Read an Excerpt
The Life and Death of Harold Holt
By Tom R. Frame Allen & Unwin
Copyright © 2005 Tom Frame
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-74115-625-6
CHAPTER 1
A lonely life 1908–40
FAMILIES IMPART TO THEIR members a sense of identity, continuity, even destiny. It is in families that values are taught and virtues acquired, where expectations are conveyed and privileges conferred. Those born into affluent or influential families soon recognise that they are being encouraged to live in a certain way because it exploits the advantages endowed upon the whole family. Other children grow up in social settings that are free from any sense of inheritance or transcendent duty. The Holt family was an example of the latter.
The surname 'Holt' has an English local origin derived from the place where an individual once lived or held land. A 'holt' was a 'wood' or a 'grove'. Early instances of the surname are frequently preceded by the words 'de' or 'del' which translates literally as 'man from'. A 'Hugh de Holte' of Kent was recorded in the Templars Records of 1185. Simon del Holt was recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Warwickshire. Only one branch of the family became prominent, through their possession of Ashton Hall in Birmingham during the sixteenth century. The family coat of arms carries the motto exaltavit humiles, which is usually translated as 'He hath exalted the humble'.
James Holt, a shoemaker from a poorer Birmingham branch of the family, emigrated to Australia with his wife Mary-Ann in 1829. Their eldest son, Henry, was aged three when they arrived in Sydney. After trying his hand at the gold diggings, Henry began the first bullock cart service from the Canberra district to Sydney. He married Ann Lemon on 26 January 1858 at St Peter's Anglican Church at Campbelltown. They had six sons and six daughters. The eldest, Thomas, was born at Campbelltown in 1858. In 1874 the Holts arrived at Nubba in the Harden-Murrumburrah district west of Canberra where they obtained a 1040-acre property at Sherlock Creek, later known as 'Sunnyside', by government grant. Henry died in 1903 and is buried in Murrumburrah cemetery. 'Sunnyside' was then managed by his four surviving sons — Tom, Bill, Harry and Jack — who ran sheep and cattle, and grew wheat and oats. Tom Holt married Mary Ann Worner at St Barnabas' Anglican Church, Broadway in 1882, and was elected Mayor of Wallendbeen Shire in 1917 and 1924. The couple had six children. Thomas ('Tom') James, their first son, was born in 1886.
As the farm was not big enough to support a family, young Tom became a schoolteacher and was eventually employed as sports master at Cleveland Street School in Sydney where he reputedly taught Australian test representative Alan Kippax the basics of cricket. Not far from the Cleveland Street school was a hotel on George Street run by the Pearce family. It was there that Tom met Olive May Pearce (formerly Williams — her mother had remarried after the death of her first husband). Olive had a sister, Ethel (who later went blind), a half-sister named Vera and a half-brother called Harold. Tom and Olive were married on 7 January 1908 in Newtown. Their first son, Harold Edward, was born at the family home, 58 Cavendish Street, Stanmore (an inner-western suburb of Sydney) on 5 August 1908. As there is nothing to suggest that Harold was born prematurely, Olive must have been pregnant at the time of her wedding. Harold's younger brother, Clifford Thomas (usually known as 'Cliffie'), arrived eighteen months later. The two boys, both of whom were baptised Anglicans, had very similar facial features and physical builds.
Tom Holt left teaching in 1914 after he purchased the licence of the Duke of Wellington Hotel in Payneham, South Australia. The move to South Australia may have been linked to Olive's family connections as she was born at Eudunda. Harold and Cliff remained behind in Sydney with their uncle Harold Martin and his wife Ethel. Young Harold attended Randwick State School until 24 September 1916. He was then enrolled at Nubba Public School from 9 October 1916 until the end of the year. This may have coincided with the breakdown of his parents' marriage. He then went to Abbottsholme College in the northern Sydney suburb of Killara where he first met a young William McMahon. His parents divorced when Harold was just ten years old. In what may seem a surprising career move, Tom Holt then joined Hugh D. McIntosh, manager of the Tivoli Circuit, and managed the renowned singer Ada Reeve's triumphal 'Spangles' world tour before becoming the Tivoli–J. C. Williamson travelling representative in London and New York. Tom had good connections in the world of variety entertainment — Harold's aunt Vera Pearce (Olive's half-sister) was a well-known movie actress, first in Australia and later in London, while his uncle Harold Martin was editor of Everyone's Variety: Devoted to the Moving Picture Industry, Vaudeville, Drama, Carnival, Circus and Kindred Entertainment. With their father in well-paid employment, early in 1920 Harold persuaded Tom to enrol him and Cliff as boarders at Melbourne's prestigious Wesley College after a young friend told Harold how good a school it was. Harold was then aged eleven. Whereas Harold would spend the next seven years at Wesley, Cliff left school after his fifteenth birthday. Sharing his father's interest in theatrical entertainment, Cliff got a job with 'Uncle Marty' as a journalist on Everyone's Variety. In later life the Holt boys would care for their uncle who suffered various sicknesses in addition to battling an alcohol addiction. This may have accounted for their own abstemious habits.
