Smash hit

Arthur Roden Cutler was born in the Manly, a Sydney seaside suburb named by an early Governor for the dignified bearing of its natives. The son of Arthur and Ruby Cutler, he was educated at Sydney High School and the University of Sydney, where he was a member of the University Regiment. He graduated in economics in 1934 and joined the New South Wales Justice Department in the same year.

An indication of his courage occurred when he was 18, when a friend was threatened by a shark while swimming off Bondi Beach. His companion was some way out when the shark warning bell rang, but Cutler swam boldly towards him so that they could make for the beach together, splashing vigorously in unison to keep the shark at bay.

On being invalided out of the Army, he was elected New South Wales State Secretary of the Returned Soldiers', Sailors' and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia. In 1943 he joined the Security Service of New South Wales and later that year he became an assistant commissioner in the Department of Repatriation in Canberra.

Quite soon after the war, Cutler was, at the age of 29, appointed High Commissioner to New Zealand. Other postings within the Commonwealth, to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Pakistan, followed, as well as a year in Egypt as the Australian Minister during the Suez crisis. When he arrived in New Zealand and Ceylon, the Australian mission was disliked by the national governments but his common sense and awareness of local needs and sensitivities earned him respect and affection.

Cutler was appointed CBE in 1957 and, having returned from Egypt at the onset of the Suez crisis of 1956, acted as Secretary-General of the South-East Asia Council of Ministers meeting in Canberra in January 1957. He was Australian High Commissioner in Pakistan, 1958-61, and Australian Consul-General in New York, 1961-65, during which period he was the Australian delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1962, 1963 and 1964.

His final diplomatic posting, in 1965, as Ambassador to The Netherlands, was cut short in 1966 when he returned home as Governor of New South Wales, an office he appeared to be born to and one which he served for a record 15 years, through four Premiers, and a change of Government, after decades of conservative rule. Such was his popularity that the Labour Premier, Neville Wran, extended his last term until 1981.

As a former Chief of Protocol, Cutler, and his wife, Helen, observed the formalities and traditions of vice-regal life. A member of the Royal Family is said to have remarked that Government House in Sydney was more formal than Buckingham Palace but Cutler maintained that proper protocol was simply natural courtesy.

More importantly he was punctilious in insisting that a Governor should remain above politics. In November 1975 the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, sacked the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, for his refusal to call an election after months of obstruction over money Bills by the conservative-led Senate. Kerr had planned a trip abroad and had earlier raised the matter with Cutler, who as the most senior State Governor, would act as Commonwealth Administrator in the Governor-General's absence. Cutler categorically advised Kerr that as Parliament had made the mess, it was for the Parliament to solve the mess itself.

Although none of this was revealed until after he had retired, Cutler believed that a Governor or Governor-General was bound to accept the advice of his Premier or Prime Minister and, as acting Governor-General, he would not have gone against that advice. In the immediate aftermath of the crises, when both Kerr and Whitlam attempted to share their versions of the events with him, he refused to listen as he was still Governor of New South Wales.

For his diplomatic services to Australia, he was appointed KCMG in December 1965. He was appointed KCVO in 1970, a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1980 and advanced to Knight of the Order in 1981. Throughout the republican debate and referendum he remained a staunch royalist, believing the monarchy brought stability, continuity and tradition to his country. In recent years he co-operated with the popular novelist Colleen McCullough on a biography, Roden Cutler, VC, which appeared in 1998.

He succeeded Viscount De L'Isle as deputy president of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association in 1991. His death reduces to 17 the number of living holders of the VC.

Roden Cutler married Helen Morris of Belvue Hill, Sydney, in 1946. She died in 1990 and he married Joan Goodwin in 1993. He is survived by his second wife and four sons from his first marraige.

Sir Roden Cutler, VC, AK, KCMG, KCVO, CBE, Governor of New South Wales, 1966-81, was born on May 24, 1916. He died on February 21, 2002, aged 85.