John Keith McCarthy
{{Short description|Australian public servant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = John Keith McCarthy
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|CBE|size=100%}}
| image = 160px
| office1 = Director of Native Affairs
| term1 = 1960–1967
| office2 = Official Member of the House of Assembly
| term2 = 1964–1967
| successor2 = Tom Ellis
| office3 = Acting Administrator of Nauru
| term3 = 1957
| predecessor3 = Reginald Leydin
| successor3 = Reginald Leydin
| office4 = Official Member of the Legislative Council
| term4 = 1951–1964
| birth_date = 20 January 1905
| birth_place = Melbourne, Australia
| death_date = {{death date and age|1976|10|29|1905|1|20|df=y}}
| death_place = Melbourne, Australia
}}
John Keith McCarthy {{post-nominals|country=AUS|CBE}} (20 January 1905 – 29 October 1976) was an Australian public servant in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. He rose to become Director of Agriculture, also serving as a member of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly. In Papua New Guinea, he was known as 'Papa Bilong Ol' (Everybody's Father).{{Cite news |date=7-8 January 1978 |title=Speared, yet loved by tribes |work=The Australian |pages=2}}
Biography
McCarthy was born in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda in 1905 to Mary (née Gibbs) and Thomas McCarthy.[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mccarthy-john-keith-10910 McCarthy, John Keith (1905–1976)] Australian Dictionary of Biography His father was an immigrant from Ireland and worked as a warehouseman. He was educated at Christian Brothers College,The Members of the House of Assembly 1964, p32 after which he was a jackaroo in New South Wales, before returning to Melbourne to work at Mark Foy's. He then went to Queensland, where he worked as a cane cutter.
In 1927 McCarthy moved to the Territory of New Guinea to become a patrol officer.[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-332611610/view?partId=nla.obj-332642733#page/n68/mode/1up J.K. McCarthy, 'man of action'] Pacific Islands Monthly, December 1976, p69 He returned to Australia in 1929 to complete a course at the University of Sydney. In 1933 his patrol group was attacked and he was in hospital for several weeks recovering from arrow wounds. He married Jean Bilby at All Saints Church in St Kilda East in April 1937.
At the start of World War II McCarthy was an Assistant District Officer at Talasea. He helped evacuate civilians from Rabaul after the Japanese attack, for which he was awarded an MBE. He commanded local coastwatchers and the ANGAU scouts and became Military Resident Commissioner of Sarawak. Following the war he was appointed a District Officer, before being promoted to District Commissioner of Madang in 1949. He later held the same role in Rabaul.
In 1951 he was appointed to the Territory's Legislative Council as one of the official members.{{Cite news |date=24 February 1967 |title=Pioneer of the tropics: two top public servants retire |work=The Australian |pages=2}} In 1955 he became executive officer of the Department of the Administrator, and was briefly Acting Administrator of Nauru in 1957. In 1960 he was appointed Director of Native Affairs, and in 1963 he published a memoir Patrol into Yesterday. Following the 1964 elections, he became an official member of the new House of Assembly, also serving as its Deputy Speaker. He awarded a CBE in the 1965 Birthday Honours.
McCarthy retired from the civil service in 1967. He contested the Moresby Open seat in the 1968 elections, losing to Percy Chatterton. He was a cartoonist for the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier,[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250289166 And the Times was in despair] Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 30 June 1969 before returning to Melbourne in 1971, where he died in 1976 at the age of 71. His widow Jean donated his papers to the National Library of Australia. This collection included private diaries covering 1927-1971, correspondence, reports, maps, seminar papers, manuscripts, photographs and McCarthy's original cartoons.
References
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Category:Public servants from Melbourne
Category:Territory of New Guinea people
Category:Australian military personnel of World War II
Category:Papua New Guinean civil servants
Category:Members of the Legislative Council of Papua and New Guinea
Category:Administrators of Nauru
Category:Members of the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea
Category:Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire
Category:People from St Kilda, Victoria