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Dr Coombs reflects on his capacity to make changes at both the Commonwealth and Reserve Banks when he was at the top of these organisations. He modestly reminds the interviewer that both those organizations had teams of extremely competent technicians who were highly efficient and that there was never any need for radical change.
Curator’s notes
This is an interview from another age when people were exceedingly polite with one another and nothing personal was ever alluded to. There’s a strained moment when Robert Moore asks Dr Coombs whether he was ever offered a knighthood and from whom. The interviewer is gently reprimanded for straying too close to the personal, although by the standards of today, such information would not be considered too private.
Herbert Cole Coombs was born on 24 February 1906 and died on 29 October 1997. Professionally he was known as Dr HC Coombs although most people called him 'Nugget’ Coombs. His life spanned the 20th century so there was an opportunity here for something quite epic which has been lost in the restrained formality of the interviewing style of the day. Sadly this interview never goes beyond what could be gleaned from any reference book about Dr Coombs.
