The most exciting time of Frederick Chilton's life might have been when Winston Churchill sent the Australian 6th Division to Greece in a futile attempt to stem the German invasion, and the Australians were cut off behind enemy lines in Peneos Gorge.

After speaking with Chilton by field telephone, General Bernard Freyberg, VC, who commanded the Allied forces during the Battle of Crete, said to a colleague: "You have a fine man up there. He's as cool as a cucumber." Chilton escaped with his battalion headquarters, island hopping across the Aegean Sea to Turkey, hiding in barns and under the nets of friendly fishermen.

The most mysterious time in his life was probably as head of Joint Intelligence after the War, when he established the Defence Signals Inspectorate while his friend Brigadier Charles Spry established ASIO.

Chilton had a big hand in establishing Australia's intelligence agencies, and he helped unmask a Russian spy ring in Australia. However, Chilton said the time when he led the repatriation department, now Veterans Affairs, was "perhaps the most useful, productive and satisfying years of my working life, and they gave full scope to whatever leadership qualities I may have possessed".

Frederick Oliver Chilton - he preferred to be known as Fred - who has died aged 102, was born in Woollahra, the first child of Fred and his wife, formerly Mary Oliver. The family moved to Turramurra, on the edge of an orchard, when Fred was very young. Six siblings followed at two-yearly intervals. Fred played in the family orchard, in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and, as a youth, rode bikes across the Blue Mountains to visit relatives in Blayney.

He began school at Gordon Primary and finished at North Sydney Boys. He was keen to study engineering, but an aunt wanted a lawyer in the family. He did arts-law at the University of Sydney, graduating with first-class honours in both.

He joined the Sydney University Regiment and was admitted as a solicitor in 1929. At the outbreak of World War II Major Fred Chilton went to Africa in the 2/2nd Infantry Battalion of the 6th Division's 16th Brigade. He commanded the battalion during the capture of Bardia, receiving the Distinguished Service Order for conspicuous gallantry.

After the escape from the Peneos Gorge he returned to Australia, was promoted to colonel and made commandant of the Australian Army Tactical School. He then went to New Guinea and was chief of staff at the Battle of Milne Bay, the first defeat on land for the Japanese army.

As brigadier he commanded the 18th Brigade in the Ramu Valley campaign, including the Battle of Shaggy Ridge, where he earned the bar to his Distinguished Service Order, and later the Balikpapan campaign, in Borneo. At the end of hostilities he was military governor of the Celebes (now Sulawesi) and accepted the Japanese surrender from General Fusataro Teshima.

The return to civilian life as an insurance lawyer must have seemed dull, and Chilton accepted the advice of Spry and others to join intelligence. In 1948 he determined that documents leaked to the Russians had been in the possession of Ian Milner, of the External Affairs Department. In 1949 he was involved in setting up ASIO with the prime minister, Ben Chifley, the Defence Department head, Frederick Shedden, and Roger Hollis, the MI5 head in Britain later accused by Peter Wright in Spycatcher of being a Soviet mole. Although Hollis's record of detecting Soviet agents was poor, the weight of opinion is that he was not a double agent.

Chilton learnt of the highly secret Venona intelligence operation, conducted by the US and Britain, which had decrypted substantial portions of KGB cable traffic during and immediately after the war. It has been said that he was involved in the defection of Vladimir Petrov, although this is most unlikely.

He was among the influx of university graduates who transformed the public service after the War, bringing his experience as a lawyer and war leader. Promoted to deputy secretary in 1950, he accompanied Robert Menzies to London and Washington in 1952, joining talks with Churchill and the US president, Harry Truman.

Disappointed at not being made defence head, Chilton led repatriation from 1958 to 1970. He received the OBE in 1957, the CBE in 1963 and was knighted in 1969. He maintained an abiding interest in young people, was on the executive of the Outward Bound Movement and held senior positions with the Australian Red Cross, notably during the wake of Cyclone Tracy in Darwin.

Chilton never married, although several women sought after him. Some family members say his four sisters kept a close watch on him. His modesty was endearing.

In his 100th year he commanded the Anzac Day march in Sydney, escorted by his two great-nephews. Last year Chilton flew alone from Sydney to Canberra for the unveiling at the War Memorial of the crests of the 2/2 Battalion in the morning and of the 18th Brigade in the afternoon.

His first admission to hospital and surgery was at age 100. Keeping active, a fondness for single malt whisky and a good red wine may have helped.


This is an edited version of the obituary that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 11 October 2007.