John Ross Marshall

Politician and lawyer

• Born: March 5, 1912
• Birthplace: Wellington, New Zealand
• Died: August 30, 1988
• Place of death: Snape, England

Also known as: Jack Marshall; John Marshall

Significance: John Ross Marshall, a politician and lawyer, served as the prime minister of New Zealand for ten months in 1972. A longstanding member of Parliament, he held a number of cabinet positions in National Party governments between 1950 and 1972.

Background

John Ross Marshall was born on March 5, 1912, in Wellington, New Zealand, to Florence May and Allan Marshall. From 1919 to 1928 he resided in Whangarei in the country’s Northland region, where his father had been transferred on an assignment for the Public Trust Office. There he attended Whangarei High School and was involved in both cricket and rugby. After the family relocated to Dunedin, he continued in these activities at Otago Boys’ High School.

Marshall earned a bachelor’s degree in law in 1934 and a master’s degree in law the following year from Victoria University of Wellington. He would also ultimately receive a bachelor’s degree in political science in the 1940s.

Legal Career and Military Service

In 1930, while still in college, Marshall began working as a law clerk in the firm Luke, Cunningham and Clere. After earning his law degrees, he worked in the city solicitor’s office in Wellington.

World War II began in the fall of 1939. Marshall enlisted in the army in 1941. He intially served as an infantryman in the Pacific Theatre, and was stationed in Fiji, Norfolk Island, and New Caledonia. After receiving additional training in the United States in 1943, he engaged in combat in the Solomon Islands, the Middle East, and Italy, and helped liberate Trieste, Italy, in May 1945. Having risen to the rank of major, Marshall returned to Wellington and founded his own law practice.

Political Career

In 1946 Marshall won election to federal parliament as the National Party candidate for the newly designated seat of Mount Victoria. A former Christian socialist, he had become a liberal and campaigned on a personal philosophy of individual and economic liberty, enterprise, and social responsibility. He simultaneously worked at his law practice.

Three years later the National Party won the 1949 election and gained the government for the first time. Prime Minister Sidney Holland appointed Marshall to the first of many cabinet positions he would hold in ensuing years as the minister assistant to the prime minister and the minister in charge of the State Advances Corporation. Marshall addressed postwar housing shortages through the construction of state houses for low-income families and the furtherance of low-interest loans for home buyers. From 1951 to 1954 he was also the minister of health.

In 1954 the seat of Mount Victoria was abolished and Marshall won election as the National Party member for Karori, a seat he would maintain for the subsequent two decades. The National Party retained the government, and Marshall was named minister of justice and attorney general. In 1957 he established a permanent Court of Appeal to alleviate issues with insufficient appellant judges. When the National Party lost the election to the New Zealand Labour Party that same year, he was selected to serve as deputy party leader. During his three years in the opposition, he worked part-time in his law practice while also fulfilling his parliamentary duties.

In 1960 the National Party returned to power, and Marshall was once again chosen for cabinet positions under Keith Jacka Holyoake. In addition to assuming the role of deputy prime minister, he was given the portfolios of justice, commerce and industry, overseas trade, and customs. One of his priorities was safeguarding New Zealand’s access to British markets. In 1961, Great Britain announced its intent to enter the European Economic Community, a regional economic organization and predecessor of the European Union (EU); more than a decade, Marshall made overseas trips to negotiate for Great Britain to still purchase New Zealand’s dairy, meat, and other food products. Prior to Great Britain entering the European Economic Community in 1973, he secured an agreement that granted New Zealand the right to sell butter, lamb, and wool to Great Britain without restriction for five years.

From 1969 to 1972 Marshall was the minister of labor and immigration. In that position, he introduced the Accident Compensation Bill, which provided wage benefits and compensation to employees injured in a work accident, in 1971. He also promoted the Stabilisation of Remuneration Bill 1971, which enacted a blueprint for yearly wage and salary raises of 7 percent.

Marshall became prime minister on February 7, 1972, following Holyoake’s resignation. His tenure proved short-lived, however, due to the tumultuous political climate: he lost the prime ministry on December 8, 1972, after the National Party lost the November 1972 election. He was succeeded by Labour’s Norman Kirk. Remaining the leader of the opposition until 1974, he was replaced as party leader by his deputy, the populist Robert Muldoon. Marshall retired from Parliament the following year.

After leaving political office, Marshall resumed work as a lawyer and became a consultant at Buddle, Anderson, and Kent, and was a visiting fellow in public policy at Victoria University of Wellington. In addition to serving on the boards of several companies and becoming involved with cultural and community organizations, he wrote several children’s books, including The Adventures of Dr. Duffer (1978) and Dr. Duffer and the Lost City (1979). He died after a heart attack on August 30, 1988, in Snape, England.

Impact

Throughout his political career, Marshall helped New Zealand broaden its trading partners and diversify its exports. In the early 1960s he was crucial to the bilateral discussions around the formation of the New Zealand-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which removed tariffs and controls on a large percentage of trade between the two countries. It led to the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement, a bilateral free trade agreement that took effect in 1983, and paved the way for the later ASEAN Australia New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA).

Personal Life

Marshall and Jessie Margaret Livingston married in July 1944. They had four children and made their home in Wellington, where Marshall was active with St. John’s Presbyterian Church for most of his life.

Bibliography

Gustafson, Barry. “Marshall, John Ross.” Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 2000. Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5m36/marshall-john-ross. Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.

Hickey, Bernard. “Brentry: 48 Hours in Luxembourg that Changed NZ Forever.” Two Cents’ Worth,RNZ, 8 Nov. 2019, www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/two-cents-worth/story/2018721307/brentry-48-hours-in-luxembourg-that-changed-nz-forever. Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.

“John Ross Marshall.” Heads of States and Governments since 1945, edited by Harris M. Lentz, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1994.

McLean, Gavin. “John Marshall.” New Zealand History, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 8 Nov. 2017, nzhistory.govt.nz/people/john-marshall. Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.

“New Chief Named in New Zealand.” The New York Times, 3 Feb. 1972, www.nytimes.com/1972/02/03/archives/new-chief-named-in-new-zealand-marshall-replaces-holyoake-as-prime.html. Accessed 15 May 2020.