Australian Dictionary of Biography

Keith Elphinston Grainger (1903–1997, public servant, was born on 22 March 1903 at Petersham, Sydney, eldest of seven children of William James Grainger, builder, and his wife Elizabeth Janet, née Elphinston, both New South Wales-born. Keith attended Mosman Public, Ryde Primary, and Cleveland Street Intermediate High schools before winning a State bursary to Sydney Boys’ High School (1917–20).

After working in a civil engineer’s office, in November 1921 he joined the Board of Trade in the New South Wales Public Service, and three years later commenced part-time studies at the University of Sydney (BEc, 1928). When the board was abolished in 1926 he joined the State Industrial Commission as an associate to the reforming arbitration judge Albert Piddington, who advocated improved wages and conditions. Grainger transferred to the State Public Service Board in July 1928, managing the branch responsible for personnel matters for the entire State service. On 2 April 1930, he married Ina Forsyth, a clerk, at Meadowbank Presbyterian Church, Ryde.

In 1945 Grainger was seconded to assist a senior officer of the Commonwealth Public Service Board, John Thomas Pinner, to review post-war staffing in the federal public service. He joined the board in July 1948 as a senior inspector, and was promoted to assistant commissioner the following year. By 1950 he had moved to Canberra. Under the board’s chairman, (Sir) William Dunk, Grainger helped to establish organisation and methods techniques of improving efficiency across the service, its staff having increased by 50 per cent in the five years from 1945.

Grainger undertook a detailed investigation of all government departments, in which he found that senior officers were ‘often really not aware of the detail that is going on in the subordinate levels’ (Grainger 1976). In 1951 Dunk asked Grainger if he was interested in becoming secretary of the Department of Air. He demurred, and the position went to one of Grainger’s staff, (Sir) Edwin Hicks, who later became secretary of the Department of Defence.

In 1953 Grainger succeeded Pinner as a commissioner of the Public Service Board, becoming primarily responsible for organisation and methods, industrial relations, and research. He worked under two very different chairmen, Dunk and (Sir) Frederick Wheeler. Grainger thought Dunk was able but a ‘by and large’ person who was easily irritated by detail. Wheeler, however, was ‘a man of detail’ (Grainger 1976) who was both able and imaginative. While they worked well together, Wheeler had ‘bad habits’ (Grainger 1976) in that he liked to work late into the evenings, and so Grainger often did not get home until around 10 p.m., much to his wife’s irritation.

In dealings with the Australian Council of Trade Unions Dunk came to admire its president, Albert Monk, although he did not hold its advocate, Bob Hawke, in similar esteem. In 1958 Grainger was awarded a CBE.

During the 1960s Wheeler became increasingly involved in industrial relations. He took advantage of decisions of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission to transform the organisation of work and staffing in Commonwealth employment as a whole. This enabled Grainger to concentrate on other aspects of management, including education and training, and the introduction of computer technology, an endeavour in which the Commonwealth Public Service took a leading role in Australia. Grainger was the inaugural president (1959) of the Operational Research Society of Canberra.

In March 1968 Grainger retired, having been the longest serving commissioner of the board. Although a defender of the public service, in retirement he cast a waspish eye on its evolution. He thought young people were being promoted too quickly, and that too many new organisations were being established. Grainger had little faith in the 1974–76 royal commission on Australian government administration chaired by Dr H. C. Coombs. He thought a review of Commonwealth expenditures Coombs undertook for the Whitlam government was ‘one of the most superficial documents you could read’ (Grainger 1976).

Such thoughts, however, could not have taken much of Grainger’s time as he was foundation president of the Canberra branch of the Australian Institute of Management (1958–68), president of the Federal District Bowling Association (1960–62, life member 1971), chairman of the advisory council of the Canberra Technical College (1969–76), chairman of Commercial Property Management Ltd (1969–84), a district governor of Rotary International (1970–71), and treasurer and trustee of the Royal Australian Air Force Women’s Association Educational and Patriotic Fund.

Grainger and his wife travelled extensively overseas. After Ina’s death, he married New Zealand-born Alice Wyman at St James’s Anglican Church, Biggera Waters, Queensland, on 23 September 1991. They lived on the Gold Coast, where Grainger died on 24 October 1997, survived by his wife and son. He was cremated at the Great Southern Garden of Remembrance, Carbrook.