Roland Wilson (economist)

Sir Roland Wilson CBE
Secretary of the Department of Labour and National Service
In office 14 November 1940 – 7 March 1946
Secretary of the Department of the Treasury
In office 1 April 1951 – 27 October 1966
Personal details
Born	7 April 1904 Ulverstone, Tasmania, Australia
Died	25 October 1996 (aged 92) Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Spouse(s)	Valeska Thompson (m. 1930–1971; her death) Joyce (m. 1975–1996; his death)
Children	none
Alma mater	University of Tasmania University of Oxford University of Chicago
Occupation	Public servant

Sir Roland Wilson CBE (7 April 1904 – 25 October 1996) was a senior Australian public servant and economist.

Life and career

Wilson was born in Ulverstone, Tasmania on 7 April 1904.^[1] Wilson studied at Devonport High School, where he won a scholarship to take an economics course at the University of Tasmania.^[1] He became a Rhodes Scholar in 1925, the first Tasmanian from a state school to win the scholarship.^[2] The Rhodes Scholarship saw him studying to become a doctor of philosophy at the University of Oxford.^[1]

Wilson became Commonwealth Statistician in 1936.^[3]

Wilson was appointed Secretary of the Department of Labour and National Service as a war-time secondment in 1940.^[1][4]

In 1946, after World War II was over, Wilson resumed his position as Commonwealth Statistician until the Menzies Government made him Secretary of the Department of the Treasury in 1951.^[1]

On leaving Treasury in 1966, Wilson was the Chairman of Qantas until 1972, and between 1973 and 1975 was the Chairman of the Commonwealth Bank.^[5]

Awards and honours

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1941^[6] and knighted in 1955.

The Sir Roland Wilson Building at the Australian National University is named after Wilson, in recognition of his significant contribution to public policy and administration in Australia and in many international forums.^[7]

References

1. Farquharson, John, Wilson, Sir Roland (1904–1996), Australian National University, archived from the original on 19 May 2013
2. Henry, Ken (14 August 2007), Achieving and maintaining full employment (PDF), Canberra, archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2014
3. Castles, Ian (30 October 1996), Sir Roland Wilson: Obituary, archived from the original on 4 March 2014
4. CA 40: Department of Labour and National Service, Central Secretariat/ (by 1947 known as Central Office), National Archives of Australia, retrieved 13 April 2014
5. Skewes, Gary (4 November 2013), Silver Cigarette Presentation Box to Sir Roland Wilson, Australian Broadcasting Commission, archived from the original on 13 April 2014
6. It's an Honour: CBE. Retrieved 14 Apr 2014
7. Sir Roland Wilson Building (Building 120), Lost On Campus, archived from the original on 8 October 2013