Sir John Thomson Gunther

Sir John Thomson Gunther (2 October 1910 – 27 April 1984) was an Australian public servant who spent most of his career in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Holding several key roles in the territory's civil service, he was also a member of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly from 1951 to 1966.

Biography Gunther was born on 2 October 1910 in Sydney, the son of Cyril Maynard Gunther, a chemist with the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, and Jean Graeme (née Thomson). The family moved to the Tweed River area when Gunther was a small child, but returned to Sydney in 1917. In 1938 he married Grace Rickard-Bell and left his job with Pacific Plantations to become chair of a medical investigation into lead poisoning at Mount Isa. In this role he was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1951 and also became a member of the Executive Council and later the Administrator's Council.

In the 1965 New Year Honours he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG), and was knighted in the 1975 Birthday Honours.