Guide to the Papers of Sir Keith Officer

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MS 2629

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Collection Summary

Creator
Sir Keith Officer
Title
Papers of Sir Keith Officer
Date Range
1911-1969
Collection Number
MS 2629
Extent
9.9 metres (14 boxes + 12 folios + 4 packets + 2 elephant folios)
Language of Materials
English
Repository
National Library of Australia

Introduction

Scope and Contents

The papers include correspondence, diaries, photographs, subject files, notes, cuttings and printed material. The correspondence deals principally with Officer's career in the External Affairs Branch of the Prime Minister's Department (1927-1935) and the Department of External Affairs (1935-1955).

Conditions Governing Access

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2282123).

Conditions Governing Use

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred Citation

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Sir Keith Officer, National Library of Australia, MS 2629, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The papers were donated to the Library by Brigadier Hugh R. Officer, brother of Sir Keith, in 1969 & 1970.

The following watercolour sketch and framed photographs are located in the Pictures Section of the National Library of Australia: Water-colour sketch [of Sir Keith Officer]; Photograph of M. Auriel inscribed to Sir Keith Officer; Photograph of Duke of Edinburgh signed 'Philip 1955'; Photograph of Queen signed 'Elizabeth R 1955'; Photograph of Queen Mother signed 'Elizabeth R. 1939'; Photograph of (Chiang Kai-Shek?) in full regalia inscribed with Chinese characters; Photograph of Duke of Gloucester signed 'Henry'; Photograph signed 'Warren R. Austin'; Photograph of Robert Menzies inscribed 'For Keith Officer from Robert G. Menzies 1956'; Photograph of Earl Mountbatten signed 'Louis Mountbatten 1940 J.E.A.C.'; Photograph of King George VI signed 'George R.I. 1939'; Photograph of Lady Gowrie in court-dress, signed 'Zara Gowrie'; Unidentified photograph inscribe 'To a fine friend Keith Officer with every good wish Tom (D. ?)'; Photograph of gentleman in court-dress inscribed 'Ever yours John Wheeler-Bennett August 1939'; Photograph of Lord Gowrie in full regalia signed 'Gowrie'.

Other Finding Aids

All correspondence in the collection has been name-indexed; please refer to the attached Correspondence Index (Appendix I) under the Related Documentation tab.

Biographical Note

Frank Keith Officer was born in Melbourne on 2 October 1889, a son of F.S. Officer and a great-grandson of Sir Robert Officer who was Speaker of the Tasmanian House of Assembly for many years. Officer attended Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and the University of Melbourne. He graduated in Law in 1912 and became an associate to H.B. Higgins. Officer was called to the Bar in 1914.

He was commissioned in the Australian Imperial Force in 1914. Officer served in the A.I.F. from 1914 to 1920, in Egypt, Gallipoli, France and Belgium. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1917 and appointed O.B.E. in 1919. His A.I.F. appointment was terminated in November 1919. After the War, Officer joined the British Colonial Service and in 1920 he was posted to Nigeria. He returned to Australia in 1923 and two years later joined the External Affairs Branch of the Prime Minister's Department. In 1928 he accompanied A.J. McLachlan to the League of Nations Assembly in Geneva and to the signing of the Kellogg Pact in Paris.

From 1927 to 1933 Officer worked in Melbourne and later in Canberra, and served under Bruce, Latham, Pearce, McLachlan, Scullin and Beasley. He was sent to London in 1933 as Liaison Officer with the British Cabinet and Foreign Offices, a post which had been held by Casey from 1924 to 1931. A separate Department of External Affairs was set up in Canberra in 1935, with W.D. Hodgson as its first Secretary.

In 1937 Officer went to Washington to become Australian Counsellor in the British Embassy. Australia was not separately represented in the U.S.A. until Casey arrived in February 1940 as first Minister. In August 1940 Officer went to Tokyo where, in the absence of the Minister John Latham, he received the declaration of war in December 1941. With the rest of the Embassy staff he was detained in Japan until July 1942. His next appointment was as Counsellor to Kuibyshev and later Moscow, where he served under William Slater and James Maloney and, in their absences, was Chargé d'Affaires. From February 1944 until October 1945 he was Chargé d'Affaires in Chungking, China, following Sir Frederic Eggleston's period as Minister.

After leave in Australia and consultations with H.V. Evatt, Officer was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to act as Commonwealth representative in the South East Asian Command area, moving between Jakarta, Singapore and Bangkok.

