What happened to the key characters in Dark Secrets?
HMAS Australia officers
Jack Crace was promoted to Admiral in command of the Chatham Dock Yards in 1946 and was knighted in 1947. He retired to Hampshire and passed away on 11 May 1968. His wife Carola and their three sons survived him. His only comments about the Riley incident were in his war diaries, which are in the Imperial War Museum in London.
Harold Farncomb was recalled from Washington in January 1950 after drinking problems intensified. He was transferred to the Retired List of Officers on 7 April 1951. He subsequently gave up alcohol completely, learnt Latin, studied law, was admitted to the Bar on 6 June 1958 and joined the solicitors, Alfred Rose & Sons. Heart disease eventually forced him to retire and he passed away at the age of 72 on 12 February 1971. His ashes were scattered at sea from his last flagship, Sydney. A Collins Class submarine was named after him. Harold Farncomb’s portrait is in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Harold’s wife, Jean survived him. She was devoted to Farncomb throughout his career and remained childless. Farncomb never wrote about the Riley incident.
Jack Armstrong left the flagship shortly after the Riley murder and was posted to the armed merchant cruisers Manoora and Westralia. He subsequently served as Chief of Staff to the Flag Officer in charge in Sydney in November 1943 and was appointed naval Officer-in-Charge in New Guinea. Armstrong returned to Australia in October 1944 after Captain Frank Dechaineux was killed in a kamikaze attack. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the US Navy Cross for his actions in commanding Australia in the Lingayen Gulf. He then served aboard HMS Ruler and HMS Vindex, two British aircraft carriers, to gain experience to captain Australia’s first planned aircraft carrier after the war. However, a medical examination concluded that he was unfit for further service and he was forced into shore appointments in Melbourne, London and Washington in 1955 before he retired in 1958. From 1962, Armstrong and his wife, Philippa lived on the island of Jersey in the English Channel, where he passed away at the age of 68 in December 1968. His wife, Philippa, two sons and a daughter survived Armstrong.
Jack Donovan served on Australia until July 1942. He served at shore establishments until he was given command of HMAS Gascoyne in 1943 and 1944. That was his last sea posting and he was appointed a full Commander in 1946 before transferring to the retired list. After retiring, Jack and his wife, Ella moved to Canberra. He died in 1984 at 83 years of age. His wife Ella, a son and a daughter survived him.
Malcolm Stening served on Australia during the Battle of the Coral Sea and then transferred to the Royal Navy battleship, HMS Howe before joining the RAN Reserve. After the war he practised medicine at the King George V Hospital, where he was regarded as the ‘Michelangelo of Surgery’. Stening was 102 years old when he died in 2014.(59) His second wife, Yvonne and adopted daughter, Wendie-Sue, survived him.
Arch Harrington served on the flagship for the best part of two years until he was appointed to command the destroyer, HMAS Quiberon in July 1944, just before the Battle of Leyte Gulf. After the war he served in a range of shore and sea duties, including as captain of the destroyer HMAS Warramunga and the aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney. He was appointed a CBE in 1957 and appointed a Rear Admiral and Second Naval Member on the ACNB. In 1963 he was made a Vice Admiral, Chief of the Naval Staff and a Knight of the British Empire. He retired in February 1965 and passed away later that year. His ashes were scattered off the coast of Sydney from HMAS Vampire. His wife, Agnes, two sons and two daughters survived him.
The court martial panel
Robert Bevan, who chaired the court martial panel in 1942, survived the war, even though Leander was torpedoed and severely damaged in July 1943. He returned to Britain and retired in April 1946, passing away at the age of 72 in October 1964. He was survived by his wife, Margaret and two sons and two daughters.
Stephen Roskill was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his action in keeping Leander afloat after it was torpedoed in 1943. He was promoted to the British Admiralty Delegation in Washington in March 1944. He retired in May 1949 and returned to Britain. He became the official historian of the Royal Navy between 1949 and 1960. He had married Elizabeth Van den Burgh in 1930 and they had seven children before he passed away in Cambridge aged 79 in November 1982.
John Rayment was promoted to Acting Commander and Squadron Navigating Officer of Australia. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his ‘skill, resolution and coolness’ during the Solomon Islands campaign. He was also mentioned in dispatches while serving on Australia in operations that led to the capture of the western end of New Britain in July 1944. He was on the bridge and mortally wounded when Australia was hit by a kamikaze attack in the Leyte Gulf operation in October 1944. He was only 44 when he died. His wife, Enid and son survived him.
