Ruth Violet Lissant Dobson (5 October 191814 December 1989) was an Australian public servant and diplomat.

Life and career

Ruth Dobson was born in Neutral Bay, NSW on 5 October 1918. Her younger sister was the poet Rosemary Dobson. Dobson was just seven years old when her father died. Dobson joined 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 1943 as a research assistant in 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 ...

, having unsuccessfully applied for a cadetship earlier that year. In 1965, Dobson was seconded to Government House as private secretary to Lady Casey. Her 16 month secondment was followed by an appointment as First Secretary in the Australian Embassy in the Philippines. In 1974, when appointed Australian Ambassador to

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, Dobson became the first Australian woman career diplomat to be appointed an ambassador. She was the second Australian woman to work in an ambassadorial role— Dame Annabelle Rankin had been appointed High Commissioner to New Zealand in 1971, but Rankin's was a political appointment. In 1978, Dobson was appointed Australian Ambassador to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. At the end of the posting, in 1981, Dobson retired. Dobson died on 14 December 1989 in Canberra.

Awards and honours

Dobson was made an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in 1982, in recognition of her services to the Australian Public Service. In late 2016, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade named one of its 16 meeting rooms in honour of Dobson, in recognition of her work as a pioneering female diplomat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobson, Ruth 1918 births 1989 deaths Ambassadors of Australia to Denmark Ambassadors of Australia to Ireland Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire University of Sydney alumni Australian women ambassadors 20th-century Australian women