Australia's second youngest Prime Minister.

He was a decorated war hero before he became Prime Minister in 1923.

Stanley Bruce was born in Melbourne into a wealthy business family. He went to England in 1901 to study law at Cambridge and did not return until 1917, when he was sent home with a war injury. He was approached by the Nationalist Party in 1918 and stood for the seat of Flinders in Victoria, which he won.

In 1921 he was appointed treasurer by William Hughes; in 1923 Bruce replaced Hughes and party leader and prime minister, forming a coalition with the Country Party which under Earle Page had earlier refused to work with Hughes .

Bruce's government fostered the increasing power of the federal government over the states; for example, establishing the Loan Council which gave the federal government greater financial control. Presiding over a period of economic stability, he sought to promote business enterprise. As part of this policy, he tried in 1929 to dismantle the Commonwealth Arbitration Court.

This unpopular initiative led to the fall of his government when even members of his own party voted with Labor against the legislation. In office for six years, his government sought management of imperial trade in Australia's interests and a voice for Australia in shaping British foreign policy. His uncompromising stand on industrial relations brought down his government in 1929.

At the following election, his party was defeated and Bruce became the only Australian prime minister to lose his own seat an election. He was high commissioner to London 1933-45 and a member of the British War Cabinet from 1942.

SM Bruce became Australia's longest-serving High Commissioner in London and his work at the League of Nations laid the foundations of enduring international agencies. He was created a viscount in 1947. Titled Lord Bruce of Melbourne, his chosen coat of arms features two Australian lyrebirds and the motto 'We have been faithful'.

He lived in London until his death