Ric Throssell

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Ric Throssell
Born	Richard Prichard Throssell (1922-05-10)10 May 1922 Canberra , Australia
Spouses	Elwyn Hague "Bea" Gallacher (19??-1946; her death) Dorothy "Dodie" Jordan ​ ​ (m. 1947; died 1999)​
Parents	Hugo Throssell (father) Katharine Susannah Prichard (mother)

Ric Throssell (10 May 1922 – 20 April 1999) was an Australian diplomat and author whose writings included novels, plays, film and television scripts, and memoirs. For most of his professional life as a diplomat his career was dogged by unproven allegations that he either leaked classified information to his mother, the writer and communist Katharine Susannah Prichard, or was himself a spy for the Soviet Union.

Early life

Richard Prichard Throssell was born in 1922 in Western Australia, in the

On 19 November 1933, while his mother was on a six-month visit to the Soviet Union, his father Hugo committed suicide.^[3][2] His business ventures had failed in the Great Depression, and he had been offered just ten shillings ($1) by a pawnbroker for his Victoria Cross. In his suicide note he entertained the hope that his wife would now qualify for a war widow's pension, which was approved.^{[citation needed]}

Army and diplomatic service

Ric Throssell enlisted in the Australian Army in World War II, and was promoted to lance corporal. He was offered the opportunity of officer training on the basis of being the son of a VC winner, but declined on principle. He served in New Guinea. In 1943, he joined the diplomatic service, his first posting being to Moscow in 1945, as Third Secretary. His first wife, Elwyn Hague "Bea" (née Gallacher), a stenographer in the Attorney-General's Office in Canberra, died suddenly in 1946 while they were in Moscow. After returning to Canberra, he met and married Dorothy "Dodie" Jordan in 1947. Like his mother Katharine, Dodie was born in Fiji. In the late 1940s he was an adviser to H. V. Evatt in the latter's capacity as President of the United Nations General Assembly. From 1949 to 1951 he was posted at the Australian Embassy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.^{[citation needed]}

His mother was a founding member of the

However, he played an important role in administering the Colombo Plan, and in 1962 led the formation of the department's Cultural Relations Branch. In 1974, the new departmental head,

In 1980 he was appointed Director of the Commonwealth Foundation in London, an Assistant Secretary-level position. That post required the unanimous concurrence of all Commonwealth prime ministers. He remained there until ill health forced his retirement in 1983.^{[citation needed]}

Spying allegations

In 1996, certain transcripts of secret Soviet diplomatic communications known as the

In 1998, Des Ball and David Horner published their book Breaking the Codes, which for the first time detailed the full extent of ASIO's case against Throssell. This included a claim that he actively cooperated with the KGB when he was representing Australia in Brazil in the late 1940s. David Horner went on to publish the Official History of ASIO as its lead author and editor. The first volume, the Spy Catchers (2014), discusses Throssell's case:

By the 1960s additional Venona intercepts had been deciphered and they had revealed more information, confirming that Throssell was [codename] Ferro and that his mother, Katherine Susannah Prichard... had discussed how his career might be of use to the Soviets. The intercepts suggested that Prichard might have passed information from her son to Clayton without her son's knowledge... The Throssell case was never resolved.^[5]

In 2012, further allegations against Throssell were made based on information from Coral Bell, who had been his junior colleague in the Department of External Affairs in 1947 and who believed he had attempted to recruit her to the spy ring.^[6]

Attempts to clear his name

Under

In 1983, to help fund the production of the film The Pursuit of Happiness, based on a book by his daughter Karen Throssell, he donated his father's Victoria Cross to People for Nuclear Disarmament. The Returned and Services League of Australia bought the medal and presented it to the Australian War Memorial, where it is displayed.^{[citation needed]}

Throssell was an active member of Canberra Repertory Theatre as a director, writer and actor.^[7]

Death

His wife Dodie died on 20 April 1999 after a long illness, and he committed suicide later the same day.^[7] They were survived by three of their children and five grandchildren.

Bibliography

Fiction

Novels

• A Reliable Source (1991)
• In the Wilderness of Mirrors (1992)
• Tomorrow (1997)
• Jackpot (1998)

Plays

• Devil Wear Black (1955)
• The Day Before Tomorrow (1956)
• Legend (1957)
• For Valour (1958)
• The Sweet Sad Story of Elmo and Me (1966) - TV
• about 25 other plays

Non-fiction

• My Father's Son (runner-up in the Banjo Non-Fiction Awards 1989; revised version 1997, with a new postscript, "The Last Knot Untied", stating that he "had been a victim of the intelligence game for most of my life".)
• Wild Weeds and Wind Flowers: The Life and Letters of Katharine Susannah Prichard (1975)

He also edited two collections of his mother's writings:

• Straight Left (1982)
• Tribute: Selected Stories of Katharine Susannah Prichard (1988)

Notes