Gough Whitlam's legacy has been defended at a memorial service in London just days after former prime minister John Howard said it was "complete nonsense" to suggest Mr Whitlam had introduced free university education.
Mr Whitlam was remembered at Australia House in central London on Monday evening (Tuesday morning AEDT) about seven weeks after his death.
High Commissioner to the UK Alexander Downer praised Mr Whitlam as a "truly great Australian" at the service attended by former Labor ministers Ros Kelly and Bob McMullan, and Britain's current shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander.
Actress Cate Blanchett last month lauded Australia's 21st prime minister for introducing free tertiary education.
Mr Howard this week labelled that speech "outrageous".
He said the suggestion Mr Whitlam introduced free education was "complete nonsense and it ought to be called out more frequently".
Mr Whitlam scrapped fees in 1974, but Mr Howard argues prior to that, 70 per cent of university students had their costs covered by Commonwealth scholarships.
That doesn't wash with ALP Abroad president Paul Smith who spoke at Monday evening's memorial.
"I wouldn't have gone to university if it wasn't for Gough Whitlam," Mr Smith told AAP afterwards.
"There may have been ways of getting to education through scholarships that existed before, but he made it a universal right, not a privilege.
"Gough made free education a right and that's the difference he made."
Mr Downer, Australia's longest-serving foreign minister under Mr Howard, said Mr Whitlam was a man who didn't feel bitterness except towards John Kerr "who he never forgave" for his dismissal.
"Beyond that, Gough Whitlam was able to extend a spirit that rose way beyond the petty and the partisan," the high commissioner told 250 guests in London.
"He didn't show the rancour and bitterness you do so often find with people when finally they leave politics."
Mr Alexander said given Mr Whitlam presided over such a tumultuous period in Australian political history, the response to his death, aged 98, could have been difficult and divisive.
"But it wasn't," the British MP said.
"Politics was generous to Gough Whitlam because he was generous to it."
The UK shadow foreign secretary, in praising Mr Whitlam's record, highlighted the fact he introduced "free university education".
