18 Facts About Ric Throssell

Ric Prichard Throssell was an Australian diplomat and author whose writings included novels, plays, film and television scripts, and memoirs.

Ric Prichard Throssell was born on 10 May 1922 in Western Australia, in the Perth suburb of Greenmount.

Ric Throssell's father was Hugo Throssell, a winner of the Victoria Cross at Gallipoli in 1915, and son of a former Premier of Western Australia, George Throssell.

Ric Throssell was nicknamed after his father's late brother Frank Erick "Ric" Cottrell Throssell, who was killed at the 2nd Battle of Gaza in 1917.

Ric Throssell then trained as a primary school teacher at Claremont Teachers College.

On 19 September 1941 Ric Throssell enlisted in the enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces of the Australian Army.

Ric Throssell transferred to the Australian Imperial Force on 11 July 1942, and served in New Guinea with the Milne Force Signals from 21 August.

In 1955, the Secretary of the Department, Arthur Tange, even wrote to the Solicitor-General asking if there were grounds for having Ric Throssell dismissed from the Public Service; the reply said that "no charge against Ric Throssell could possibly succeed".

In 1974, the new departmental head, Alan Renouf, sought to use his influence to have Ric Throssell security cleared to a higher level, but the CIA threatened to cut security ties with the Whitlam government and the plan foundered.

Ric Throssell replied that he was as interested as anyone in finally discovering what had been said about him, and approved of the unredacted release.

Nevertheless, Ric Throssell was re-branded a spy on the front page of the Brisbane Courier-Mail under the headline "Confirmed: Our Soviet Spies", along with a photo of him in the company of British traitors Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean.

In 2012, further allegations against Ric Throssell were made based on information from Coral Bell, who had been his junior colleague in the Department of External Affairs in 1947 and who believed he had attempted to recruit her to the spy ring.

Under Freedom of Information laws that had been introduced in 1982, Ric Throssell was now able to gain access to some ASIO documents previously denied him.

Ric Throssell had considerable dealings with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on these matters.

Ric Throssell married Elwen Hague "Bea" Gallacher, a public servant, in an Anglican ceremony on 29 September 1945 at Carlingford, Sydney, but she died suddenly in 1946 while he was posted to Moscow.

Ric Throssell was never formally a member of the party, but had participated in guerrilla training in the Dandenong Ranges as a member of its youth arm, the Eureka Youth League.

In 1983, to help fund the production of the film The Pursuit of Happiness, directed by Martha Ansara and based on a book by his daughter Karen Ric Throssell, he donated his father's Victoria Cross to People for Nuclear Disarmament.

Ric Throssell was an active member of Canberra Repertory Theatre as a director, writer and actor.