Percival Edgar Deane (10 August 1890–17 August 1946) was an Australian

public servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. Deane was born in

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city List of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of ...

, the son of a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters tra ...

. He won a scholarship to

University High School, Melbourne , motto_translation = With Zeal and Loyalty , established = , type = Government-funded co-educational secondary day school , principal = Ciar Foster , location = 77 St ...

, and then worked as a

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selective ...

salesman,

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''st ...

writer, and clerk at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb n ...

, before going into business, becoming part-owner of two companies, and founding and editing ''

Australian Golfer Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

'' (being an outstanding

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

er himself). On the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

in 1914 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and was posted to the 1st Australian General Hospital in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

, where he was commissioned

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

and

Quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In ...

. In April 1916 he was invalided back to Australia suffering from overstrain. In November 1916 Deane was appointed private secretary to

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Billy Hughes William Morris Hughes (25 September 1862 – 28 October 1952) was an Australian politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Australia, in office from 1915 to 1923. He is best known for leading the country Military history of Austra ...

. He was secretary to the Australian delegation to the

Versailles Conference The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

, for which he was appointed Companion of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in hono ...

(CMG) in the 1920 New Year Honours, and to the Australian delegations to the

Imperial Conference Imperial Conferences (Colonial Conferences before 1907) were periodic gatherings of government leaders from the self-governing colonies and dominions of the British Empire between 1887 and 1937, before the establishment of regular Meetings of ...

s of

1921 Events January * January 2 ** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in Brazil. ** The Spanish liner ''Santa Isabel'' breaks ...

and

1926 Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos (general), Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Kingdom of Hejaz, Hejaz. ** Bảo Đại, Crown Prince Nguyễn P ...

. His relationship with Hughes was dramatised in the 1974 ABC docudrama ''

Billy and Percy ''Billy and Percy'' is a 1974 Australian docudrama based on the relationship between Prime Minister Billy Hughes and his private secretary Percy Deane during World War I. It was based primarily on Deane's diaries.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on ...

'', which won "Best Dramatised Documentary" at the 1975 Logies and the "Golden Reel" prize at the 1974–75 Australian Film Institute Awards. In February 1921 he was appointed

Secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a ...

of the

Prime Minister's Department A cabinet department or prime minister's department is a department or other government agency that directly supports the work of the government's central executive office, usually the cabinet and/or prime minister, rather than specific minister ...

and in 1929 Secretary of the

Department of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

until its abolition in 1932. From 1932 until his retirement on medical grounds (with

myocarditis Myocarditis, also known as inflammatory cardiomyopathy, is an acquired cardiomyopathy due to inflammation of the heart muscle. Symptoms can include shortness of breath, chest pain, decreased ability to exercise, and an irregular heartbeat. The ...

) in 1936, he was a member of the War Pensions Entitlement Appeals Tribunal. In his retirement, Deane broke his

hip In vertebrate anatomy, hip (or "coxa"Latin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) in medical terminology) refers to either an anatomical region or a joint. The hip region ...

in a street-fall and became bedridden, eventually dying of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bl ...

on 17 August 1946 at the age of 56.

Footnotes

References and further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Deane, Percy 1890 births 1946 deaths Australian public servants Public servants from Melbourne Australian military personnel of World War I Australian publishers (people) Australian Army soldiers Australian Army officers Australian Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Deaths from cancer in Victoria (Australia) Secretaries of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet People educated at University High School, Melbourne 20th-century Australian public servants Australian book and manuscript collectors People from Port Melbourne Military personnel from Melbourne