Peter Lawler

Sir Peter James Lawler (23 March 1921 – 1 April 2017) was an Australian senior public servant and diplomat. He served in senior roles under Prime Ministers Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton, McMahon, Whitlam, Fraser and Hawke, and ended his career as Ambassador to Ireland and the Holy See.

Career Peter Lawler was born on 23 March 1921. He was educated at St Joseph's College Hunters Hill, St Stanislaus College, Bathurst, and the University of Sydney, graduating in economics.

He joined the Department of Postwar Reconstruction in 1944, then the Prime Minister's Department in 1950. and also undertook postgraduate training in several European cities.

He became a Deputy Secretary of the Prime Minister's Department in 1964. In October 1967, as Acting Secretary, he was involved in the VIP aircraft affair that threatened the premiership of Menzies' successor Harold Holt, but used his experience and shrewdness to protect himself and escape the odium that was visited on Sir John Bunting.

In March 1983, the incoming Hawke government appointed Lawler Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland and Ambassador to the Holy See, serving until his retirement in 1986. Lawler lobbied to have the post of Ambassador to the Holy See permanently resident in Rome, but this did not occur until Tim Fischer's appointment in 2008.

He was a Member of the Council of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences for many years. He and his wife were named Australian Family of the Year by the Association. He was also a Cooperator of the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei.

He married Mary Thornton in 1944. She gave him six children, but both mother and son Gerard died at his birth in 1957. In 1958, he married Mary Robinson, and two more children followed.

Lawler died on 1 April 2017, aged 96, survived by his seven surviving children from two marriages, and their offspring.

He was knighted in the 1981 Queen's Birthday Honours.

In 1986 he received the papal honour of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Pius IX.