 He arrived back in Melbourne with no firm plans for his future, but the rapturous receptions he received at labour movement gatherings led him to contemplate a return to active politics.He was the only remaining former prime minister in the Labor Party, which had lost many experienced MPs in the 1916 party split.The party's leader Frank Tudor had been suffering frequent bouts of ill health, and T. J. Ryan, who was widely seen as Tudor's heir apparent, died suddenly of pneumonia in August 1921.