On 8 June 1946 he presented his letters of Credence as Minister to the Netherlands and was in the Australian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference for the Treaties with Italy and the Eastern European Countries, in 1946.

Officer left The Hague in October 1948 to become Ambassador to China for less than a year. On 1 October 1949, after many successes of the communist armies in North China, Mao Tse-tung formally proclaimed the establishment of the Chinese Peoples' Republic. Officer left Nanking on 17 October and after leave in Australia was appointed early in 1950 Ambassador to France where he was to spend to next five years until his retirement. He was created Knight Bachelor in June 1950.

During this time Officer was at the 5th U.N. General Assembly in New York (September 29 - December 15, 1950) and at the 6th U.N. General Assembly in Paris (November 6, 1951 - February, 5 1952) assuming the leadership of the delegation on the departure of R.G. Casey on 21 November 1951.

On his retirement in 1955 he bought a home in Hampshire and became a member of the Board of the English, Scottish and Australian Bank Ltd. Two years later he became a member of the Board of Australian Estates Ltd.

Officer never married. Whilst he was at The Hague his widowed mother joined his household and was to remain with him until his death in England on 21 June 1969. She reached her 100 birthday and survived him by seven months.

Item Descriptions

Series 1. Correspondence, 1927-1959

The series comprises personal and semi-official correspondence, arranged chronologically, from 1927 to 1959. Correspondents include R.G. Casey, S.M. Bruce, R.G. Menzies, Alan S. Watt, Peter R. Heydon, Clive Bailieu, Arthur H. Tange, William E. Dunk and K.C.O. Shann.

Contained in Box 1 (Items 1-652), Box 2 (Items 653-1099), Box 3 (Items 1100-1729) and Box 4 (Items 1730-2221).

Series 2. Diaries, 1911-1969

The series comprises pocket diaries (1911-1969) and bound volumes (1914-1961). The bound volumes contain notes based on the entries in the pocket diaries. In addition, there are such enclosures as postcards, programs, booklets, photographs, press cuttings, maps and invitations. There are also two copies of a typescript, 1927-1947, based on an interview; notebooks and accounts of cruises, 1923-1924, 1944, 1958 and 1959.

Contained in Box 5 (Items 1-18), Box 6 (Items 19-39), Box 7 and Folio Run (Items 39-377).

Series 3. Printed material, c. 1922

Parliamentary papers dating from 1922, company reports; tourist brochures and maps; Archibald Montgomery's A Story of the Fourth Army and Australian War Photographs 1917-1918; together with a small amount of World War I material.

Contained in Boxes 8-9 and Folio Run.

Series 4. Photographs, 1939-1955

The series includes loose photographs and photographic albums. A collection of 14 framed portraits, many autographed by members of the Royal Family, together with a watercolour sketch of Officer, are located in the Pictorial Section of the National Library of Australia.

Contained in Box 10.

Series 5. Certificates and invitations, 1912-1920

Certificates including Officer's Law Degree (1912), Commission as a Major (1920) and admission to practise as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria (1914); passport, invitations, menus and postcards.

Contained in Box 11 and Folio Run.

Series 6. Institute of Pacific Relations, 1925-1931

The series comprises correspondence and memoranda, 1925-1929; papers presented at the I.P.R. Conference 1927; articles from the Kyoto Conference 1929, and the China Conference 1931; together with news bulletins, 1926-1927, and press cuttings.

Contained in Box 12.

Series 7. Royal Institute of International Relation, 1932-1933

Correspondence with John Latham, Alfred Stirling , V.J. Flynn and Sir William Harrison Moore, and memoranda, 1932-1933, concerning the conference on Imperial Relations held in Toronto, Canada, in September 1933. His agenda drawn up in London in July 1932 is also included.

Contained in Box 12.

Series 8. External Affairs Branch, 1928-42

Official and semi-official papers relating to the External Affairs Branch of the Prime Minister's Department and also the Department of External Affairs. An article written by Officer in 1942, together with some printed matter, is contained at the end of the series.

Contained in Box 13.

Series 9. Subject files, 1927-1933

Typescript notes printed material collected by Officer during the period 1927-1933, and arranged by subject: India; Africa; China and Japan; New Guinea; Victorian State Election 1927; Trade; Economic Situation; Disarmament; Territorial Waters; Articles by R.G. Casey, Maie Casey and Kenneth H. Bailey; Nigeria; Miscellaneous.

Contained in Boxes 13-14.


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