As many around the world know, the holiday season is not always a happy time for everyone, and I am one of those people. Every December 17, I commemorate a deeply emotional anniversary: the day Harold Holt went for a swim, and never came back.
Former Australian prime minister Harold Holt is gone, but never forgotten. My king. My muse. My forever PM.
And every December 17 while heathens around the country start celebrating Christmas, or even (Lord forbid) Gravy Day, fewer and fewer people honour the day we literally lost a PM. Disgraceful.
“Well, you don’t lose a prime minister at sea every day, do you?” political historian Frank Bongiorno told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“The whole disappearance, while a matter of the higher seriousness at the time, became a source of folklore and of jokes, rumours and gossip.”
So gather round children, and let uncle Lachlan (that’s me) bequeath unto you the tale of what happened to Harold Holt.
The disappearance of Harold Holt
Though I wasn’t born, and neither were my parents, I remember it like it was yesterday.
It was a warm Sunday morning at the Cheviot Beach in Victoria. So Harold, who had been the leader of Australia for almost 23 months at this point, decided to go out for a swim.
Well known for being an outdoorsman, it was hardly out of character for the Liberal PM to run off into nature on a sporadic adventure. And on this particular morning, our dear Harold yearned for the ocean like a MAFS contestant yearns for cultural relevance.
“He was a great risk taker in all sorts of ways, and an increasingly reckless risk taker in his diving and spearfishing,” Bongiorno shared, before adding this wasn’t the first time Holt had gone missing.
Now another one thing you simply must know about this prime minister, is that unlike his predecessors he refused to have a security detail protect him.
Was this because he wanted to avoid alienating himself from voters, or because he knew even they couldn’t save him from his fate? There’s truly no way of knowing.
Legend has it that the last person to see our hero alive was Marjorie Gillespie, Holt’s well-documented mistress, whom he was on a beach getaway with.
According to the folklore, Gillespie saw Harold wade off into rough surf, where he was never seen again.
After days of searching, eventually Harold Holt was presumed dead. Though they never did find a body!
Of course, we true believers beg to differ on this small matter.
Some conspiracies say he was kidnapped by a Chinese submarine, but the more tasteful amongst us believe he grew gills and found Atlantis.
There are many factors to this story that add to the legend of Harold Holt’s disappearance. Irony is a gift from the gods, and Holt’s drowning is slathered with it.
For instance, there’s this quote of his from shortly before his death:
RIP to the godfather of all quotes https://t.co/1zjovA84Y6 pic.twitter.com/9diXkLULxI
— Batshit Australia (@batshit_auspol) December 17, 2023
There’s the fact that on the day of his disappearance, one of the headlines in The Australian was allegedly: “PM advised to swim less.”
But no element of the legend will ever be more ironic than the fact that two years after his presumed death, old Holty was remembered by having a public centre named in his honour:
A public swimming pool.
Reflecting on the anniversary of Holt’s death, Bongiorno shared that though December 17th is not a day most people remember, Holt’s story is.
“It’s a reminder that political triumph and power are always shadowed by that possibility of tragedy,” the historian said.
So instead of your usual holiday celebrations, take a moment to think about a man who gave his life for you. Whatever you do today, do it for Harold.
If our Government had any sense of respect, they’d make today a public holiday.
RIP Harold Holt. 57 years is not enough time for a heart to heal.
Lead Image: Nine
The post Today Is The 57th Anniversary Of The Day We Just Lost A Prime Minister In The Ocean appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
