Gough Whitlam - Early and Family Life

Early and Family Life

Edward Gough Whitlam was born on 11 July 1916 in Kew, a suburb of Melbourne. He was the older of two children (he has a younger sister, Freda) born to Martha (née Maddocks) and Fred Whitlam. His father was a federal public servant who later served as Commonwealth Crown Solicitor, and Whitlam senior's involvement in human rights issues was a powerful influence on his son. Since the boy's maternal grandfather was also named Edward, from early childhood he was called by his middle name.

In 1918, Fred Whitlam was promoted to Deputy Crown Solicitor and transferred to Sydney. The family lived first in the North Shore suburb of Mosman and then in Turramurra. At age six, Gough began his education at Chatswood Church of England Girls School (early primary schooling at a girls' school was not unusual for small boys at the time). After a year there, he attended Mowbray House School and Knox Grammar School, in the suburbs of Sydney.

Fred Whitlam was promoted again in 1927, this time to Assistant Crown Solicitor. The position was located in the new national capital of Canberra, and the Whitlam family moved there. Gough Whitlam remains the only Prime Minister to have spent his formative years in Canberra. At the time, conditions remained primitive in what was dubbed "the bush capital" and "the land of the blowflies". Gough, who had always attended a private school, was sent to the government-run Telopea Park School, since no other school was available. In 1932, Fred Whitlam transferred his son to Canberra Grammar School, where, at the 1932 Speech Day ceremony, Gough Whitlam was awarded a prize by the Governor-General, Sir Isaac Isaacs.

Whitlam enrolled at St. Paul's College at the University of Sydney at the age of 18. He earned his first wages by appearing, with several other "Paulines", in a cabaret scene in the film The Broken Melody—the students were chosen because St. Paul's required (and requires) formal wear at dinner, and they could therefore supply their own costumes. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with second-class honours in Classics, Whitlam remained at St. Paul's to begin his law studies; he had originally contemplated an academic career, but his lacklustre marks made that unlikely.