Person

Casey, Richard Gavin Gardiner (1890 - 1976)

KG GCMG CH DSO MC PC FAA

  • Click to view this Image

    Richard Gavin Gardiner Casey
    Details

Born
29 August 1890
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Died
17 June 1976
Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Engineer, Science administrator and Governor-General

Summary

Richard Casey had a major influence on international collaboration in science and technology in Australia, particularly when he was the Minister-in-Charge of CSIR/CSIRO 1937-1939, 1950-1960, Minister for External Affairs 1951-1960 and Governor-General of Australia 1965-1969. Also through his earlier liaison roles in London 1924-1931 and America 1940-1942, and his later roles associated with ANARE and CSIRO.

Related achievements include: his support for BANZARE expeditions 1929 -1931; the Antarctic Treaty (1959); the establishment of Mawson and Davis Stations in Antarctica; and the taking over of Wilkes station (1959). Casey Range (1930), Casey Bay (1956), and Casey Station (1965) in Antarctica are named in his honour.

He has also been recognised by the naming of the City of Casey within Greater Melbourne, and the naming of Casey, a suburb of Canberra.

Details

Chronology

1909
Education - Engineering student, University of Melbourne
1913
Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA) (Hons engineering), University of Cambridge
1913 - 1914
Career position - Worked at Mount Morgan Gold Mining Co Ltd, Queensland [his father was chairman of the company]
1914 - 1918
Military service - First World War. Lieutenant, rising to Captain, and Major, Australian Infantry Forces [Chiefly as a staff officer]
1917
Award - Military Cross (MC) - Volunteer Auto Corps
1918
Education - Master of Arts (MA), University of Cambridge
1918
Award - Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) - Australian Infantry Forces
1918
Award - Mentioned in Despatches (MID), twice
1919
Career event - Returned to Australia via America [Visiting engineering and metallurgical works, related to Mount Morgan Company]
1919 - 1923
Career position - Board member, various companies including Mount Morgan Company
c. 1920 - c. 1923
Career position - Established a small steel-manufacturing firm, making cultery
1923
Career position - Member of a syndicate that supported the production of an automotive engine, developed and manufactured by A G M Michell [Casey unsuccessfully marketed the engine in America]
1924 - 1931
Career position - Australian political liaison officer, London [under Stanley Bruce. Casey was also closely associated with BANZARE]
1931 - 1940
Career position - Member of the House of Representatives (MHR), for Corio, Commonwealth of Australia
1933 - 1935
Career position - Assistant Treasurer, Commonwealth of Australia
1935 - 1939
Career position - Treasurer, Commonwealth of Australia [under Joseph Lyons and Earle Page]
1937
Career event - Member, Australian Delegation, Imperial Conference & Coronation
1937 - 1939
Career position - Minister-in-Charge of Development and Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Commonwealth of Australia
1939
Career position - Appointed Privy Councillor (PC)
1939
Career event - Australian Representative, Imperial Conference on Conduct of War
1939 - 1940
Career position - Minister for Supply and Development [under Robert Menzies]
1940 - 1942
Career position - Ambassador to the United States, Commonwealth of Australia [First Australian Minister to USA]
1942
Career position - Member, War Cabinet [under Winston Churchill]
1942 - 1943
Career position - Minister of State, resident in the Middle East, British government [appointed by Winston Churchill]
1944
Award - Companion of Honour (CH) - Minister of State in Cairo during World War 2
1944 - 1945
Career position - Governor of Bengal [appointed by Winston Churchill]
1946
Life event - Returned to Australia
1947 - 1950
Career position - Federal president, Liberal Party of Australia
1949 - 1951
Career position - Minister for Supply and Development (National Development from 1950)
1949 - 1951
Career position - Minister for Works and Housing, Commonwealth of Australia
1949 - 1960
Career position - Member of the House of Representatives (MHR), for La Trobe, Commonwealth of Australia
1950 - 1960
Career position - Minister-in-Charge, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Commonwealth of Australia
1951 - 1960
Career position - Minister for External Affairs, Commonwealth of Australia
1960
Career position - Life peer, Baron Casey, of Berwick in the State of Victoria and Commonwealth of Australia and of the City of Westminster
1965
Award - Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) - Governor-General designate
1965 - 1969
Career position - Governor-General of Australia
1966
Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)
1966
Award - Honorary Member (HonMIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia
1967
Award - Doctor of Engineering (DEng), honoris causa, University of Newcastle
1968
Award - Honorary Fellow (HonFIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia [Former Honorary Members were designated Honorary Fellows on this date.]
1969
Award - Australian of the Year
1969
Award - Knight of the Garter (KG) - Governor-General of Australia - 1965 and 1969

Related Corporate Bodies

Related People

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Cornelius Gavin Casey - Records, 1820 - 1978, MS 6150; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Hudson, W. J., Casey (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1986), 361 pp. Details

Book Sections

Journal Articles

Resources

Resource Sections

See also

Digital resources

Title
Richard Gavin Gardiner Casey
Type
Image

Details

Gavan McCarthy; Ken McInnes

EOAS ID: biogs/P000300b.htm

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
What do we mean by this?

Published by Swinburne University of Technology.
This Edition: 2024 November (Ballambar - Gariwerd calendar - early summer - season of butterflies)
Reference: http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/calendars/gariwerd.shtml#ballambar
For earlier editions see the Internet Archive at: https://web.archive.org/web/*/www.eoas.info

The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation uses the Online Heritage Resource Manager (OHRM), a relational data curation and web publication system developed by the eScholarship Research Centre and its predecessors at the University of Melbourne 1999-2020. The OHRM has been maintained by Gavan McCarthy since 2020.

Cite this page: https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P000300b.htm

"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260