Frank Mahony

Francis Joseph Mahony (15 March 1915 – January 2000) was an Australian lawyer and public servant, who served as interim Director-General of Security (head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) for just over five months between 1975 and 1976.

Early life Mahony was born in Newcastle in 1915, but was orphaned when his mother died the day after his birth and his father was killed in action at the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium during World War I. He was raised by relatives in Newcastle where he went to school, until he moved to Armidale to attend De La Salle College, where he won a scholarship to the University of Sydney.

Public service career In 1934, Mahony joined the Commonwealth Public Service, whilst also studying law part-time at the Sydney Law School, from which he graduated in 1940. After discharge from the army, he returned to the CSO where he was involved in several high-profile inquiries and commissions including the Royal Commission into the Petrov Affair, an inquiry into the crash of Ansett-ANA Flight 325, and the Royal Commission into the Melbourne–Voyager collision. In 1963, he became Deputy Crown Solicitor.

From 1979, Mahony was the first president of the Repatriation Review Tribunal until it became the Veterans' Review Board in 1985. In the 1980 New Year Honours, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for his role as President of the Repatriation Commission.