Today marks 52 years of ex-Australian PM Harold Holt's mysterious disppearance

It has been 52 years since the former Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt went missing under mysterious circumstances and never returned. Holt, country’s 17th Prime Minister, took the charge of the office in 1965 until his presumed death by drowning in 1967. 

The former prime minister liked swimming and spearfishing and had holiday homes at Portsea, Victoria, and Bingil Bay, Queensland. On 17 December 1967, Holt, along with his four companions, went to witness sailor Alec Rose pass through The Rip on his solo circumnavigation attempt. He stopped at a remote Cheviot Beach for swimming, claiming that he knew the beach like the back of his hand.

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Holt went deep into the ocean and was apparently caught in a rip, a water current which occurs near beaches with breaking waves. He disappeared from the scene which led to several conspiracy theories which were never corroborated by any official report. Police said that there were no definitive findings on the death of the former PM while some alleged that he committed suicide.

Conspiracy theories behind the disappearance

Conspiracy theories, somewhat bizarre, suggested that Holt was a lifelong spy for the Chinese government and faked his own death to board a Chinese submarine stationed off the Australian coast. In the book, ‘The Prime Minister Was a Spy’, written by Anthony Grey, the author claimed that the former prime minister lived the rest of his life in Beijing. But the book was ridiculed claiming that the book contained numerous factual errors.

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In 2005, a coronial inquest ruled that Holt died by accidental drowning and became the third Australian prime minister, at the time of his death, after Joseph Lyons (1939) and John Curtin (1945) to die in office. A memorial service for Holt was held at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, which was attended by numerous world leaders. The National Archives, on the 50th death anniversary of Holt, released numerous letters from people claiming to know what exactly happened to him. One of the letters claimed that Holt was the victim of 'some delayed-effect drug' given to him from 'expert sabotage, probably foreign', but none of the claims has been proved till date.

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