PAINE Duke Douglas
public servant and citizen soldier 1892-1960

Duke Paine was born at Ballarat 26 May 1892, son of William Louis Paine, an elocution teacher, and Helen Brown, he was educated at Melbourne High School. He entered the Victorian Public Service in the Statistics Office, then serving in the Taxation Department, becoming Comptroller of Stamps in 1936 after acting as General Secretary of the Victorian centenary celebrations 1933-35. He was appointed Chairman of the Public Service Board in 1944 until retirement in 1957, then Chairman of the Trotting Control Board.

The other half of his life was devoted to military service. Joining the militia in the AASC, he was commissioned in 1911 at age 19 and transferred to the AIF on the outbreak of World War 1. Sailing in the first convoy to Egypt, he served with 1 Div Train there, and on the Western Front from 1916, ending the war as its commanding officer after being awarded the DSO and twice Mentioned in Dispatches. With the post-war reactivation of the militia, he became CO 3 Div Train in 1921 (retitled Commander AASC 3 Div in 1927) until 1935, being awarded the OBE for this service in 1933.

Appointed ADST Southern Command 1936-1940, he transferred to the 2nd AIF with promotion to colonel as DDST 1 Aust Corps in Egypt. Then promoted to brigadier, he served in the campaign in Greece, for which he was awarded the DSO and, together with Corps Commander Blamey, the Greek MC. On return to Australia after a period as DDST on HQ AIF Middle East in Palestine, he was appointed to a major general’s position as DQMG in Land Headquarters, holding this until retirement in mid-1944.

Throughout his military service he was known as a man of gruff exterior, but one who always looked to the welfare of his soldiers. Recognised as a first rate junior commander in World War 1, his work as a staff officer and administrator was highly regarded in World War 2. He was one of the dedicated few who stayed with the Citizen Forces through the lean years between wars, and though he may have tarried too long in command of his unit, this was symptomatic of attitudes in those years. He and others like him, while slow to pass on the torch, nevertheless passed on their wartime experience and trained the militia cadre which provided the backbone for raising the 2nd AIF in 1939.

He was similarly effective in his career in the Victorian Public Service, recognised by his chairmanship of the Public Service Board after release from military service towards the end of World War 2. Here he was recognised as hard and unrelenting, but also as acting in the absolute interests of the Public Service, defending both its conditions of service and against political attempts at nepotism. In his time at the Trotting Control Board he was known as an effective if retiring administrator of high principles, as well as a keen punter with his own systems.

The fact that he was able to blend two careers in public service during the interwar years demonstrated his strong commitment to whatever he attempted, finding the time to make an effective contribution to both fields as well as to his family life and to his church as warden and organist.

He married Freda Alice, daughter of Heidelberg School artist Alexander McClintock, before embarking in 1914, living his adult life in South Yarra. His wife predeceased him in 1957 and he was survived by a son and two daughters on his death in Melbourne on 27 February 1960.