FILE PHOTO: Britain's Queen Elizabeth attends a ceremony to mark her official birthday at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, June 13, 2020. The Queen celebrates her 94th birthday this year. REUTERS/Toby Melville/Pool
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth's representative in Australia fired a prime minister without warning the palace - or the prime minister - because "under the constitution the responsibility is mine", according to archived letters released on Tuesday.
In a Nov. 11, 1975 dispatch, Governor-General John Kerr told the Queen's private secretary he took the unprecedented step to sack Prime Minister Gough Whitlam as Whitlam prepared to end a months-long budget standoff by calling a partial Senate election.
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