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March 17th, 2012 
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Australia mourns the loss of an inspiring figure. The wife of a former Prime Minister, Margaret Whitlam was a force in her own right – champion, campaigner and national treasure.
Margaret Whitlam, the wife of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and a revered public figure, has died.
PM Julia Gillard has paid tribute to Margaret Whitlam, describing her as a inspiration to women.
A VERY PUBLIC LIFE: Margaret Whitlam with her husband, former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Picture: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
MARGARET Whitlam wanted everyone to know one thing about her husband, Gough: He was a passionate romantic.
From their blissful wartime honeymoon to the last day of their 70-year marriage, the Whitlams stood together, remaining deeply in love despite the turmoil and drama of a very public life.
He read her love poetry by Shelley and Byron. She made him sandwiches to take to work, even when he had staff to do that kind of thing, because she knew he liked homemade lunches best.
He began his letters to her with “Darling” and ended them with “All” – their one-word code for “all my love”.
They were both remarkably tall. Gough’s 194cm frame was one of the qualities that prompted the 188cm Margaret Elaine Dovey, a social work student, to describe him as “quite the most delicious thing I’d ever seen”, when she recalled their meeting at a Sydney party in 1939.
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Mrs Whitlam stood by her husband as they moved first to Cronulla and then to Cabramatta, where he was elected the federal MP for Werriwa. They had four children and, through the first two decades of their marriage, Margaret was beside her husband at every rally, doorknock and community meeting as they established themselves as local identities.
Gough always knew Margaret was as capable as any politician. In 1966, when he faced expulsion from the Labor Party over his attacks on the backroom powerbrokers, he even plotted her entry to parliament. His plan, if he were expelled, was for Margaret to take over the seat of Werriwa and hold the seat for him until the party permitted his return.
Whitlam prevailed in his battle for power over the party – which was fortunate, given Margaret’s later recollection that Gough had never actually asked if she would be part of his plan.
Gough Whitlam became prime minister in a momentous 1972 election victory and there was a palpable thrill in political circles about the prospect of a fresh kind of first lady: dignified, ebullient and outspoken. Mrs Whitlam was more than just a political wife, content to open fetes and host dinners; she was widely acknowledged as her husband’s greatest ally and adviser.
Three years later, they stood at the centre of Australia’s greatest modern political drama, the 1975 dismissal of Whitlam by governor-general John Kerr, followed by Whitlam’s defeat at the polls.
Margaret was, she later recalled, more outwardly shocked and angry than Gough about the dismissal, urging her sometimes fatalistic husband to maintain his rage.
Despite the rancorous tone of the 1975 post-dismissal election campaign, she took defeat with dignity. When Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser moved into the Lodge, his wife Tamie was amazed to discover a letter from Margaret Whitlam saying she hoped the Frasers would enjoy their tenure.
As life moved on to arts and charitable work, Margaret frequently spoke publicly of her frustrations at the exposure and sometime tedium of being a “great man’s wife”.
They lived for three years in Paris, where he was Australia’s UNESCO ambassador and she threw herself into absorbing French culture and language – and studying her great passions, the arts, food and wine – as well as becoming an unofficial ambassador for Australia’s arts and cultural life.
France remained Mrs Whitlam’s great love. She led several tour groups back to Paris in the 1990s as a tour guide.
From their flat in Sydney’s Darling Point, the Whitlams spent the past two decades – before the encroachment of frailty forced his removal to assisted care (she remained at home) – managing a dazzling array of community and cultural commitments, lending their imposing presence and humour to causes including Aboriginal reconciliation.
Gough was renowned as a sparkling wit – but it was Margaret who made him laugh. “He’s almost reached the beatification stage,” she mocked in 2002.
On their 60th anniversary, Gough Whitlam joked they were worthy of an award for “matrimonial endurance”.
The Whitlams shared Australia’s longest political marriage. It was also, and more importantly, our most public and touching romance.
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