John Gorton

Sir John Grey Gorton, GCMG, AC, CH (9 September 1911 – 19 May 2002), Australian politician, was the 19th Prime Minister of Australia. Sir John Grey Gorton was born in Melbourne, the illegitimate son of Alice Sinn, the daughter of a railway worker, and English orange orchardist John Rose Gorton. The older Gorton and his wife Kathleen had emigrated to Australia by way of South Africa, where they had prospered during the Boer War. They separated in Australia, and Gorton established a de facto relationship with Sinn, who died of tuberculosis in 1920. Gorton the younger went to live with his father's estranged wife and his half-sister Ruth, in Sydney. He was educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School (where he was a class mate of...