MS 4875 comprises papers documenting Percy Spender's political, diplomatic and legal career including correspondence, speeches, press statements, cutting books, photographs of overseas trips and functions attended, itineraries, invitations, and printed material. The collection also includes papers of Lady Jean Spender, family photographs, papers relating to the Colombo Plan, and papers on French nuclear weapons explosions. Correspondents include Sir Robert Menzies, Sir Paul Hasluck, Sir Garfield Barwick, Sir Keith Officer, Sir Arthur Tange, Sir Alan Watt, Dr John Burton, John Foster Dulles, Dean Acheson, Thomas Mann, Felix Frankfurter, G.H. Hackworth, Ernest Bevin, Walter Crocker and Selwyn Lloyd (17 boxes, 42 phase boxes, 1 fol. box).
Lawyer, politician and diplomat. Percy Claude Spender was born in Sydney in 1897 and educated at Fort Street High School and the University of Sydney. He entered federal politics in 1937 when he was elected to the House of Representatives as member for Warringah, New South Wales. During R.G. Menzies' postwar government, he served as the Minister for External Affairs and External Territories, 1949-1951. He figured in the development of the Colombo Plan and promoted close US-Australia relations. On leaving politics, Spender was appointed Australian ambassador to the United States, 1951-1958. From 1964 until 1967 he was president of the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Later, in Sydney, he became head of a committee of trustees at the Australian Museum that oversaw the National Photographic Index of Australian Birds, 1969-1971. Spender died in Sydney in 1985.
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