Patrick Perry the Secretary to Rear Admiral Crace aboard Australia and Deputy Judge Advocate on the court martial panel, went on to have a very successful naval career. When Victor Crutchley replaced Jack Crace as Squadron Commander, Perry stayed on Australia as his secretary. In July 1944, Perry was promoted to the Navy Office in Melbourne as Secretary to various Chiefs of Naval Staff, including Admiral Guy Royle, Admiral Louis Hamilton and Rear Admiral John Collins, where his knowledge of the incident on Australia in 1942 would have advised the Navy Board. Perry was promoted to captain in December 1947. He subsequently qualified as a barrister and was called to the Victorian Bar in 1952, but continued his naval career and became Judge Advocate for the RAN between 1957 and 1958. He was made the fourth member of the ACNB in 1958 and promoted to Rear Admiral in 1961. He retired in February 1963 and passed away at the age of 72 in May 1975. His wife, Barbara and two sons survived him.
John Bath lived in Woolahra in Sydney after he left the RAN. He left Australia aged 46 in 1954.
John Mansell returned to Britain after the war and passed away at the age of 62 in 1967.
The Australian Commonwealth Naval Board
Sir Guy Royle served as Chief of the Australian Naval Staff until 1945. In retirement, he was appointed Secretary to the Lord Great Chamberlain and Yeoman Usher (Deputy) of the Black Rod, a ceremonial positioning in the House of Lords (UK). He collapsed and died while putting out a heath fire near his home in Dorset in 1954 at the age of 69.
Sir Louis Hamilton replaced Sir Guy Royle and was the last Royal Navy adviser to the Australian government between 1945 and 1948. He e He died at King Edward VII Hospital in June 1957.
Sir John Collins was appointed Chief of Naval Staff in 1948, replacing Sir Louis Hamilton and held the position until 1955. He was knighted in 1951 and served as the High Commissioner to New Zealand between 1956 and 1962. He died peacefully in September 1989 at the age of 90. His wife Phyllis, and a daughter survived Sir John. Lady Collins launched the first Collins Class submarine, HMAS Collins, in 1993.
George Macandie joined the Marine Defence Force Office in Queensland in 1896 and set up the Department of Defence in Melbourne in 1903. He was secretary of the ACNB from 1914 until 1946, when he retired from the public service. His right-hand man, Tom Hawkins, succeeded him. After he retired, George wrote a book, The Genesis of the Royal Australian Navy, which included many of his unique insights from the First World War onwards. He died in the leafy Melbourne suburb of Canterbury at the age of 91 in April 1968. His wife, Alice, a son and two daughters survived Macandie.
Alfred Nankervis was Secretary of the Department of the Navy from November 1939 until March 1950. He was secretary to eight ministers for the Navy, including Sir Frederick Stewart, A. G. Cameron, Billy Hughes, Norman Makin, William Riordan and Josiah Francis. After he retired, Alfred was an active member of the Navy, Army and Air Force Club and the RACV. He died at the age of 71 in July 1956 at his Camberwell home. His wife, Nellie, a son and two daughters survived him.
Tom Hawkins started as a clerk in the Navy Office in 1915 and served under 17 Navy ministers. He succeeded George Macandie as Secretary to the ACNB in 1946 and Alfred Nankervis as Secretary of the Department of the Navy in 1950. He was knighted in 1955. Hawkins retired in 1963 after facilitating the move of the Department of the Navy to Canberra. He moved back to Melbourne and passed away at the age of 78 in September 1976. His wife, Kathleen, four sons and three daughters survived Hawkins.
Senior Canberra public servants
Sir George Knowles quickly established effective relationships with South Africa when he was appointed High Commissioner in 1946 and was given a state funeral in Pretoria when he died suddenly after complications from surgery. He body was returned to Australia and he was buried in Woden Cemetery in Canberra. He was survived by his wife, Lady Knowles.
Professor Kenneth Bailey was Secretary of the Attorney General’s Department for 18 years between 1946 and 1964. He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1953 and knighted in 1958. Sir Kenneth Bailey was appointed High Commissioner to Canada for five years between 1964 and 1969. In 1972, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at a special ceremony at Canberra Hospital, just before he died at the age of 74. His wife, Edith, and one son survived Bailey.
