John Keith McCarthy CBE (20 January 1905 – 29 October 1976) was an Australian public servant in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.

[2] He was educated at Christian Brothers College,[3] after which he was a jackaroo in New South Wales, before returning to Melbourne to work at Mark Foy's.

[2] At the start of World War II McCarthy was an Assistant District Officer at Talasea.

[4] He commanded local coastwatchers and the ANGAU scouts and became Military Resident Commissioner of Sarawak.

This collection included private diaries covering 1927-1971, correspondence, reports, maps, seminar papers, manuscripts, photographs and McCarthy's original cartoons.