George Warwick Smith

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George Warwick Smith
In office
20 December 1972 – 9 January 1973
Personal details
Born
George Henry Warwick Smith

(1916-10-03)3 October 1916
Charters Towers, Queensland
Died27 December 1999(1999-12-27) (aged 83)
Sydney, New South Wales
SpouseJoan
Children2 daughters and 1 son
OccupationPublic servant

George Henry Warwick Smith

CBE
(3 October 1916 – 27 December 1999) was a senior Australian public servant.

Early life

Warwick Smith was born in Charters Towers, Queensland on 3 November 1916.[1] He attended high school at Brisbane Grammar School, but left early at the age of 15.[1] He went on to matriculate and graduate with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.[1]

Career

Warwick Smith moved from a job at the Queensland Education Department to the Commonwealth Public Service in the Department of Commerce. He soon left the public service to join the Army, serving during the Second World War between 1941 and 1945.

After the war, Warwick Smith returned to his public service career in the Department of Commerce.

Department's Secretary, J.F. Murphy, with whom he gained a lot of trade conference experience.[1]

Warwick Smith's first Secretary role was in the Department of Territories (later External Territories), he moved to the Department in 1964, a time when Australia was coming under increasing United Nations pressure to hasten Papua New Guinea's progress towards self-government.[1] Warwick Smith established an unusual departmental structure with no deputy secretaries, which was unlike most Australian Government departments at the time.[3]

He also served as Secretary in the Department of the Interior and the Secretary of the Department of Construction (later Housing and Construction).

Warwick Smith formally retired from the public service on 5 August 1980, his last position being as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Construction.[4]

Retirement

On retirement from the public service, Warwick Smith moved away from Canberra, first to Sydney and later to Bowral, working as a consultant in economic and public affairs.[1] In his later years, Warwick Smith suffered from emphysema, which led to his death on 27 December 1999 in a nursing home in Sydney.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Farquharson 1999.
  2. ^ CP 319: George Henry WARWICK SMITH CBE, National Archives of Australia, retrieved 13 January 2014
  3. ^ Denoon 2005, pp. 40–41.
  4. ^ CA 2747: Department of Housing and Construction [II], Central Office, National Archives of Australia, retrieved 13 January 2014

References and further reading

Government offices
Preceded by
Cyril Lambert
Secretary of the Department of Territories

1964 – 1968
Succeeded by
Himself
as Secretary of the Department of External Territories
Preceded by
Himself
as Secretary of the Department of Territories

1968 – 1970
Succeeded by
Preceded by
1970 – 1972
Department abolished
Preceded by
Himself
as Secretary of the Department of the Interior

1972 – 1973
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Himself
as Secretary of the Department of the Interior

1972 – 1973
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Himself
as Secretary of the Department of the Interior
(Acting)
1972 – 1973
Succeeded by
Preceded by
1976 – 1978
Succeeded by
Himself
as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Construction
Preceded by
Himself
as Secretary of the Department of Construction

1978 – 1980
Succeeded by