William Hodgson was Secretary of the Department of External Affairs until 1949 when he was appointed the British Commonwealth Representative on the Allied Council for Japan. He was appointed High Commissioner to South Africa in 1952 until his retirement from the diplomatic service in 1957. He died of cancer in 1958 in Sydney. His wife, Muriel died in 1946. A son and daughter survived Hodgson.
John Burton served as a Private Secretary to Bert Evatt during the war and was appointed Secretary of the Department of External Affairs in 1949. He became the Australian High Commissioner to Ceylon in 1950. He resigned in 1951 and returned home to contest the federal seat of Lowe as a Labor candidate. He was defeated by a future Liberal Party prime minister, Billy McMahon. There were accusations that John Burton was, along with Allan Dalziel, a Soviet agent, but there were never any formal claims made against him in the Royal Commission into Espionage in 1954.
The lawyers
Trevor Rapke resumed his legal career after he left the RAN in 1944 and married Betty Ellison in June 1947. He stayed close to Christina Byrnes and Gordon and Elias until he was appointed a Queens Counsel and Judge of the County Court in Victoria in 1958. Rapke also represented Australia at the 1957 World Jewish Congress and was a founding member of the World Israel Movement. In 1964 Rapke was appointed Judge Advocate-General of the Royal Australian Navy with the nominal rank of Rear Admiral, the same rank as Harold Farncomb when he retired from the RAN. However, Rapke declined to accept the rank of Rear Admiral. Rapke passed away at the age of 67 in January 1978. His wife Betty and their children survived Rapke.
Dr Frank Louat returned from overseeing the referendum about independence in the French territories in India in 1950 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel. He became honorary vice president of the French Chamber of Commerce, and in 1958 he was appointed to the Legion d’Honneur for furthering French–Australian relations. Dr Louat was also president of the Wine and Food Society in NSW and frequently travelled to France on wine-tasting holidays. He was in France when he passed away at the age of 62 in January 1963. His second wife Isobel survived Louat.
Mervyn Finlay continued his legal practice in Sydney after Gordon and Elias were released. He was a flamboyant character, but became increasingly eccentric and was regularly seen with a cloak and cane walking the streets of Sydney. In 1964 Finlay died at the age of 73 in a car accident. Marjorie and their two children survived Finlay. His son, also named Mervyn Finlay, served with the RAAF in the Second World War and followed his father into the law and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1984. He passed away in 2014.
The Judges
Judge Alfred Rainbow, who found the embarrassing misconception that kept Gordon and Elias in gaol longer than necessary, continued at the Workers Compensation Commission after the war. Unfortunately, Alfred Rainbow died suddenly at the age of 63 in December 1963. He was survived by his wife, Jean and their daughter, Lynn Carol Rainbow-Reid, who went on to play roles in well-known television and theatre including police dramas, Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police. The good works of Judge Rainbow live on in his prisoner shelter in Glebe. Unfortunately no one working at the Glebe shelter knows much about Judge Rainbow’s role in freeing Gordon and Elias.
Justice Allan Maxwell had a long and successful judicial career that was periodically interrupted with appointments as a Royal Commissioner. His most controversial postwar role was to review the liquor laws in NSW between 1925 and 1954, which proposed more civilised drinking practices throughout the state. He passed away aged 88 on 5 October 1975. His wife Sadie and their three children survived Allan. His son Victor Maxwell was appointed to the Supreme Court bench in 1974.
Labor politicians and advisers
Ben Chifley became Prime Minister, as well as Treasurer, after the sudden death of John Curtin in 1945. He was to lead the Labor government to an election victory in 1946, but with a reduced majority. His government embarked on an ambitious program of social policy reforms and nation-building schemes, including large-scale immigration, the Snowy Mountains Scheme and the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank. However, some of his economic policies, including an attempt to nationalise the banks, were not well received by the general public. As a result, his government was defeated at the 1949 general election by the conservative coalition led by Robert Menzies. Chifley stayed on as Opposition leader until he also passed away suddenly from a heart attack at the age of 66, a few months after the 1951 election. His wife, Elizabeth, rarely left Bathurst, even after Chifley became prime minister, until she passed away in 1962. They did not have any children.
