Guide to the Papers of the Casey Family, 1820-1978

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Summary

Collection number:
MS 6150
Creator:
Casey Family
Extent:
20.96 metres and (53 ms boxes + 16 archive boxes + 10 phase boxes + 2 folios + 1 steel box + 1 folder)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of the Casey Family, National Library of Australia, MS 6150, [box number and series and/or file number]'.
Availability:
Available
Access conditions:
Part available for research; part not available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

Material by or concerning three members of the Casey family are the focus of the collection: Cornelius Gavin Casey, his son Richard Gardiner Casey (senior), and grandson Richard Gardiner Casey, Baron Casey of Berwick.

The papers concentrate on the personal lives and careers of the three Caseys, with particular strength in the diaries and/or letterbooks of Richard Gardiner Casey senior and Lord Casey, as well as 95 volumes of press cuttings about Lord Casey.

Associated with the papers are a three-dimensional model of Lord Casey's crest (on a wreath argent and sable, a seagull wings expanded proper), and his Order of the Garter regalia, and other records.

There are several hundred items of original correspondence in the Casey Family papers, in addition to correspondence transcribed and recorded in letterbooks.

The correspondence is located in Series 1 and 2, while all letterbooks are in Series 4.

There is a small amount of original correspondence of Cornelius Gavin Casey and Richard Gardiner Casey Senior. However R.G. Casey Senior is well represented in letterbooks, and C.C. Casey by one letterbook.

Most original correspondence is between Lord Casey and a wide range of individuals, or heads of government organisations (for example the Chairman of CSIRO, Director of Bureau of Meteorology, Postmaster-General). Much is written in the 1950s and 1960s, and is connected with Lord Casey's research for Australian Father and Son.

Biographical Note:
Cornelius Gavin Casey (1811-1896) arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1833 as a surgeon on the immigrant ship Sir John Rae Reid. Immediately appointed assistant colonial surgeon, he was posted to Port Arthur from 1834 to 1838. Until 1863, when he moved to Victoria, Casey lived at New Norfolk, Hobart and Launceston. He worked for the Hobart General Hospital and for the gaol and police at Launceston, as well as in private practice.

Casey invested in land in northern Tasmania, and from Victoria in the 1880s he also backed mining ventures in the Zeehan area.

Casey was made a justice of the peace soon after his arrival in Australia, was a member of the Licensing Court in Hobart, and a leading figure in local institutions, particularly in Launceston. On several occasions he relinquished his official duties to take up private medical practice.

Richard Gardiner Casey (1846-1919), son of Cornelius Gavin Casey, was born at New Norfolk near Hobart. He moved with his father to Victoria in 1863 and worked at Murray Downs Station (near Swan Hill) and other properties as an overseer. From 1875 to 1883 he managed Kilfera station in central western New South Wales. He later became a managing partner of several stations in central Queensland as a result of agreements with Donald Wallace, and represented Warrego in the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1888 to 1893.

A new phase of Casey's life began in 1893 when he moved to Melbourne and became involved in mining and business ventures ranging from the Coolgardie goldfields to the Mt Morgan Gold Mining Company and Goldsbrough, Mort and Company. Always interested in racing, he was chairman of the Victoria Racing Club from 1907 to 1916. During World War I Casey and his wife went to London to be closer to their two sons who were on active service in France. He died in Honolulu in 1919 while en route back to Australia.

Richard Gardiner Casey (1890-1976), the oldest son of Richard Gardiner Casey (Senior) was born in Brisbane but educated in Melbourne and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He served with distinction in the A.I.F. during World War I. After five years in mining engineering he became in 1924 the Australian government's Liaison Officer in London. In this capacity, he worked on the implementation of aspects of the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster.

Casey entered Australian federal politics in 1931 as Member for Corio in the House of Representatives. He became Federal Treasurer in 1935 and later Minister for Supply at the start of World War II; during the war he went first to Washington as Minister Plenipotentiary in 1940, then to London to join the British War Cabinet as Minister for State on the Middle East.

As the war years were finishing Casey remained involved with British administration as Governor of Bengal (1944-1946) where he took drastic measures - among them, dismissing the ministry and legislature - in an attempt to improve that State's severe political and economic problems. He returned to Australia and re-entered federal politics in 1949 as the MHR for Latrobe. This second phase of Casey's Australian political career was dominated by his term as Minister for External Affairs from 1951 to 1960. A firm believer in Australia's role as an independent nation in the Asian region, Casey made many overseas trips while in office and was involved in numerous conferences and consultations on matters including SEATO, the Colombo Plan, ANZUS, and regional co-operation in general. He was actively concerned with Australian relations with the United States. During his decade as a foreign affairs minister Casey was also the minister responsible for the CSIRO.

Casey resigned from politics in 1960 to become the first life peer created outside the United Kingdom. As Lord Casey of Berwick he held the office of Governor-General of Australia from 1965 to 1969; at the end of his term he was made a Knight of the Garter.

His writings include An Australian in India (1948), Double or Quit (1949), Friends and Neighbours (1954 and two subsequent editions), Personal Experience 1939-1946 (1962), The Future of the Commonwealth (1963) and Australian Father and Son (1966). Extracts from his diaries have been published as Australian Foreign Minister: the Diaries of R.G. Casey 1951-1960, edited by T.B. Millar (Collins, 1972).

Immediate Source of Acquisition:

The Casey Papers were obtained over a number of years following the death of Lord Casey in 1976. They were received initially from Lady Casey and subsequently from her daughter Mrs Jane MacGowan, as well as from Dr W.J. Hudson.

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2896954) for the access conditions.
Conditions Governing Use:
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of the Casey Family, National Library of Australia, MS 6150, [box number and series and/or file number]'.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact:
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