Armitage - Signatures on Australian banknotes - Hugh Traill Armitage - Coins and Australia

Appointed C.M.G. in 1941, Armitage succeeded Sir Harry Sheehan as governor on 1 July. Armitage's initial three-year term was to be extended until 31 December 1948. From mid-1944 he assisted the government to draft bills (enacted next year) to reform the Commonwealth Bank and formally constitute it as a central bank. In making permanent the controls which had been imposed due to wartime conditions, he and J. B. Chifley were careful to point out that the 1935-37 royal commission on monetary and banking systems had recommended that the Federal government have ultimate power over monetary policy. The 1945 banking legislation also directed the Commonwealth Bank to compete actively with the commercial banks; Armitage implemented the change with vigour.