Guide to the Papers of Albert Speer, 1943-1994

 

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Collection context

Summary

Collection number:
MS 8450
Creator:
Speer, Albert, MBE, RMB
Extent:
1.01 metres and (6 ms boxes + 1 audio cassette box)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Albert Speer, National Library of Australia, MS 8450, [class/series/file/item number]'.

Background

Scope and content:
This collection and consists of diaries, patrol reports, official reports, official and unofficial correspondence, personal documents, newspaper articles and photographs on Sir Albert Maori Kiki's funeral, an interview, an audio tape, photographs, maps and a few publications, mainly newspapers. There is also a bound photocopy of 'The search for the truth of the Montevideo Maru', Part 1, by Speers.
Biographical / historical:

Albert Speer was born in 1922 in Goulburn, New South Wales and served in New Guinea with 2/2 Australian Field Ambulance from 1942 to 1945. This marked the beginning of Speer's long association with Papua New Guinea.

Speer joined the Public Service of Papua New Guinea as a medical assistant in October 1947 with early postings to Kerema (1947), Madang (1950), and Saiho/Polondetta (1951), where he led the medical team in the evacuation of victims of the Mt. Lamington disaster. Other postings include Tari (1954) and Koroba (1955/1957) where he made exploratory patrols into 'uncontrolled' areas of the Southern Highlands, eventually taking over the administrative management of the Koroba hospital. He was a medical assistant in charge of the Malahang Native Hospital at Lae (1957-1959).

From 1959 to 1967 he worked as the Regional Administrative Officer at Rabaul and later at Goroka, New Guinea Highlands Region. In 1967 he was involved in special project work investigating the 'methods study' into the Malaria Branch of the Department of Public Health.

In 1969 Speer was appointed Executive Officer of the Malaria Branch. From 1970 to 1971 he was involved in another special project for the Director of Public Health on the review of Aid Posts. Altogether he served in the Department of Public Health in the Australian Administration of Papua and New Guinea from 1947 until his retirement in 1971. He was a pioneer in the establishment of health services in Papua New Guinea.

In 1978 Speer was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his work in the Papua New Guinea Public Health Department.

Speer did not marry but he 'adopted' four children from Papua New Guinea, including Sir Albert Maori Kiki.

Immediate source of acquisition:
The papers in this colleciton were donated to the National Library of Australia by Albert Speer.

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Pacific
Society and culture

Access and use

Conditions governing access:
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2701735).
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 Albert Speer, National Library of Australia, MS 8450, [class/series/file/item number]'.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact: