Edwin McCarthy

McCarthy was born in Walhalla, Victoria on 30 March 1896 to parents Catherine McCarthy (née Kennedy) and Daniel McCarthy.^[1]

He joined the Commonwealth Public Service as a messenger in the Postmaster-General's Department in April 1911.^[2]

McCarthy married Marjorie Mary Graham on 4 July 1939 in Sydney.^[1] The couple had two children: a daughter, and a son, John McCarthy.^[3]

From 1945 to 1950, McCarthy was Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Agriculture.^[4] His primary expertise was grain commodity matters, and he devised the Australian wheat price stabilisation scheme after World War II.^[2]

Between 1958 and 1962, McCarthy was Australian Ambassador to the Netherlands.^[5] He was accredited to Belgium also, from 1959.^[6]

In 1962, McCarthy was appointed Head of the Australian Permanent Mission to the European Atomic Energy Community in Brussels.^[7]

McCarthy died on 4 September 1980 at Woden Valley Hospital in Garran, Canberra.^[1] He had been admitted earlier within the same week after a brain aneurysm.^[8]

McCarthy was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in June 1952, while serving as Deputy High Commissioner in London.^[9] He was made a Knight Bachelor in June 1955, whilst serving in the same role.^[10]