Holt was born in Sydney and educated in Melbourne where he practiced as a solicitor. A member of the Young Nationalists' Association and a protégé of Robert Menzies, Holt won his first seat in parliament in 1935.

He became Australia's youngest minister in 1939 when Prime Minister Robert Menzies allocated him a junior role. For three-quarters of his 32 years in parliament, he was on the government benches. xxxxxxxxxxxx His only period in Opposition was from 1941 to 1949.

Holt held the senior portfolios of Immigration and of Labour and National Service in the 1950s, and became Treasurer in 1958.

In 1949 he became minister for labour and national service in Menzies' first post-war government and by 1958 was treasurer and deputy leader of the Liberal Party.

Groomed by Menzies for the leadership, Holt succeeded him unopposed on his retirement in 1966.

He was the third Prime Minister to die in office. Harold Holt is widely remembered for the unusual circumstances of his death. He was drowned while swimming in rough surf at Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria on the 17th December 1967.

His body was never recovered.