Guide to the Papers of Albert Speer, 1932-2012

Summary

Collection number:

MS Acc12.115, Acc14.090, Acc14.091

Creator:

Speer, Albert, MBE, RMB

Extent:

(50 ms boxes + 1 large folio box + 1 digital carrier box + 3 map folios)

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, [class/series/file/item number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Part available for research; part not available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

This collection comprises instalments that contain medical patrol reports from Papua New Guinea and research papers and correspondence on the Mount Lamington eruption, Australian prisoners of war who died on board the Montevideo Maru and other topics connected with the war in the Pacific and Papua New Guinea in general. There are also research notes for Gordon Thomas's publication 'Prisoners in Rabaul: civilians in captivity', personal correspondence, and papers relating to Speer's wartime service and overseas travel.

Biographical Note:

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.

Collection Retrieval Advice:

Please note: each class in this collection has a separate box number sequence (i.e. there are multiple Box 1's). Please cite the relevant Class number as well as the Box number when requesting retrieval of material from the collection.

Provenance:

This collection was acquired from the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Pacific
Society and culture

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn6489037).

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, [class/series/file/item number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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