Review of John Connor, 'Anzac and Empire; George Foster Pearce and the Foundations of Australian Defence (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2011). pp. 248. $59.95, cloth

Abstract

Until recently, there was no full biography of George Foster Pearce, the Labor, then Nationalist, then United Australia Party (UAP) politician who, among other achievements, established the Royal Australian Navy, the Royal Military College at Duntroon, and the Australian Flying Corps. John Connor's book, 'Anzac and Empire: George Foster Pearce and the Foundations of Australian Defence', thus serves an important role in shedding light on the man who was elected in Australia's first Senate, was Australia's longest-serving Senator and inaugural Father of the Senate from 1923 to 1938. Needless to say, Pearce experienced a long and fulfilling political life. Although Peter Heydon, his former private secretary, published a memoir of Pearce in 1965, it is surprising that it has taken so long for his political life to be explored in this way.