Bert Evatt was at the peak of his political career during the war and the formation of the United Nations. He also became leader of the Labor Party after Ben Chifley died in June 1951. At first, his leadership went well. He campaigned successfully against the Menzies government move to ban the Communist Party. However, two members of Evatt’s staff, including Alan Dalziel, were publicly named as Soviet spies and Evatt controversially defended them before the Royal Commission into Espionage, commissioned by Robert Menzies. Evatt’s failure to win the 1954 election resulted in conflict with the Catholic-dominated ‘Groupers’ in the Labor Party and the disaffected members formed the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), which directed preferences against the ALP at subsequent elections. Labor was subsequently defeated in the 1955 and 1958 elections. In 1960, the NSW state government appointed Evatt as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales to provide a dignified exit from politics. Unfortunately, his behaviour became more and more eccentric and he was forced to retire in 1962. He passed away at the age of 71 in November 1965. His wife Mary Alice and their two children survived Evatt.
Allan Dalziel was at the peak of his career in 1947. He toured Australia to promote the government’s commitment to the United Nations and represented Australia at the UN Conference on Human Rights in New York. But as his profile increased, he came under political criticism for running Evatt’s electorate office while a public servant and his alleged connections to Soviet agents. Dalziel was quizzed about his role in the Royal Commission into Espionage in 1954, but he was exonerated. After Evatt retired from parliament in 1960, Dalziel relied on patronage from Bishop Burgmann and worked as a field officer for the NSW Council of Churches. In 1968, he was appointed General Secretary of the NSW Temperance Alliance and campaigned vigorously against moves to introduce Sunday liquor trading. Dalziel published ‘Evatt the Enigma’ in 1967, only two years before he passed away, aged 61, in October 1969. Dalziel never had time for marriage and was simply remembered as ‘one of the most effective social workers and workers for socialism in this country’.
Norman Makin left the Australia case behind when he was appointed the first President of the United Nations Security Council in 1946. A year later, he became Australian Ambassador to the United States. He remained in that role under the Menzies government. Makin returned to Australia in 1951 and re-entered politics to win the marginal Liberal seat of Sturt for Labor at the 1954 federal election. He retired at the 1963 election, but remained politically active for many years. He passed away at the age of 93 in July 1982. His wife Ruby and their two children survived Makin.
Arthur Drakeford, the Federal Labor Member for Maribynong in Victoria, briefly replaced Norman Makin as Navy Minister in 1946. However, he concentrated on the establishment of a state-owned airline and was in charge of the purchase of QANTAS in 1947. After the DLP split, he lost his seat of Maribynong at the 1955 federal election. He passed away, aged 79, at his home in Moonee Ponds in June 1957. His wife, Ellen and their four daughters survived Drakeford.
William Riordan, the Federal Labor Member for Kennedy in Queensland, was appointed Navy Minister after the 1946 federal election. He held on to that portfolio until the 1949 federal election loss to the Coalition. He was the last Labor minister to run the Navy until the Whitlam government was elected in 1972. He stayed in federal parliament on the backbench after the 1949 election loss and travelled widely in his Queensland electorate of Darby until he retired on medical advice in 1966. He died of pneumonia at the age of 65 in January 1973. His wife, Kathleen survived Riordan.
Jack Holloway, Federal Labor Member for Flinders in Victoria, supported Ben Chifley in the leadership ballot after John Curtain died in July 1945 and retained his Labor ministry. He was also acting Attorney General at times until the election loss in 1949. Like William Riordan, Jack Holloway moved to the backbench after the 1949 election loss. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1951 and retired from Parliament. He lived in St Kilda until his death, aged 92, in 1967. He never married.
Jack Beasley, Federal Labor Member for West Sydney in NSW, served as acting Minister for Defence under the John Curtin government and held the Defence portfolio under Frank Forde and Ben Chifley until he was appointed to the Privy Council, and High Commissioner in London in 1946. He died suddenly during a visit to Sydney, aged only 54, in September 1949. His wife Alma, two sons and two daughters survived Beasley.
Nicholas McKenna, Federal Labor Senator for Tasmania, was acting Attorney General under Ben Chifley. He remained on the backbench and supported Ben Chifley in the fight against Coalition attempts to ban the Communist Party. In the 1950s, he led secret negotiations with B.A. Santamaria to try and reconcile the ALP and DLP, and in 1960 he secured the deal that appointed Gough Whitlam as Deputy Leader of the Labor Party. He retired from the Senate in June 1968 and passed away, aged 79, in April 1974, seeing the Labor Party re-elected to government under Gough Whitlam in 1972. His wife Kathleen and a son and daughter survived McKenna.
