Summary heading
Person registration completed as part of the Prime
Ministers Papers’ Project (April 2002).
Career within Commonwealth
Elizabeth Gibson Chifley (nee McKenzie), born and
educated in Bathurst, was the elder of two daughters of George McKenzie and his
wife Isabella (nee Bryce). In June 1914, despite her own strong Presbyterian
background, she married Joseph Benedict (Ben) Chifley), an Irish-Catholic
locomotive driver whom she had met two years previously. They had no children.
In the early years of their marriage, Elizabeth (Lizzie)
supported her husband’s union activities and during his first term in federal
Parliament (1928-1931) occasionally accompanied him to Canberra. However, when
he returned to the federal political scene in 1940 she came less frequently,
even during his term of office as Prime Minister (1945-1949), although she did
accompany him to New Zealand in December 1947. Described by Dame Enid Lyons as
‘a gentle friendly woman’ (1), Elizabeth had no interest in politics and played
only a small part in her husband’s parliamentary career. Subject to health
problems over many years, she preferred to live at home in Bathurst (where
Chifley regularly returned to see her), enjoying housekeeping, a life-long
interest in collecting recipes and a well known ability for fine needlework.
After Chifley’s death in 1951, Elizabeth continued to
support the Presbyterian church and community causes in Bathurst through her
own time and modest wealth. She died in September 1962 and is buried in the
Bathurst Cemetery. The Bathurst City Council subsequently bought her home at 10
Busby Street. Preserved as she left it, the house opened to the public in 1973
as a memorial to Chifley.
Links to other Commonwealth Persons
06 Jun 1914 – 13 Jun 1951: CP268, The Rt Hon Joseph
Benedict CHIFLEY PC
Publications
End notes
1. Langmore, Diane, Prime Ministers’ Wives,
p168
Sources
Day, David, Chifley (Harper Collins, 2001)
Grattan, Michelle ed,
Australian Prime Ministers (Sydney, New Holland, 2000), pp249-250
Langmore, Diane, Prime
Ministers’ Wives (McPhee Gribble, 1992), pp147-171