Sydney Rowell - Later Life

Later Life

Rowell retired from the Army on 15 December 1954, following a ceremony at Duntroon, where his career had begun over 43 years before. He turned to gardening, cricket, horse-racing, reading, and crossword puzzles. He became a director of Smith, Elder & Co. in 1954 and of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation in 1956, serving as its chairman from 1957 to 1968. From 1958 to 1968 he was chairman of the Australian Boy Scouts' Association and a member of the Rhodes Scholarships Selection Committee for Victoria. He was offered but declined the post of Australian consul general in New York. In 1974 he published his memoirs, entitled Full Circle — the only Chief of the General Staff to have done so. Rowell died at his South Yarra home, twelve days before Lady Rowell, and was cremated. They were survived by their daughter. Sir Ivor Hele's portrait of Rowell is held by the Australian War Memorial, as are his papers.