David Dexter

David St Alban Dexter (8 January 1917 – 15 March 1992) was an Australian military historian, Commando, diplomat and university administrator.

David St Alban Dexter was born on 8 January 1917 at St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, the second of five sons and one daughter of Colonel Walter Ernest Dexter, and his wife Dora Stirling, née Roadknight.

His father was on active service at the time as an Army Church of England chaplain with the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF).

The family returned to Australia in 1920, where his father's AIF appointment was terminated.

His father decided to become a farmer, and he took up a soldier settlement block near Kilsyth, Victoria.

Like so many others, Dexter's father's farming venture was a failure.

He was posted to the 2/21st Infantry Battalion, which was training at Bonegilla, Victoria, on 19 October.

He then returned to the church in 1923, and the family moved to a clergy house in Romsey, Victoria.

This was part of the 23rd Brigade of the 7th Division.

The 23rd Brigade was later transferred to the 8th Division.

After a chance meeting with Major Freddie Spencer Chapman and Major Mike Calvert in a Melbourne pub, Dexter volunteered for Commando training.

In 1927, they relocated to the parish of Lara, Victoria.

Dexter and his four brothers all attended Geelong Grammar, an exclusive private school.

Dexter was there from 1930 to 1935, initially as a boarder on a scholarship for sons of the clergy, but as a day student in his final years.

He played Australian football and cricket, served in the school cadet unit, and was a prefect.

His contemporaries at Geelong Grammar included Dick Hamer and his brother Alan, David Hay and David Fairbairn; John Gorton was a friend of his brother.

After matriculating from Geelong Grammar, Dexter took a job in a furniture business run by Maurice Arnold Nathan.

He lasted a year but after a series of mishaps he decided that this was not his line of work, and he resolved to go to university.

He accepted an appointment as a student teacher at Grimwade House at Melbourne Grammar, which he did while he studied French and history at the University of Melbourne part-time.

He also played football for the Melbourne University Football Club.

Max Crawford persuaded him to do honours, so he did this year full-time.

He was able to live with his parents, as his father had taken up the parish in Footscray, Victoria.

He later wrote the New Guinea volume of the Australia in the War of 1939–1945 series.

After the war, Dexter joined the Department of External Affairs.

A 1940 graduate of the University of Melbourne, Dexter enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force in 1940.

He volunteered for Commando training.

He was commissioned as a lieutenant and transferred to the 2/2nd Independent Company.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in 1940.

Dexter joined the Second Australian Imperial Force on 8 October 1940, and was assigned the service number VX38890.

He became a sergeant on 7 March 1941.

The 2/2nd Independent Company was sent to Portuguese Timor, where it waged a guerrilla war against the Japanese after they invaded the island in February 1942.

He returned to Australia with the unit in December.

In June 1943 it was sent to New Guinea, where Dexter was wounded while carrying out an ambush on a Japanese force.

In 1945, it went to New Britain.

Shortly before the end of the war in August 1945, he assumed command of the 2/4th Commando Squadron with the rank of major.

He worked closely with the Minister for External Affairs, H. V. Evatt, accompanying him to the second and third sessions of the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 and 1948, and helping him become the President of the United Nations General Assembly.

As the head of the department's foreign aid branch, he was involved in the formulation of the Colombo Plan and developed foreign aid programs in conjunction with the South East Asia Treaty Organization and the United Nations.

He became the secretary of the Australian Universities Commission in 1960, and then the Registrar (Property and Plans) at the Australian National University (ANU) in 1967.

He was commissioned as a lieutenant and transferred to the 2/2nd Independent Company at Wilsons Promontory on 11 July.

He assumed command of 1 Section, A Platoon.