Sir Robert Lowe Hall KCMG CB, Ipswich Grammar School, 1914-18

Topped the state in the Junior Public Examination. In the senior public examination in 1918 he was ranked seventh in the state, earning an open scholarship that enabled him to study engineering at the University of Queensland (BE, 1923).

A Rhodes Scholarship led to a BA and MA at Oxford with emphasis on philosophy, politics and economics. A fellow of Trinity College, Oxford from 1927-50, he lectured in economics and applied economics. In 1939 he was seconded to the new Ministry of Supply at Whitehall and spent 1942-44 based in Washington. From 1943 his work largely involved postwar economic planning. From 1951-63 he was economic advisor to successive Chancellors of the Exchequer in the Parliament of Great Britain. In 1969 on being made a life peer, he assumed the title of Lord Roberthall.