Harold thoroughly enjoyed Wesley, where he formed many close friendships. He earned the nickname 'Puss', apparently because the broad grin that readily crossed his face made him resemble a cat. His Aunt Vera told him to 'do some acting. You've got the figure, voice and looks'. Although he appeared in an amateur season of A.P. Herbert's The Man in the Bowler Hat, he never seriously considered the stage. In his matriculation year, Harold was second in his class. Third was Reginald 'Spot' Turnbull, later Labor Treasurer of Tasmania and an Independent Senator, who was appointed a senior prefect ahead of Holt. Harold excelled in debates and took part in the Wesley versus Geelong College Annual Debate in 1926 on the question: 'That government ownership is preferable to private enterprise'. During school holidays Harold went to the homes of relatives or college friends. He also visited Nubba and enjoyed riding horses, catching rabbits and playing tennis. Other than when he was with his uncles, aunts and cousins, Harold did not experience the joys of close family life in a loving home. His mother died when he was sixteen and he did not attend her funeral.
In his final year at Wesley, Harold was awarded the Alexander Wawm Scholarship for academic and sporting prowess and qualities of character. He had studied English, Algebra, Trigonometry, Physics, Chemistry, History and Civics. An interesting coincidence is that one R.G. Menzies was also a star pupil at Wesley College. In receiving the award, Harold was given the privilege of singing a special school leaving song at the annual Speech Night in December 1926. This was the proudest moment of his young life, but not one relative was in the hall. He would never forget how utterly alone he felt that night.
After winning a scholarship to Queen's College, Harold began his law studies at Melbourne University in 1927. He won College 'Blues' for cricket and Australian Rules football and was a keen tennis player. He won the College Oratory Medal and Essay Prize, and became President of the College's Sports and Social Club. He was selected for the Melbourne Inter-University Debating Team. He was also a member of the United Australia Organisation 'A' Grade debating team and President of the Law Students' Society. By this time, Harold had met Zara Kate Dickens, and an instant mutual attraction would develop into an always close but frequently tumultuous relationship. Zara recalled 'jealousies and arguments ... quarrelling, beguiling, passionate, deep affection and clashing of wills'. She conceded that they 'had completely different personalities and outlooks. Harold was very organised and strong-minded, tidy and hardworking, while I was vague, dreamy, always running behind time and away with the pixies'. However, they became constant companions after Harold graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Laws in 1930. Harold was admitted to the Victorian Bar on 10 November 1932 and did his articles with the Melbourne firm of Fink, Best & Miller. In 1933 the paucity of work led him to practise as a solicitor rather than a barrister. Harold moved into a boarding house while he and Zara talked about marriage. Tom Holt, who was then in London, wanted Harold to join him in England and continue his education at a British university, but the Depression forced Tom to return to Australia and put an end to any prospect of Harold studying overseas.
Harold and Zara started looking at small houses in which to live after they were married although Harold's legal practice barely covered his board and lodgings. To make some money, Zara opened a dress shop in Melbourne's Little Collins Street with her friend Betty James (later Lady Bettine Grounds, wife of the architect Sir Roy Grounds). When the business was dissolved (probably in 1934) and the profits distributed, Zara cleared £1500. This was a substantial sum of money that she believed would allow her and Harold to get married. But her success prompted what Zara referred to as a 'violent row'. In her account of what followed, Harold was adamant that he would not marry her until he was earning sufficient money to support them both. He instructed her to go overseas and to spend the money. This was strange advice given Harold's thrifty attitudes and frugal habits. He lived in a bed-sit and frequently relied on the hospitality of friends to avoid the cost of preparing food. She interpreted this to mean that 'I wasn't good enough for him and I was simply furious'.
Piqued, Zara bought a ticket on a passenger ship bound for the United States. She then went on to Britain where she met Captain (later Major) James Heydon Fell, who was preparing to rejoin his regiment, the 15th Lancers, in India. She accepted his invitation to spend some time in Poona on the way back to Australia. When Zara returned from India, Harold told her his financial prospects had improved and resumed talk of marriage. But as he had not formally proposed, Zara was apparently far from convinced that Harold was seriously contemplating marriage. She continued to think about James Fell, who was planning a visit to Australia. On the night before James' ship was due to arrive in Melbourne from India, Harold produced a diamond and sapphire engagement ring. We do not know why Zara did not accept the ring but having had his hand forced, Harold duly reciprocated. He told Zara that if she met that 'Indian type' the next morning, she would never see him again'. In what appears to have been an impulsive act, Zara married James Fell in Melbourne on 2 March 1935. A week later they sailed for India and Fell rejoined his regiment in Jubbul-pore. Curiously, Harold kept several clippings reporting the event from Melbourne newspapers.
