Richard Casey, Baron Casey

Richard Casey (1942)

Richard Gardiner Casey, Baron Casey , KG , GCMG , CH , DSO , MC (born August 29, 1890 in Brisbane , Queensland , † June 17, 1976 in Berwick , Victoria ) was an Australian politician and, among other things, Foreign Minister and Governor General of the country .

Early life

Casey was born in Brisbane , Queensland . His father, also named Richard Gardiner Casey, was a wealthy cattle and sheep farmer and state politician in Queensland of Irish descent. His mother Evelyn was the daughter of George Harris, another Queensland politician and also an animal breeder. In 1893 the family moved to Melbourne , where Casey's father became a wealthy company executive. Casey himself went to the Cumloden School in St. Kilda and the Melbourne Grammar School. In 1909 he enrolled for the first year of engineering at the University of Melbourne , but later went to Trinity College in Cambridge , England , where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts , which he received in 1913. In 1918 the Master of Arts title followed.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Casey moved to the First Australian Imperial Force , where he served as a lieutenant and, among other things, took part in the Battle of Gallipoli as aide-de-camp of Major General Sir William Bridges . Casey was standing next to him when Bridges was killed by a sniper. He later fought on the Western Front , where the Military Cross was awarded for his services. He was promoted to Brigade Major (Chief of Staff) of the 8th Brigade. Since he had to take on dangerous tasks directly on the front line in this position, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1918 . In June 1919 he retired from active military service and then served as a part-time officer in the officer reserve in the military intelligence service in Melbourne.

Since Casey's father died in the same year, he took over his business empire and henceforth managed a. a. its mines. He continued this work until 1924. He was then Political Liaison Officer for Prime Minister Stanley Bruce in London. He held this office until 1931 and provided the government of Bruce and his successor James Scullin of the Australian Labor Party with trustworthy information from business and politics. In 1926 he married Ethel Marian Sumner (Maie) Ryan, with whom he had two children.

Political career

In 1931 Casey returned to Australia and was elected to the House of Representatives for the United Australia Party (UAP) in the constituency of Corio ( Geelong ). After being made Assistant Minister by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons in 1933, he became Secretary of the Treasury in 1935.

In 1939 Robert Menzies became the new premier, who saw him as a competitor. Now he got the less prestigious office of Minister of Supply and Development. In 1940 he was named the first Australian ambassador to the United States by Menzies . While this was a great challenge and recognition during the wartime, it was also meant to keep Casey out of domestic politics. Casey, who was in Washington, DC when the United States entered World War II, helped start the alliance between Australia and the United States.

Casey moved to Cairo in 1942 when he was named Local Minister by Winston Churchill . This was to the annoyance of Prime Minister John Curtin and some members of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office . There he represented an important liaison between the British, their allies, the commanding officers and local clan chiefs. After the war in the Middle East was over, Casey was appointed governor of the Indian province of Bengal . He held this post until 1946.

For the 1946 federal elections, Casey returned to Australia hoping to get a seat in parliament and became leader of the newly formed Liberal Party of Australia , which Menzies founded in 1944 to strengthen and reorganize conservative politics in Australia. Casey turned down the offer of a Peerage of the United Kingdom to advance his political ambitions. However, it was already too late for him to intervene in the primaries. In September 1947 he was persuaded to become federal chairman of the Liberal Party and made generous donations. Although Menzies still saw Casey as a direct rival and he saw himself as the future prime minister, there was a successful collaboration between the two.

In the 1949 federal elections, which were won by the Liberals, Casey returned to the House of Representatives with a seat for the La Trobe constituency. Menzies then made him Minister of Supply and Development and Minister of Labor and Housing. In March 1950 he was appointed national development minister. When Percy Spender (also a rival of Menzies) was sent to Washington, Casey succeeded him as Secretary of State . He held this office at the height of the Cold War , the Suez Crisis , the Vietnam War and other world events. From March 1950 until his retirement from politics, he also served as Minister for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and contributed to its success.

Casey resigned in 1960 and moved into the UK House of Lords .

Governor General

In 1965, Casey was appointed Governor General by Menzies to succeed Lord de L'Isle . Not only was it the first time a Conservative prime minister had given an Australian that post, it also marked the end of an era of non-Australians in the post. The argument against Australians has always been that, due to their lack of distance, they cannot act impartially in accordance with their role in the constitution. This became an acute problem for Casey in December 1967 after Prime Minister Harold Holt died.

Instead of appointing the Liberals 'vice-party leader, William McMahon , as prime minister or at least head of a transitional government, he appointed the leader of the Country Party , the Liberals' coalition partner, John McEwen, as the new premier. He was accused in the book The Power Struggle by political journalist Alan Reid of trying to block McMahon's career in the party. Casey's biographer, WJ Hudson, wrote in his 1986 book Casey that he wanted to save the coalition because the Country Party refused to serve under McMahon.

Casey left office in 1969 and went back to Berwick , Victoria with his wife . He never recovered from a car accident in 1974 and died in June 1976 at the age of 85. He left behind his wife, daughter and son.

Honors

Casey received the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order , among others . He was named Companion of Honor in 1944. In 1960 he was appointed as the third and last Australian politician to the House of Lords and was " Baron Casey , of Berwick in the State of Victoria and the Commonwealth of Australia and the City of Westminster". He was inducted into the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1965 and into the Order of the Garter in 1969 and named Australian of the Year .

The parish that includes Berwick was renamed Casey City after him . There is also the Division of Casey constituency (in a different part of Melbourne). Furthermore, the suburb of Canberra is called Casey. The RG Casey Building in Canberra is the seat of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.

A number of objects in the Antarctic bear his name. These include Casey Station , Casey Bay , Casey Inlet , Casey Glacier , Cape Casey and the Casey Range .

Web links

Commons : Richard Casey  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Newspaper article about Richard Casey, Baron Casey in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Hudson, WJ (1993). Casey, Richard Gavin Gardiner (Baron Casey) (1890-1976) . Australian Dictionary of Biography . Australian National University
2. ↑ ^{a b} Alan Reid: The Power Struggle . Tartan Press, Sydney 1972, ISBN 0-7264-0005-X , p. 195.
3. ↑ ^{a b} W J Hudson: Casey . Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1986, ISBN 0-19-554730-6 , p. 361.