The best brains of the public accounting world: the restricted membership of the Army Accountancy Advisory Panel, 1942-1945

The events threatening to engulf Australia as the Japanese imperial forces continued their push through southeast Asia caused enormous concern for the Department of the Army as civilian and uniformed staff struggled to cope with large increases in manpower and expenditure responsibilities. The department moved, in January 1942, to create an expert panel of accountants to provide advice with a view to overcoming these problems. This paper focuses uniquely on a small group of individuals brought together for their expertise in accounting drawn exclusively from the practitioner ranks of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. The paper draws attention to the fact that, while several of those invited to serve had inside knowledge and experience during World War I (1914-1918), only those holding the designation of chartered accountant were invited to participate, seemingly ignoring the great potential available from the wider profession of the day