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 Charters Towers is a rural town in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It is by road south-west from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the town boomed as the rich gold deposits under ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

on 3 November 1916. He attended high school at

Brisbane Grammar School , motto_translation = Nothing Without Labour , established = 1868 , type = Independent, day & boarding , gender = Boys , denomination = Non-denominational , slogan = , key_people = , ci ...

, 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 , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

Career

Warwick Smith moved from a job at the Queensland Education Department to the

Commonwealth Public Service The Australian Public Service (APS) is the federal civil service of the Commonwealth of Australia responsible for the public administration, public policy, and public services of the departments and executive and statutory agencies of the G ...

in the

Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...

. He soon left the public service to join the Army, serving during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

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 The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

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 Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, first to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and later to

Bowral Bowral () is the largest town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, about ninety minutes southwest of Sydney. It is the main business and entertainment precinct of the Wingecarribee Shire and Highlands. Bowral once served ...

, working as a consultant in economic and public affairs. In his later years, Warwick Smith suffered from

emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...

, which led to his death on 27 December 1999 in a nursing home in Sydney.

Notes

References and further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Warwick Smith, George 1916 births 1999 deaths Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Australian public servants University of Queensland alumni