John Dedman, Federal Labor Member for Corio in Victoria, was Defence Minister during the Chifley government, but lost his seat at the 1949 federal election loss and failed to regain his seat in the 1951 and 1954 federal elections. After politics, John Dedman worked for the World Council of Churches and resettlement of refugees. He died at the age of 77 in November 1973. His wife, Jessie and a son and two daughters survived Dedman.
Tom Sheehan, the redoubtable Labor member for Cook, who supported Christina Byrnes through her long campaign to free Ted, remained in parliament until he passed away at the age of 64 in March 1955. His wife Annie and their four children survived Sheehan.
Sol Rosevear, the Federal Labor Member for Dalley in NSW and Speaker of the House of Representatives in Canberra until 1949, played an important role in the early part of the 1944 campaign to free the two prisoners and lived to see them released from goal. He continued as a backbench MP after the Labor Party lost the 1949 federal election, but died, aged 61, in March 1953. His wife, Clara and a son and daughter survived Rosevear.
NSW Labor backbench Members of Parliament
Daniel Clyne, State Labor Member for King in NSW, played a passing role in the campaign to free the two prisoners and retired from state politics in 1956, six years after the two prisoners were released. He passed away aged 86 in August 1965. His wife Mary and a son and daughter survived Clyne.
Lillian Fowler, State Labor Member for Newtown in NSW, also played an important role in rekindling the dormant campaign to free the two prisoners in 1944. She remained an Alderman of the Newtown Council until 1948 and the local State Member for Newtown until 1950, the same year the two prisoners were released, but passed away aged 67 in 1954. A daughter survived Fowler and her husband, Albert.
Conservative politicians
Sir Robert Menzies, the Liberal Party Member for Kooyong, was re-elected prime minister on 19 December 1949. Menzies’ second prime ministership lasted a record 16 years. He resigned on Australia Day 1966, and resigned from parliament on 16 February, ending 32 years in parliament (most of them spent as either a cabinet minister or Opposition frontbencher), a combined 25 years as leader of the non-Labor Coalition, and 38 years as an elected official. To date, Robert Menzies is the last Australian prime minister to leave office on his own terms. He was succeeded as Liberal Party leader and prime minister by his former Treasurer, Harold Holt. He left office at the age of 71 years, 1 month and 6 days, making him the oldest person ever to be prime minister. In 1971, Robert Menzies suffered a severe stroke and was permanently paralyzed on one side of his body for the remainder of his life. He suffered a second stroke in 1972. He died from a heart attack while reading in his study at his Haverbrack Avenue home in Malvern, Melbourne on 15 May 1978. His wife, Dame Pattie, two sons and a daughter survived Menzies.
Billy Hughes, the Federal Liberal Member for Bradfield, won the seat after a redistribution in the 1949 federal election. He remained a Member of Parliament until his death in October 1952. He was a member of the House of Representatives for 51 years and seven months. Including his service in the New South Wales colonial parliament before that, Hughes had spent a total of 58 years as an MP, and never lost an election. His political service remains a record in Australia. At the age of 90 years, one month and three days, Billy Hughes was the oldest person ever to have been a member of the Australian parliament. He was also the last member of the original Australian Parliament elected in 1901 still serving in parliament when he died on 28 October 1952 at his home in Linfield. His state funeral was held at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney and was one of the largest Australia has seen, with an estimated 450,000 spectators lining the streets. His wife, Dame Mary survived Hughes.
Percy Spender, Federal Liberal member for Warringah, replaced Bert Evatt as Minister for External Affairs under the Menzies government in December 1949. During this period, Spender led Australian delegations to the British Commonwealth Conference in Colombo, and to the Fifth Session of the United Nations General Assembly, where he was appointed Vice-President. Spender Spender left politics in 1951 when he was appointed Ambassador to the United States. He was knighted in 1952. In 1958, Sir Percy Spender was the first Australian to be appointed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He was Court President between 1964 until 1967. His wife Jean Henderson, a crime fiction writer, died in 1970 but he married again in 1975 to Averil Trenerry. Sir Percy Spender had two sons to his first wife, one of whom, John Spender also became a politician and diplomat. Sir Percy died in May 1985 at the age of 87.
