Wilfrid Kent Hughes
Australian politician
Died when: 75 years 49 days (901 months)Star Sign: Gemini
Sir Wilfrid Selwyn "Bill" Kent Hughes KBE, MVO, MC (12 June 1895 – 31 July 1970) was an Australian army officer and politician who had a long career in both state and federal politics, most notably as a minister in the Menzies Government.
He also had a longstanding involvement with the Olympic movement, as both an athlete and organiser.Kent Hughes was born in Melbourne to an upper middle-class family.
He won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1914, but postponed his studies to join the Australian Imperial Force.He entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1919, and combined his studies with his sporting career, representing Australia in hurdling at the 1920 Summer Olympics.
Kent Hughes returned home in 1923 and began working at his father's publishing company.He was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1927, representing the Nationalist Party.
He joined the new United Australia Party in 1931, and the following year was made a minister in the government of Stanley Argyle.
He served as the party's deputy leader from 1935 to 1939.When the Second World War broke out, Kent Hughes re-enlisted in the army and took part in the Malayan campaign.
He was captured by the Japanese at the Battle of Singapore, and spent the next three years as a prisoner-of-war in Singapore, Taiwan, and Manchuria.
Kent Hughes retained his seat in parliament during that time, and joined the new Liberal Party upon his return to Australia in 1945.
He became Deputy Premier of Victoria in 1948, but resigned the following year to contest the House of Representatives at the 1949 federal election.
Robert Menzies added Kent Hughes to his cabinet in 1951, as Minister for the Interior and Minister for Works and Housing.
Kent Hughes was Chairman of the Organising Committee for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.His chairmanship was widely judged a success, and he left a lasting legacy by engineering the sale of television rights, an Olympic first.
Despite his high profile, Menzies removed Kent Hughes from his ministry in early 1956.He spent the rest of his career as a backbencher, dying in office in 1970.
Kent Hughes was famous for his stubbornness and abrasive personality, particularly the insults he directed at opponents.He was sympathetic towards fascism early in his career (generally overlooked due to his later status as a war hero), and later became an ardent anti-communist.
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