AustLit

Earle Page, politician and surgeon, was the fifth of eleven children born to Charles Page of London and his wife, Mary Johanna Hadden nee Cox. Page won scholarships to Sydney Boys' High School and the University of Sydney where he topped final year Medicine. He met his future wife, Ethel Esther Blunt, at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and married in 1906. Page joined a medical practice in Grafton and opened a private hospital there. His father was mayor of Grafton in 1908, and Page also displayed the family interest in politics. In 1913 he was elected an alderman on South Grafton Council and in 1915 launched the Northern New South Wales Separation League. From 1917 to 1920 Page was mayor of South Grafton and in 1919 won the Federal seat of Cowper as an independent proponent of separation and development for Northern New South Wales. In 1920 he became a founding member of the Federal Country Party and in 1922 pioneered a coalition with the urban conservative parties. Page became federal treasurer in partnership with Prime Minister Bruce. He pioneered 'cooperative federalism' and invested in the development of his region. Under Lyons and Menzies his influence was much reduced and during the war he was Australian minister resident in London. His crowning achievement was the new health scheme introduced by the Menzies government in the 1950s.

(Source: Adapted from Carl Bridge, 'Page, Sir Earle Christmas Grafton (1880 - 1961)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, MUP, 1988, pp 118-122)