Pat Field

Albert Patrick Field (11 October 19101 July 1990) was an Australian Labor Party member. In 1975 he was chosen as a Senator in unusual circumstances that played a significant role in precipitating the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Gough Whitlam described him as "an individual of the utmost obscurity, from which he rose and to which he sank with equal speed".

Early life Field was born in Durrington, Wiltshire, England, in 1910. His parents' frequent ill health made him spend much of his childhood in orphanages and boys' homes. He moved to Australia in 1926 and worked in mines and on sheep stations.

Early career He joined the Australian Labor Party in 1937 and became president of the Morningside branch of the party. He served in the Australian Army in New Guinea during World War II. On his discharge, he became a French polisher.

He worked for the Queensland Education Department and was elected president of the Queensland branch of the Federated Furnishing Trade Society of Australasia in the early 1970s. That was precisely the sort of person wanted by Bjelke-Petersen, who responded by nominating Field in the Parliament of Queensland as the new senator.

The parliament was far from unanimous in supporting the unconventional appointment, but it was approved by 50 votes to 26,

Field lived out his days in Caboolture, Queensland. He suffered from Parkinson's disease in later life. He died of asphyxia by hanging in 1990. He was survived by a daughter and a stepdaughter.