Governor Generals
The First Earl of Gowrie, Sir Alexander Gore Arkwright ‘Sandy’ Hore-Ruthven, planned to relinquish the role of Governor General in 1939, but extended his term to a record nine years when the Second World War was declared. He left Australia in September 1944. In 1945 he was created Earl and until 1953 served as Deputy Constable and Lieutenant Governor of Windsor Castle. He died in Gloucestershire in May 1955 at the age of 83. His wife, Zara survived Gowrie.
The Duke of Gloucester, Sir Henry William Frederick Albert, Prince Henry, was the son of George V and Queen Mary, was appointed Governor General in 1944. He left Australia in March 1947 after only two years in the role because he needed to act as Senior Counselor of State during the Royal visit of King George VI to South Africa. In 1949, Prime Henry served as Lord High Commissioner to the Church of Scotland and carried out a number of Royal engagements, including overseas tours. He suffered his first stroke in 1965, and after two further strokes, he was confined to a wheelchair and could not speak. This effectively ended his Royal engagements. He died in June 1974 and was buried in the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore. His second wife Alice and his second son, Prince Richard survived him. His first son, Prince William died in an aircraft crash in 1972.
William McKell was appointed Governor General in 1947. King George VI initially opposed the appointment because William McKell had been a serving politician. Robert Menzies extended McKell’s term by 14 months from its initial five years. In November 1951, McKell received a Knighthood from King George VI in London, sparking controversy within the Labor movement. He is the only Governor General to be knighted while in office until Quentin Bryce was appointed a Dame in 2014. McKell retired in May 1953 and served as a member of the Reid Commission between 1956 and 1957 that drafted the Constitution for Malaysia. He lived in Sydney for a further 28 years before he died in January 1985, at the age of 94. His wife, Lady Mary McKell, passed away six months after him.
Sir Zelman Cowen served in the RAN alongside Trevor Rapke in Darwin and on the staff of US General Douglas MacArthur in Brisbane. After the war he attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. In 1951, he became Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Melbourne and was an acknowledged expert on Constitutional Law. He also served as Vice Chancellor of the University of New England (1966–70) and the University of Queensland (1970–77). He was knighted in 1976, the same year he was appointed Governor General. He was the second Jewish Australian to be appointed Governor General after Isaac Isaacs held the post in the 1930s. After retiring from the position, Cowen returned to academia as the provost of Oriel College in Oxford between 1982 and 1990. He suffered from Parkinson’s Disease for the last 15 years of his life and died at his home in Toorak in December 2011, at the age of 92. His wife, Anna and four children survived Cowen.
High Commissioners
Melbourne Stanley Bruce was High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He was initially highly influential, leading the formation of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, but fell out of favour with Winston Churchill and was bypassed by Earle Page in wartime dealings with the British government. He was elevated to a peerage in 1947 and became the first Australian to sit in the House of Lords. He returned to Australia and became the first Chancellor of the Australian National University. He died in August 1967 while visiting London, aged 84. His wife, Ethel survived Bruce.
Sir Roland Hibbert Cross was British High Commissioner in Canberra. He returned to Britain in 1945 and in 1950 was elected to the seat of Ormskirk in Lancashire. He was made Governor of Tasmania in 1951 and Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II when she visited Australia in 1954. He retired in 1958 and returned to Britain. He died in May 1968 at Westminster at the age of 72. His wife, Louise, their four daughters and a son survived Sir Roland.
Special envoys
Earle Christmas Page was appointed a special envoy to the British War Cabinet by Arthur Fadden. He returned to Australian in 1949 and became Minister for Health under the second Menzies government. He retired from the Ministry in 1956, but stayed in parliament until the 1961 election. He died in December 1961 at the age of 81. His second wife, Jean and their five children survived Page.
William Sydney Robinson was at the zenith of his career in the Second Word War. The former businessman made 40 trips to the US, 24 to Canada and 12 to Britain as an unofficial envoy for Bert Evatt to ensure smooth passage of war supplies to Australia. After the war, he resigned as Managing Director of the Zinc Corporation, but he remained closely involved in business matters and cattle breeding in Queensland until he passed away at the age of 87 in 1963. His only son predeceased him in 1961. His second wife, Gertrude and a daughter from his first marriage, survived Robinson.
