life Pearce made no attempts to re-enter parliament after his defeat. He served on the Commonwealth Grants Commission from 1939 to 1944, and as chairman of the Defence Board of Business Administration from 1940 until it was abolished in 1947. Prime Minister John Curtin retained him in the latter position despite the opposition of some within the Labor Party, including Arthur Calwell and Eddie Ward. The board supervised all defence expenditure of over £10,000. Pearce had lived mainly in Melbourne since entering the Senate, but co-owned a farm in Tenterden, Western Australia, with his son and visited regularly. He published an autobiography, Carpenter to Cabinet, in 1951, which had been written over a decade earlier. Pearce died at his home in Elwood on 24 June 1952, aged 82. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving member of the first Australian Senate elected at Federation in 1901; MHRs Billy Hughes and King O'Malley from the First Parliament would outlive him. Legacy Places named in Pearce's honour include RAAF Base Pearce and the electoral Division of Pearce in Western Australia, Pearce Peak in Antarctica, and the Canberra suburb of Pearce. Australia's longest-serving prime minister Robert Menzies wrote the introduction to Peter Heydon's 1965 biography of Pearce, Quiet Decision, and recalled that he had "never sat with an abler man than George Pearce" in cabinet. Menzies praised Pearce's "profound and reflective mind", analytical way of thinking, and ability to express ideas and policy recommendations. References Further reading External links 1870 births 1952 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Australian ministers for Foreign Affairs Australian people of Cornish descent Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia United Australia Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Western Australia Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Cabinet of Australia Australian federationists Australian Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Australian politicians awarded knighthoods Australian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Australian carpenters National Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Defence ministers of Australia 20th-century Australian politicians People from Mount Barker, South Australia