In 1938, a 21-year-old Gough Whitlam enrolled in a Greek class as part of his classicist education at the University of Sydney. His teacher was only a few years older: at 25, Enoch Powell had been appointed the youngest professor in the British Empire.

Whitlam would later tell friends and colleagues that, while he recognised he had been in the presence of a ‘brilliant mind’, leaving after just the one year was the ‘best’ decision he made.