Richard Boyer

Sir Richard James Fildes Boyer KBE (24 August 1891 - 5 June 1961) was an Australian grazier, publicist and broadcasting chief. [ [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130271b.htm?hilite=Richard%3BBoyer Boyer, Sir Richard James Fildes (1891 - 1961), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 13, MUP, 1993, pp 240-246.] ]

Early life and student career

Boyer was born at Taree, New South Wales, the third and youngest son of a Wesleyan minister. He attended Wolaroi College, Orange, and Newington College (1901-1909) [Newington College Register of Past Students 1863-1998 (Syd, 1999) pp19] . At the University of Sydney he graduated BA in 1913 and MA Hons in 1915. Boyer joineded the Methodist ministry and in 1914 and 1915 was a probationer in the Canberra circuit.

Military career

Boyer enlisted on 24 April 1915 and sailed to Egypt with the 26th Battalion, reaching Gallipoli in September. He was evacuated the next month and repatriated in January 1916. Boyer was commissioned in 1917 and joined the 1st Battalion on the Western Front in the middle of that year. He was gassed at Passchendaele and invalided to Australia in 1919.

Grazing career

Instead of returning to the ministry, Boyer became a jackeroo and in 1920 acquired a 38,652 acre (15,642 ha) property named Durella, near Morven, Queensland. He married his former war nurse Eleanor Muriel Underwood in that year. The Boyers succeeded as sheep farmers and he became president of the Warrego Graziers' Association in 1934 and, following a visit to Europe in 1935, increased his involvement in the affairs of the wool industry. As President of the United Graziers' Association of Queensland (1941-44) and of the Graziers' Federal Council of Australia (1942), he gained tax concessions for pastoral improvements and sat on the Australian Meat Industry Commission. Durella was put under managerment and the Boyers moved to Brisbane in 1937 and to Sydney in 1940. He sought opportunities in public service and avoided domestic politics. He was appointed honorary director of the American division of the Department of Information and in 1942 and 1945 he went abroad for conferences of the Institute of Pacific Relations. As President of the Commonwealth council of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, he launched the journal, Australian Outlook. In the 1940s and 1950s Boyer devoted his formidable energies to the Australian national committee of the United Nations Appeal for Children, to Sydney Rotary Club's international service committee and to the Good Neighbour movement.

Broadcasting career

In 1940 Boyer was appointed a member of the Australian Broadcasting Commission and five years later became chairman. With the introduction of television in 1954 the ABC was given responsibility for the national service. In 1956 Boyer was appointed KBE and declined the post of high commissioner to Canada. The following year he initiated the annual lectures that were later to bear his name. He died at Wahroonga and was survived by his wife, daughter and son.

References

Bibliography

* G. C. Bolton, Dick Boyer (Canb, 1967)
* K. S. Inglis, This is the ABC (Melb, 1983)
* R. S. Kerr, Freedom of Contract (Brisb, 1990)
* D. S. Macmillan, Newington College 1863-1963 (Syd, 1963)
* P. L. Swain, Newington Across the Years 1893-1988 (Syd, 1988)