John Henry Starling, (15 January 1883 – 5 April 1966) was the official secretary to the Governor-General of Australia from 1919 to 1927, serving

Munro Ferguson A Munro () is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevis ...

, Forster and Baird.

Career

Having originally lived in Melbourne, Starling transferred 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 Go ...

in 1902 as a clerk in the Governor General's office. Starling transferred to the newly established Prime Minister's Department in February 1912 and was appointed chief clerk in September 1917. In June 1919 he succeeded (Sir) George Steward as official secretary to the governor-general and secretary to the Federal Executive Council. Starling was appointed OBE in 1920 and CMG in 1925. After the position of official secretary was abolished in 1927, he continued as secretary to the Federal Executive Council until 1933, and in July 1929 he was promoted to assistant secretary of the department's territories branch. In 1933 to 1935, he was secretary to the Prime Minister's Department and secretary to the

Department of External Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

Personal life

Starling married Sarah Elizabeth May Price on 15 February 1911. Starling died in

Canberra Community Hospital Royal Canberra Hospital was the first hospital in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It opened in 1914 (a year after the planned city was opened) on the Acton Peninsula, as the Canberra Community Hospital. It grew to become the major hospital i ...

on 5 April 1966 and was cremated. He left behind two sons and a daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Starling, John Henry 1883 births 1966 deaths Secretaries of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Australian Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Public servants from Melbourne 20th-century Australian public servants