British political leaders and public servants
King George VI, Albert Frederick Arthur George, assumed the title, Head of the Commonwealth after India and Ireland became republics. A planned tour of Australia and New Zealand was abandoned in March 1949 when he was diagnosed with an arterial blockage in his left leg. As a result of his heavy smoking, he also suffered from lung cancer. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth took on more responsibility as the King’s health declined. Despite his doctor’s advice, he went to the airport to see Elizabeth leave for a tour of Australia in late January 1952. Less than a week later, George VI died at Sandringham House in Norfolk from coronary thrombosis at the age of 56. His wife, Elizabeth and two daughters survived George VI. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in June 1953.
Sir Winston Churchill formed a caretaker government in 1945 after the Labor Party walked out on wartime coalition. He lost the election on 5 July 1945, but served as Leader of the Opposition for another six years. After the Conservative Party won the 1951 general election, Churchill became prime minister for a second time and remained until his resignation in April 1955 at the age of 81. He finally stood down from parliament at the 1964 General Election, at the age of 90. On 15 January 1965, Winston Churchill suffered a major stroke and died at his London home nine days later. His wife, Clementine, their three daughters and a son, Randolph, survived Churchill.
Clement Attlee led the Labour Party to a landside victory in July 1945. He led a reformist government which held onto power at the 1950 general election with a reduced majority. The Labour Party split in 1951 and Atlee called a snap election but Labour lost the election. He became Opposition Leader for four years, but lost the 1955 general election to Anthony Eden and retired in December at the age of 72, having led the Labour Party for 20 years. He retired from the House of Commons and was elevated to a peerage in the House of Lords in 1955. He spoke against British entry into the European Union in 1962. He attended Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965 and became ill after standing in the freezing cold during the ceremony. He died of pneumonia at the age of 84 in 1967. His wife Violet died in 1964. They had three daughters and a son.
Viscount Cranborne, Robert ‘Bobbety’ Gascoyne-Cecil, the 5th Marquess of Salisbury, served as Secretary of State for the Colonies and Lord Privy Seal until 1943. Lord Salisbury became Leader of the House of Lords and returned to his former role as Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs between 1943 and 1945. In 1947, King George VI made Lord Salisbury a Knight of the Order of the Garter. During the 1950s, when the Conservative Party returned to office, he served Winston Churchill and then Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan. He was known as a hard line Imperialist and defended white-dominated governments in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. After he retired, Lord Salisbury became a Fellow of the Royal Academy and a Trustee of the National Gallery. He was Chancellor of the University of Liverpool from 1951 until 1971. He died in February 1972 at the age of 78. He wife, Moyra and a son survived Cranborne. Two sons predeceased their parents.
Paul Emrys-Evans served as Under Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs until 1945. He lost his seat in the House of Commons in the 1945 election and retired form politics. He died in 1967.
Sir Eric Machtig served as Deputy Under Secretary of the Dominions Office until he retired in 1949. In retirement, Sir Eric led a very productive commercial life as a Director of Barclay’s Bank from 1949 until 1969. He died childless in July 1973 at the age of 84. His wife Pauline survived Sir Eric.
Clergymen
Dr Ernest Burgmann, the ‘Bushman Bishop’, wrote his autobiography, The Education of an Australian in 1944. It was a best seller at the time. Burgmann lost touch with Christina Byrnes after Ted was transferred to Emu Plains. He became a delegate at the first postwar meeting of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam, and, at the invitation of Bert Evatt, attended the United Nations Assembly when it was drafting the Declaration of Human Rights. His involvement in the Australia–Soviet Friendship League saw him labelled ‘the Red Bishop’ and ‘Bolshie Burgie’ during the Menzies crackdown on the Communist Party in the early 1950s. He passed away aged 88 in March 1967. His wife Edna and their five children survived Burgmann.
Cardinal Norman Gilroy spent most of his post-war energy devoted to building churches and schools for Catholics in NSW. The 1954 split of the Australian Labor Party saw Cardinal Gilroy opposed to Melbourne Archbishop, Daniel Mannix, who backed B. A. Santamaria’s breakaway ‘movement’. Despite his political activism during the war, Gilroy opposed the movement and banned distribution of its literature in NSW churches. Cardinal Gilroy was knighted in 1969, the first Roman Catholic cardinal to receive a knighthood since the English Reformation. He was also named Australian of the Year in 1970. He retired in July 1971 and passed away at the age of 81 in 1977.