Walder) and William McMahon, a lawyer. His uncle (his mother's brother) was Samuel Robert Walder, Lord Mayor of Sydney. McMahon's mother died when he was 9 and his father when he was 18. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School and at the University of Sydney, where he graduated in law. He practised in Sydney with Allen, Allen & Hemsley (now Allens Arthur Robinson), the oldest law firm in Australia. In 1940 he joined the Army, but because of a hearing loss, he was confined to staff work. After World War II, he travelled in Europe and completed an economics degree at the University of Sydney.

Read more about this topic:  William McMahon

Famous quotes related to early life:

    Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...
    Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)