Philip McBride

McBride was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1931 election, when he won Grey for the United Australia Party, defeating incumbent Labor MP Andrew Lacey.^[5] As a backbencher, he advocated for increased assistance to farmers and lower tariffs, and was concerned with the interests of the wheat and wool industries, given that he represented one of the largest electorates in Australia. He was easily re-elected in 1934.^[4][1]

Prior to the 1937 federal election, McBride made a deal with fellow grazier Senator A. O. Badman to swap seats and move to the Senate.^[1][4] The deal was not public at the time, because both men had contested the Senate preselection, which Badman had lost, and Badman's preselection win for Grey was reported by the media as having been unexpected.^[6][7] Badman resigned from the Senate and contested and won Grey at the federal election, while McBride, already endorsed for the Senate ticket at the 1937 election, the victors in which would not take their seats until July 1938, was appointed to Badman's Senate vacancy in the interim. The deal had also been unusual in that McBride and Badman caucused with separate federal parties. Although both were members of the same state party, the Liberal and Country League, Badman was a member of the UAP's federal coalition partner, the Country Party.^[1][4]

McBride was Assistant Minister for Commerce from April 1939 to September 1940, and resigned several directorships at the time of his promotion to avoid conflicts of interest. In the wake of the death of senior minister Geoffrey Street in the 1940 Canberra air disaster, McBride was assigned Street's portfolios of Minister for the Army and Minister for Repatriation. However, following the 1940 federal election in October, he was shifted to the role of Minister for Munitions and Minister for Supply and Development, the latter being a ministry that he had campaigned to create. He was a member of the War Cabinet from 1940 and the Advisory War Council from 1941. Following the UAP's defeat in parliament in 1941 and Labor leader John Curtin's accession as Prime Minister, McBride was made Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, but was defeated at the 1943 election, his term expiring in June 1944.^[1][4]

During his two years out of parliament, McBride was appointed chairman of Elder Smith and Company in 1944, and regained his directorship of Elder's Trustee and Executor Company and his position on the boards of the Adelaide Steamship Company and Wallaroo-Mt Lyell Fertilisers in 1945. He was involved in the creation of the Liberal Party of Australia to replace the failing UAP, and served on the provisional executive of the Liberal Party in 1944–45.^[8] He returned to parliament for the Liberal Party at the 1946 general election, winning the House of Representatives seat of Wakefield.

Following the election of the Menzies government in 1949, McBride became Minister for the Interior from 1949 to 1950, and again resigned his directorships. In 1950, he was appointed Minister for Defence, a position he retained until his retirement from politics in 1958. He was described as having been a "close confidant" to Menzies and "an influential member of [Menzies'] inner circle" and, when he retired, was the last of the "Old Guard" of ministers who had supported Menzies when he had lost the UAP leadership in 1941.^[3][9]

After retiring from parliament, McBride again served as chairman of Elder Smith and Co Ltd (later Elder Smith Goldsbrough Mort Ltd), was on the board of the Bank of Adelaide and Wallaroo-Mount Lyell Fertilisers Ltd, and was a member of the Australian Wool Board.^[3][10] He was also federal president of the Liberal Party from 1960 to 1965.^[11]

McBride died at his home at Medindie in 1982 and was cremated. He was survived by his wife and two of his sons.^[1]

His company, A. J. and P. A. McBride, Ltd. is still involved in the wool industry, and still owns many pastoral stations from when Sir Philip McBride ran the company.^[12]

His great-grandson is the independent South Australian state parliamentarian Nick McBride, who quit the Liberal Party in 2023.^[13]

McBride was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1953 and made a Privy counsellor in 1959.^[1]

 

Political offices
Preceded by Geoffrey Street	Minister for the Army 1940	Succeeded by Percy Spender
	Minister for Repatriation 1940	Succeeded by George McLeay
Preceded by Robert Menzies	Minister for Munitions 1940–1941	Succeeded by Norman Makin
Preceded by Frederick Stewart	Minister for Supply and Development 1940–1941	Succeeded by George McLeay
Preceded by Herbert Johnson	Minister for the Interior 1950	Succeeded by Eric Harrison
Preceded by Eric Harrison	Minister for Defence 1950–1958	Succeeded by Athol Townley
Preceded by Thomas White	Minister for Air 1951	Succeeded by William McMahon
Preceded by Josiah Francis	Minister for the Navy 1951
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Andrew Lacey	Member for Grey 1931–1937	Succeeded by Oliver Badman
Preceded by Albert Smith	Member for Wakefield 1946–1958	Succeeded by Bert Kelly
Honorary titles
Preceded by Guy Arkins	Earliest serving living Senator 1980–1982	Succeeded by Keith Wilson