Major General Sir Clive Selwyn Steele, KBE, DSO, MC, VD (30 September 1892 – 5 August 1955) was an engineer and a senior officer of the Australian Army who served in both the First and Second World Wars.

For this action he was awarded the Military Cross, the citation for which reads: For conspicuous gallantry, initiative, and devotion on the 31st August, 1918, at Peronne, when he made the most daring and valuable reconnaissance regardless of heavy shelling, to ascertain the condition of the bridge across the Somme River and Canal and arrange for the repairs.

Setting up private practice in 1924 as a consulting engineer, he designed and supervised structural works including the State Savings Bank of Victoria building in Melbourne, the members' stand at Flemington Racecourse, the National Mutual Life Association of Australasia Ltd building in Brisbane, Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney and the Melbourne Town Hall.

[1] Transported to Java, Netherlands East Indies in January 1942, he was then sent to Sumatra on 14 February, where he helped organise the evacuation of Allied troops from Oosthaven.

He returned to Australia in March, and in April was promoted to temporary major general and appointed engineer-in-chief at Land Headquarters, Melbourne.

[1][3] In preparation for the war against Japan, he established the RAE Training Centre at Kapooka, New South Wales and increased the size of the School of Military Engineering at Liverpool, which trained sappers who disarmed mines, demolished obstacles, provided water supplies and other services to military camps, cut and milled timber, built huts, roads, bridges, railways, airfields and wharves, and operated the army's water-transport vessels.

With the reorganisation of Land Headquarters in October 1943, fortifications, works, engineer stores and transport were added to Steele's responsibilities.