1971 Press Photo John Grey Horton Parliament House

John Grey Gorton, Australian Prime Minister arrives at Parliament House in Canberra. Sir John Grey Gorton was born in Melbourne, the illegitimate son of Alice Sinn, the daughter of a railway worker, and English orange orchardist John Rose Gorton. The older Gorton and his wife Kathleen had emigrated to Australia by way of South Africa, where they had prospered during the Boer War. They separated in Australia and John senior established a de facto relationship with Sinn, who died of tuberculosis in 1920. John junior then went to live with his father's estranged wife and his half-sister Ruth, in Sydney. He was educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School (where he was a class mate of Errol Flynn) and Geelong Grammar School, and then travelled to England to attend Brasenose College, Oxford. While in England, Gorton also undertook flying lessons and was awarded a British pilots' licence in 1932. He studied history, politics and economics at Oxford and graduated with an upper second undergraduate degree. During a holiday in Spain while he was at Oxford, Gorton met Bettina Brown of Bangor, Maine, US. She was a language student at the Sorbonne. This meeting came about through Gorton's friend from Oxford, Arthur Brown, who was Bettina's brother. Arthur Brown was later revealed to be a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. In 1935, Gorton and Bettina Brown were married in Oxford and after his studies were finished, they settled in Australia, taking over his father's orchard, "Mystic Park", at Lake Kangaroo near Kerang. They had three children: Joanna, Michael and Robin. On 31 May 1940, following the outbreak of World War II, Gorton enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force Reserve. At the age of 29, he was considered too old for pilot training, but he re-applied in September after this rule was relaxed. Gorton was accepted and commissioned into the RAAF on 8 November 1940.He trained as a fighter pilot at Somers, Victoria and Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, before being sent to the UK. Gorton completed his training at RAF Heston and RAF Honiley, with No. 61 Operational Training Unit RAF, flying Supermarine Spitfires. He was disappointed when his first operational posting was No. 135 Squadron RAF, a Hawker Hurricane unit, as he considered the type greatly inferior to Spitfires. Wikepedia

Photo is dated 1971.

Photo measures 8 x 11 inches.