David St Alban Dexter was an Australian military historian, commando, diplomat and university administrator.
31 Facts About David Dexter
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In June 1943 it was sent to New Guinea, where David Dexter was wounded while carrying out an ambush on a Japanese force.
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David Dexter became the secretary of the Australian Universities Commission in 1960, and then the Registrar at the Australian National University in 1967.
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David St Alban Dexter was born on 8 January 1917 at St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, the second of five sons and one daughter of Colonel Walter Ernest Dexter, and his wife Dora Stirling, nee Roadknight.
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David Dexter's father was on active service at the time as an Army Church of England chaplain with the First Australian Imperial Force.
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David Dexter's father decided to become a farmer, and he took up a soldier settlement block near Kilsyth, Victoria.
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David Dexter then returned to the church in 1923, and the family moved to a clergy house in Romsey, Victoria.
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David Dexter was there from 1930 to 1935, initially as a boarder on a scholarship for sons of the clergy, but as a day student in his final years.
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David Dexter played Australian football and cricket, served in the school cadet unit, and was a prefect.
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David Dexter lasted a year but after a series of mishaps he decided that this was not his line of work, and he resolved to go to university.
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David Dexter accepted an appointment as a student teacher at Grimwade House at Melbourne Grammar, which he did while he studied French and history at the University of Melbourne part-time.
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David Dexter played football for the Melbourne University Football Club.
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David Dexter was able to live with his parents, as his father had taken up the parish in Footscray, Victoria.
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David Dexter received his Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in 1940.
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David Dexter joined the Second Australian Imperial Force on 8 October 1940, and was assigned the service number VX38890.
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David Dexter was mentioned in despatches for his service on East Timor.
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David Dexter was mentioned in despatches again for his service in New Guinea.
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David Dexter returned to Australia on 2 March 1944, and was seconded to Z Special Unit in Melbourne on 22 April 1944.
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David Dexter was placed on the retired list on 29 February 1964.
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David Dexter received an invitation to join the Department of External Affairs in Canberra from the departmental secretary, William Dunk.
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David Dexter dealt with important issues of the day like the establishment of the State of Israel and the Berlin airlift.
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In 1955 David Dexter became the head of the department's foreign aid branch.
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David Dexter was involved in the formulation of the Colombo Plan and developed foreign aid programs in conjunction with the South East Asia Treaty Organization and the United Nations.
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David Dexter consciously copied the methods of Charles Bean, the historian of the Great War, assembling documents in chronological order into six master diaries.
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David Dexter wrote most of it while he was the first secretary of the Australian High Commission to Ceylon in Colombo, where he served under Roden Cutler from 1952 to 1955.
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In 1960, David Dexter became the secretary of the Australian Universities Commission.
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David Dexter helped chairman of the commission, Sir Leslie Martin write a report into Australian universities, the recommendations of which were adopted.
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In 1967 David Dexter became the Registrar at the Australian National University.
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David Dexter published a second book, The ANU Campus, a history of the ANU site, in 1991.
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David Dexter died at his home in Turner, Australian Capital Territory, on 15 March 1992, and his remains were cremated.
31.
David Dexter's papers are in the Australian War Memorial and the Australian National University Archives.