William Alexander Dargie (1912-2003), Richard Gavin Gardiner Casey (detail), 1968, Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection. View full image
Baron Casey
Governor-General, 22 September 1965 to 30 April 1969
Businessman, author, and politician, Richard Casey (1890-1976) had a ‘innate decency, and a capacity for sustained work which made him one of Australia’s and the Commonwealth’s outstanding diplomatists and administrators’.1 On Casey’s death, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser declared: ‘[n]ot only was his public contribution one of great distinction and lasting value; he was also ... the kind of man who imparted stature to the institutions he served’.2
Casey was born in Brisbane to a wealthy family with a long background in state politics.3 A keen sportsman and debater, he studied engineering at Cambridge, before returning to Australia to resume working for the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company. He joined the AIF in October 1914, serving with distinction at Gallipoli and the Western Front, where he was awarded the MC (1917) and DSO (1918). Casey returned to Australia in 1919 to continue a business career and in 1924 Prime Minister Stanley Bruce appointed him as Australia’s first liaison officer to the UK Cabinet secretariat. Two years later he married Ethel Marian Sumner (Maie) Ryan in London.
In 1931 Casey entered federal Parliament as the UAP member for Corio, before becoming Assistant Minister for the Treasury (1933), Treasurer (1935), and Minister for Supply and Development (1939). Resigning his seat in 1940, Casey was appointed Australia’s first ambassador to the USA, where he was instrumental in securing American support for Australia’s regional defence.4 The UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill then appointed him minister-resident in the Middle East (1942-43) and Governor of Bengal (1944-45).
Casey returned to Australia in 1946, becoming federal president of the Liberal Party the following year. In 1949 he was elected to the federal Parliament as Member for La Trobe. He soon joined the ministry in various roles,5 notably as Minister for External Affairs (1951-60) and he remains Australia’s second longest-serving foreign minister.6 In this role Casey strengthened relations with the USA and Asian nations, ‘via the Columbo plan and ANZUS and the SEATO pacts’.7 Other achievements included the Antarctic Treaty and the establishment of Mawson and Davis Stations.8
In 1960 Casey resigned from the federal Parliament and was made a life peer in the UK. Five years later Prime Minister Robert Menzies nominated him as Australia’s 16th Governor-General, the first Australian nominated by a non-Labor Prime Minister. During his term as Governor-General, Casey faced criticism for his interventionism in advising ministers and public servants on matters of policy.9 In 1969, Casey was named Australian of the Year and became the first Australian appointed a KG. He died in 1976, survived by his wife, daughter, and son.
Sir William Alexander Dargie CBE
Artist and teacher William Dargie (1912-2001) is best known for his contribution to Australian portraiture. A prolific portraitist and eight-time winner of the Archibald Prize, Dargie was inspired by the Heidelberg School of impressionist artists. In 1941, while teaching art at Swinburne Technical College in Melbourne, Dargie was appointed an official war artist for the Australian Army. He worked for five years recording the aftermath of battles across the Middle East, India, Burma and New Guinea. After the war, Dargie built a distinguished career as a leading portrait artist, taking on several commissioned portraits of eminent figures, also including the HMC official portraits of Prime Ministers Arthur Fadden and John McEwen. He simultaneously held several administrative positions, serving on the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board for 20 years and heading up the National Gallery of Victoria Art School and the National Gallery of Victoria. In 2002, to mark his 90th birthday, the Australian War Memorial, Parliament House and the National Portrait Gallery held exhibitions to pay tribute to his contribution to Australian art. His work is represented in national and state galleries and other public institutions across Australia.
10
Richard Gavin Gardiner Casey
by William Alexander Dargie
1968
Oil on canvas
104.3 x 85.2 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. C Bridge, ‘Casey, Richard Gavin Gardiner, Baron Casey (1890–1976), politician in Australia and diplomatist’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Information in this biography is also taken from: WJ Hudson, Casey, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1986; J Prior, America Looks to Australia: Richard Casey’s Campaign in the United States, 1940–1942, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, North Melbourne, 2017; P Rodan, ‘Crossing the Line: Richard Casey Re-Visited’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 59(4), 2013, pp. 547–58; WJ Hudson, ‘Casey, Richard Gavin Gardiner (1890–1976)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1993. Websites accessed 30 May 2021.
2. M Fraser, ‘Death of Lord Casey’, House of Representatives, Debates, 17 August 1976, p. 2.
3. His father, also Richard Gardiner, was a former member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly; his maternal uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather had also been Queensland parliamentarians. See FC Green, ‘Casey, Richard Gardiner (1846–1919)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1969; H Haenke, ‘Thorn, George (1806–1876)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1976; C Lack, ‘Harris, George (1831–1891)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1972. Websites accessed 27 October 2021.
4. Prior, op. cit.
5. These were as: Minister for Supply and Development (1949–50), Minister for Works and Housing (1949–51), Minister for National Development (1950–51), Minister in charge of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research (1950–60), and Minister for External Territories (1951).
6. ‘Parliamentary handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia’, 46th Parliament, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2020.
7. Bridge, op. cit.
8. FWG White, ‘Richard Gardiner Casey 1890–1976’, Records of the Australian Academy of Science, 3(3/4), 1977, accessed 12 October 2021.
9. Rodan, op. cit.; Hudson, Casey, op. cit., pp. 304–11.
10. Information in this biography has been taken from: M Keaney, ‘Sir William Dargie CBE’, Portrait 9, September–November 2003, National Portrait Gallery; ‘Sir William Dargie: A Ninetieth Birthday Tribute’, National Portrait Gallery; ‘Captain William Dargie’, Australian War Memorial; ‘Dargie, (Sir) William Alexander’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds, The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 366. Websites accessed 25 March 2021.