Stanley Bruce - Later Life

Later Life

After his 1929 electoral defeat, Bruce went to England for personal business reasons and contested the 1931 election from that country as a member of the United Australia Party (a merger of Bruce's Nationalists and Labor dissidents). He won his seat back, becoming the first person (and, to date, the only person) ever to be re-elected to parliament after serving as Prime Minister and leaving the House of Representatives.

He was named a Minister without portfolio in the government of Joseph Lyons. Lyons quickly dispatched Bruce back to England to represent the government there and he led the Australian delegation to the 1932 Ottawa Imperial Conference. In 1933 Bruce resigned from Parliament in order to take the position in London as Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He held this post with great distinction for 12 years, playing a notable role in the Abdication Crisis triggered by Edward VIII, and representing Australia's interests in London during World War II. He was appointed a member of the Imperial War Cabinet and the Pacific War Cabinet.

In 1947 he became the first Australian created an hereditary peer when he was made Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, of Westminster Gardens in the City of Westminster (Sir John Forrest was to have been similarly honoured in 1918, and his peerage was even publicly announced, but he died before it was officially created.) He was the first Australian to take his seat in the House of Lords.

Bruce divided the rest of his life between London and Melbourne. He remained Australian High Commissioner until 1945; subsequently he represented Australia on various UN bodies, and his name was considered for the position of United Nations Secretary-General. He was the chairman of the World Food Council for five years. Bruce was appointed as the first Chancellor of the Australian National University and served from 1951 until 1961. The residential college, Bruce Hall at the Australian National University in Canberra was named in honour of Lord Bruce.