Robert Menzies came to the University of Melbourne as a scholarship student, graduating in law with the Supreme Court prize in 1916. He edited the Melbourne University Magazine and was president of the Students' Representative Council. As a newly-qualified barrister, he worked briefly in the Law School as tutor to students recently returned from World War I.
Still in his twenties, Menzies won a famous victory in one of the best-known constitutional cases, the Engineers Case (1920). His gift for public speaking became obvious as he moved into politics. He was elected to the Victorian parliament in 1928, and was an influential player in the formation of a new conservative party and the rise of Joseph Lyons to the prime ministership in 1932.
Menzies moved to the federal parliament in 1934, taking the seat vacated by John Latham. He became Attorney-General, and then Prime Minister after Lyons' death in 1939. His government mobilised Australia for the war effort during the early years of World War II, and Menzies took an independent Australian line with the British government. But he barely clung to office after the elections of 1940, and the following year he resigned, unpopular with many in his own party and in the electorate.
Out of this failure, and subsequent electoral defeat for the conservatives, Menzies led the formation of a new conservative party, the Liberal Party. He campaigned for free enterprise, and against bank nationalisation and communist influence. At the 1949 election, he won office as Prime Minister again.
The new Menzies government attempted unsuccessfully to ban the Communist Party, but benefited from deep divisions over communism in the opposition Labor Party. Menzies promoted economic development behind the long-established protective tariff wall, large-scale immigration, expansion of higher education, and the development of Canberra as the national capital. He venerated Australia's links with Britain.
Menzies retired as Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister at a time of his own choosing, in 1966. He was Chancellor of the University of Melbourne from 1967 to 1972.
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