There is a plausible alternative to Zara's version. Her decision to leave was, in fact, a furious response to learning that Harold had formed a close relationship with one of their mutual friends. Tom Holt had established a business partnership with Francis Thring, proprietor of Efftee Productions (and later Radio 3XY) and father of the flamboyant Australian actor Frank Thring. Although he was still fond of Zara, Harold had turned his affections towards Thring's daughter Viola Margaret, known to everyone as 'Lola'. To Harold's disgust, Lola was also being wooed by Tom Holt, 25 years her senior. Three years younger than Harold, Lola became his stepmother in 1936. In the late 1930s Tom Holt lost a small fortune in failed theatrical ventures and he retired early in 1941 because of ill-health — possibly Parkinson's disease. He died at Melbourne on 10 October 1945 almost broke.
After Lola shifted her affections to his father, Harold read in the newspapers that Zara was returning to Australia for the birth of her first child, Nicholas. He kept the press report in his scrapbook. Nicholas was born at Melbourne on 15 September 1937. Despite Zara's claim that Harold told her he would never see her again if she continued with Fell, she and Harold met soon after her arrival in Victoria. They spent a great deal of time together before James Fell came to Australia to see his son. Not long after the Fells returned to India, Zara announced that she was pregnant again — with twins, conceived in August 1938. Sam and Andrew were born in Melbourne on 23 May 1939. James Fell came to Australia for several months afterwards but returned to India alone. Zara offers no explanation as to why their marriage failed. According to Zara, she and Harold were soon back together again and thinking of marriage because Harold was now in receipt of a reasonable income.
It appears that Zara had forgiven Harold for his infidelity with Lola, while Harold realised that he could not live without Zara. But what prevented them from marrying immediately? It was largely a question of appearances and the law. In the 1930s, the end of a marriage attracted considerable social stigma. To ensure that Harold was not implicated in the collapse of Zara's marriage, a decent interval needed to elapse before they could make their relationship public. There was also the long-standing Holt family 'secret' that Harold was the twins' father. There is no shortage of evidence attesting to their blood tie. There is an uncanny physical similarity between Andrew, Sam and Harold, and Sam, in particular, has many of Harold's mannerisms. Harold and Zara would not marry until 1946.
CHAPTER 2
The early years
IN ADDITION TO HIS everyday legal practice, in 1935 Holt accepted an offer made through connections of his father and brother (now publicity director of Hoyts Theatres) to become Secretary of the Victorian Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association — the industry lobby group for cinema proprietors, which also brought lucrative work in the Commonwealth Arbitration Court. He was also developing his interest in politics. Holt had attended a meeting of the Young Nationalists at Healesville outside Melbourne in 1933 addressed by the organisation's founders, Wilfred Kent Hughes and Robert Gordon Menzies. Together with John Spicer (later Commonwealth Attorney-General) and Richard Casey (a future British peer and Governor-General) Holt decided to join the Prahran branch. On 15 September 1934, Holt contested the Federal seat of Yarra for the United Australia Party (UAP). The sitting member was the Leader of the Opposition and former Labor Prime Minister, James Scullin. A correspondent for the Australasian newspaper predicted that this could 'mark the beginning of a brilliant career ... He possesses, in addition to his talents as a speaker and debater, a pleasant personality, a keen brain, and abundant energy and enthusiasm. He is, in short, just the type of young man we want in politics'.
At his campaign launch, Holt was heckled from the floor for half an hour before a policeman managed to restore order. He warned the electorate against supporting political control of financial institutions, such as nationalisation of banks, and said that 'socialism did not mean in the hands of Mr Lang [the New South Wales State Labor leader] or Mr Scullin an equal distribution of national property. It meant government by a strong body of officials'. Holt was trying to portray Jack Lang as an autocratic figure behind Federal Labor. He argued that the community was well represented on the Commonwealth Bank Board, and that the Lyons Government (which had been elected in 1931 with a commanding majority) had helped men back into employment and reduced unemployment despite the bleak years of the Depression. Holt spoke at street rallies, on the back of trucks and in halls throughout the electorate. One press report said his 'voice was drowned in a veritable deluge of hostile interjections, questions, ironical cheers, rumblings of passing trams and the backfiring of motorcycles'. As Yarra was a strong Labor seat, Holt was heckled wherever he went, but his courage in standing against the former prime minister was admired.
When the election result was declared, the UAP won 28 seats to Labor's 18. The Country Party won 14 seats and Lang Labor 9. South Australia's Liberal and Country League won five seats. In the Senate, the UAP won 16 seats and the Country Party 2. The result in Yarra was no surprise. Scullin received 25 601 first preferences; Holt 10 741; the Communist candidate Ernie Thornton polled 3072 votes, up from 1095 in the previous ballot. Holt praised Scullin for his 'personal integrity and political ability'. The UAP thanked Holt for his efforts: 'Although you did not win Yarra you put up a great fight and scored a very satisfactory result'. The Party Executive believed he was a hard-working candidate who ought to be encouraged further.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Life and Death of Harold Holt by Tom R. Frame. Copyright © 2005 Tom Frame. Excerpted by permission of Allen & Unwin.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
