22 Facts About Dudley McCarthy

Dudley McCarthy was an Australian military historian, soldier and diplomat.

Dudley McCarthy joined the Department of External Affairs in 1963 and served terms as Ambassador to Mexico and Ambassador to Spain.

Dudley McCarthy was born in North Sydney in New South Wales, Australia on 24 July 1911, one of four sons of a schoolteacher, James McCarthy, and his wife.

Dudley McCarthy went to Kempsey West Intermediate High School after which he studied at the University of Sydney.

Dudley McCarthy obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1932 and a Diploma of Education the following year.

Unable to secure a teaching position due to the Depression, McCarthy found work as a patrol officer in New Guinea where his area of responsibility covered the Morobe and Sepik districts.

In 1935, the New South Wales Department of Education resumed hiring new teachers and Dudley McCarthy returned to Australia to take up a position teaching English and history at Petersham Intermediate and Homebush Junior Boys' High schools.

Dudley McCarthy was commissioned as a lieutenant in July 1940 and went with the battalion to North Africa later in the year as its intelligence officer.

Dudley McCarthy served through the Siege of Tobruk and was then transferred to the headquarters of 6th Division.

Dudley McCarthy continued to serve in II Corps when it was transferred to the Bougainville campaign later that year.

Dudley McCarthy progressed the project for the next several years, planning various volumes and identifying potential authors.

Long's decision was based on an account that Dudley McCarthy had written of the retreat to Tobruk in the early stages of the North African campaign, published in The Bulletin.

Dudley McCarthy's work provided a balanced account of the Japanese efforts during the fighting.

Dudley McCarthy was special representative for Australia, responsible for New Guinea and Nauru, on the United Nations Trusteeship Council from 1961 to 1962.

In 1963, Dudley McCarthy transferred to the Department of External Affairs, becoming the Australian minister to the United Nations for three years.

Dudley McCarthy then was posted to Mexico as the Australian ambassador for a five term.

In 1973 he was nominated to become the first Australian ambassador to the Holy See, but the Vatican refused to accept the nomination on the grounds that Dudley McCarthy had been divorced.

Dudley McCarthy was made chairman of the Films Board of Review in 1977, and remained in the post until 1981.

Dudley McCarthy then worked on a biography of the well known war historian Charles Bean, which was published in 1983 as Gallipoli to the Somme.

Dudley McCarthy died in Canberra, where he was living at the time, on 3 October 1987.

Dudley McCarthy was survived by four children, three of which were from his second marriage, and his second wife.

Dudley McCarthy's papers are held by the National Library of Australia.