Joseph Benedict Chifley (1885-1951), prime minister of Australia, was one of the ablest and most successful leaders of the Australian Labour party.

Joseph Benedict Chifley was born of Irish-Australian parentage at Bathurst, New South Wales, on Sept. 22, 1885. He lived and worked on his grandfather's farm until he was 13 and then attended the Patrician Brothers' School at Bathurst for 2 years. In 1903 he joined the New South Wales Railways as a shop boy, rising to be the youngest first-class locomotive driver in the service.

Tall, rangy, and a convinced labor man, Chifley soon became an active spokesman for his union. During the 1917 railway and general strike he was discharged but reinstated on appeal. In 1920 he confounded the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen. Well known as a union official, advocate, and expert witness before arbitration authorities, he won, in 1928, the federal seat of Macquarie in Parliament and was reelected in...