George Warwick Smith Explained

George Warwick Smith
Office1:Secretary of the Department of Housing and Construction
Term End1:5 August 1980
Office2:Secretary of the Department of Construction
Term End2:5 December 1978
Office3:Secretary of the Department of the Northern Territory
Term End3:9 January 1973
Office4:Acting Secretary of the Department of Services and Property
Term End4:16 January 1973
Office5:Secretary of the Department of the Interior
Term End5:19 December 1972
Office6:Secretary of the Department of External Territories
Term End6:22 July 1970
Office7:Secretary of the Department of Territories
Term End7:27 February 1968
Office8:Secretary of the Department of the Capital Territory
Term Start8:20 December 1972
Term End8:9 January 1973
Birth Name:George Henry Warwick Smith
Birth Date:3 October 1916
Birth Place:Charters Towers, Queensland
Death Place:Sydney, New South Wales
Occupation:Public servant
Spouse:Joan
Children:2 daughters and 1 son

George Henry Warwick Smith (3 October 1916 – 27 December 1999) was a senior Australian public servant.

Early life

Warwick Smith was born in Charters Towers, Queensland on 3 November 1916. He attended high school at Brisbane Grammar School, but left early at the age of 15. He went on to matriculate and graduate with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.

Career

Warwick Smith moved from a job at the Queensland Education Department to the Commonwealth Public Service in the Department of Commerce. He soon left the public service to join the Army, serving during the Second World War between 1941 and 1945.

After the war, Warwick Smith returned to his public service career in the Department of Commerce. He was appointed personal assistant to the Department's Secretary, J.F. Murphy, with whom he gained a lot of trade conference experience.

Warwick Smith's first Secretary role was in the Department of Territories (later External Territories), he moved to the Department in 1964, a time when Australia was coming under increasing United Nations pressure to hasten Papua New Guinea's progress towards self-government. Warwick Smith established an unusual departmental structure with no deputy secretaries, which was unlike most Australian Government departments at the time.

He also served as Secretary in the Department of the Interior and the Secretary of the Department of Construction (later Housing and Construction).

Warwick Smith formally retired from the public service on 5 August 1980, his last position being as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Construction.

Retirement

On retirement from the public service, Warwick Smith moved away from Canberra, first to Sydney and later to Bowral, working as a consultant in economic and public affairs. In his later years, Warwick Smith suffered from emphysema, which led to his death on 27 December 1999 in a nursing home in Sydney.