After his wife died in 1947, he lived at the Hotel Windsor. He was tolerant and wise, and dispassionate in considering problems. Sir Angus was tall and well built, with close-cropped hair. Before his presidency ended, five clubs in Japan and two in Germany were readmitted to Rotary International. His warmth, simplicity and sincerity made a deep impression on all who met him. As president (1948-49) of Rotary International, he travelled 100,000 miles (160,000 km), visiting Rotary clubs in the Americas, Africa, Europe and Oceania. Throughout the war Mitchell planned for reconciliation with Rotarians in Germany and Japan.

Three days before the outbreak of World War II, Mitchell wrote to his friend Paul Harris, founder of Rotary, that 'friendliness, understanding, and goodwill were the only lines upon which nations could settle their differences'. While a director (1937-38) of Rotary International, he led a goodwill mission of sixty-four Australian Rotarians to the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). He was governor (1934-35) of Rotary District 65 (which covered the whole of Australia, except for Queensland and New South Wales north of the Riverina). Having joined the Rotary Club of Melbourne in 1927, he was its president in 1931-32. Mitchell contributed to international understanding through his membership of Rotary.

He was also a sponsor of the Lord Somers' Camp for boys, and president (1951-61) of the Victorian Society for Crippled Children (and Adults).

In 1931 he joined the State executive and finance committees of the Boy Scouts' Association (treasurer 1940-61). During the Depression he had initiated the Port Melbourne settlement for unemployed youth, later the Young Men's Christian Association Port Melbourne Youth Centre, of which he was chairman. He retired from his firm in 1936 and accepted directorships of several public companies, among them Australian Cement Ltd and Noske Industries Ltd.Ī public-spirited man with a strong Presbyterian background, Mitchell gave much of his time to community work. At the Menzies Hotel, Melbourne, on 5 October 1910 Mitchell had married with Presbyterian forms Teenie Robertson MacKenzie. When William Lees of the Corn Exchange Trade Association, Liverpool, England, joined the partnership in 1924, the firm was one of the largest of its kind in Australia. Bellair, he established Mitchell & Bellair, mercantile and grain brokers. James settled at Williamstown, Melbourne, in 1885, joined the Port Phillip pilots and helped to found the Victorian Stevedoring Co. Sir Angus Sinclair Mitchell (1884-1961), grain broker and Rotarian, was born on 1 April 1884 at Shanghai, China, second son of James Alexander Mitchell, a master mariner from London, and his Victorian-born wife Elizabeth, née Anderson.

Angus sinclair childhood