Holt, born in Sydney, lived in Melbourne from 1920. He was the first prime minister born in the twentieth century, after the Federation of Australia. He studied law at the University of Melbourne and had his own legal practice, becoming, at twenty-seven years of age, the member for Fawkner in the House of Representatives at a 1935 by-election. A protégé of Robert Menzies, he was a minister in the 1939 United Australia Party government. He held a series of minor portfolios until the government's defeat in 1941. His tenure was interrupted by a brief stint in the Australian Army, which ended when he was recalled to cabinet following the deaths of three ministers in the 1940 Canberra air disaster. He joined the new Liberal Party upon its creation in 1945.