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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALIAN BIOGRAPHY
byPERCIVAL SERLEAngus and Robertson--1949
Main PagePreface Acknowledgments Epigraph
Biographies: A Ba Be-Bo Br-By Ca-Ch Cl-Cu D E F G Ha-He Hi-Hu Index of Individuals: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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1. Army and Navy 10 2. Artists, including architects, actors, and musicians 130 3. Governors and administrators 50 4. Lawyers 69 5. Literary men and women 137 6. Notorieties 17 7. Pioneers, explorers, pastoralists, men of business 161 8. Politicians 174 9. Scholars, philosophers, clergymen 76 10. Scientists, including physicians, surgeons, and engineers 140 11. Social reformers, philanthropists, educationists 53 12. Sporting men (cricketers and athletes) 13 1030 The number of women included is 42. [Indicated in index, above, with *. There are actually 46. Editor]An investigation into the average age at death of the men and women in each group resulted as follows:
Av. age 1. Scholars, philosophers, clergymen 76 74.5 2. Lawyers 69 71.5 3. Social reformers, philanthropists, educationists 53 70.4 4. Scientists, including physicians, surgeons and engineers 140 70.1 5. Politicians 174 68.8 6. Governors and administrators 50 68.5 7. Pioneers, explorers, pastoralists, men of business 161 68.2 8. Army and navy 10 68.2 9. Sporting men (cricketers and athletes) 13 67.5 10. Literary men and women 137 65.1 11. Artists, including architects, actors and musicians 130 63.9 12. Notorieties 17 55 2 TOTAL 1030 68.0In three cases, Nos 8, 9, and 12 the figures are valueless because of the small number in each group, and in the last some were executed or met violent deaths. The average ages of the groups are usually what might have been expected. Literary men and artists have often passed through hard times in Australia, in conditions in no way conducive to longevity and it is natural to find them at the bottom of the list. Of the total of 1030 it was possible to trace the father's occupation in only about 560 cases. It was found that 84 of these were the sons of clergymen, and even if we assume there were no clergymen's sons among the remainder, it means that more than one in every 13 of the 1030 were sons of the parsonage. An article in Munsey's Magazine for September 1907, showed that in the United States nearly one in 12 of Americans who had risen to distinction were clergymen's sons, practically the same as the Australian figures. An investigation made some time ago, the details of which I have been unable to trace, showed I believe, that the sons of clergy headed the list in the English Dictionary of National Biography. Contrary to a popular belief that "clergymen's sons are always the worst" it may be mentioned that three of our most distinguished judges, Sir Samuel Griffith, Mr Justice Higgins, and Sir Samuel Way, were all clergymen's sons. After the clergy came pastoralists and country gentlemen, 49; lawyers, 47; Army officers, 42; merchants (including probably shopkeepers), 38; medical men, farmers, and officials, about 30 each. Teachers had 20, after which the numbers for each occupation rapidly tapered off. An investigation into the countries of origin showed that approximately:
47 per cent were born in England. 27 " " " " 『 Australia. 12 』 " " " 『 Scotland. 8 』 " " " 『 Ireland. 1 』 " " " 『 Wales. 5 』 " " " " the rest of the world.Included in the last group were 12 from the United States, 9 from Germany, and 6 from New Zealand. These figures came as a shock, but consideration showed they should have been expected. In the early years all the population of mature years had of course come from Europe, and in the middle of the 19th century there was an immense influx of immigrants. Of distinguished Australians born after the middle of the century a large proportion was still alive on 31 December 1942. The question of selection was full of difficulties and it was impossible to make set rules. In science, all Fellows of the Royal Society London were included, and preference was given to other men who had added something to the sum of human knowledge; in politics, most premiers of States, all prime ministers of the Commonwealth, and others who had brought forward legislation of importance; in law, most chief justices of States, and all judges of the High Court; in literature all of established reputation, or who had been highly popular, or represented in the best anthologies; in art, most artists whose work had been purchased for the leading Australian national galleries were considered to have claims. But in a large number of cases it was most difficult to decide what should be considered sufficient grounds for inclusion, and I was fortunate in being able to obtain advice from personal friends and others in all the States. It must, however, be understood that these gentlemen are in no way to be considered responsible for any sins of omission or commission. I have frequently had to make almost arbitrary decisions and cannot hope that the course taken was always the right one. It may possibly cause surprise that so many artists and literary men have been included. It will, however, be found that the position is similar in the English Dictionary of National Biography, and there is a good reason for it. Many politicians, men of business, and professional men, who seemed important in their day, are soon completely forgotten; but books persist in living on, if only in public libraries, pictures continue to be exhibited in national galleries, and there is always the possibility of some inquiry arising to which a book of this kind may give the answer. There is, too, another reason. It is notoriously difficult to judge the artistic and literary work of one's own generation, and if too much discrimination is exercised it may be found after a few years that some authors or artists rejected had come to be considered of much more importance than some included. The term Australian has covered several men and women whose connexion with Australia was comparatively slight. If anyone of distinction was merely born in Australia that in itself was not considered sufficient ground for inclusion. As a general rule it has been thought necessary, as in the case of Samuel Alexander, that he should have stayed long enough in Australia for his life to have been influenced by his education and surroundings. Mrs Humphrey Ward, the novelist, was an exception. She left at five years of age, and the eventual cause of her inclusion was that she was really an Australian of the third generation. Her mother was an Australian, one grandfather spent all his adult life in Australia, and one of her great-grandfathers was William Sorell, one of the ablest governors that ever came to Australia. Her inclusion also gave an opportunity to say a few words about her father, Thomas Arnold, who influenced the early days of education in Tasmania. With regard to people not born in Australia, the endeavour was to omit mere birds of passage. The extreme limit of inclusion may be instanced by the famous actors Joseph Jefferson, G. V. Brooke, and Barry Sullivan. All three were in Australia for fairly long periods and there can be little doubt that the usually high standard of theatrical productions in Australia was based on the foundations laid by these men. Brooke indeed is so much a tradition that he simply could not be omitted. Most of the early governors were included, but when responsible government had been granted the influence of the governors was much lessened, and it was decided to omit later State governors. Most of those who were men of real distinction will be found recorded in the Dictionary of National Biography. There has been a fairly general impression that the only important productions of Australia have been wool, wheat, and cricketers. I hope this book will help to remove that impression. Too low a place has been allowed in the past to Australian literature, largely because of the undue prominence given to some of the more popular writers. Australian painting has been more and more appreciated of late years, but there is still far too little encouragement given to sculpture, architecture, and music. Some excellent singers and executive musicians have made their mark in the world among whom may be mentioned Melba, Ada Crossley, and William Murdoch; but though some interesting music has been composed little is known of it and comparatively little has been published. A few outstanding scientists have been born here, such as Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, and a few others, such as Sir William Henry Bragg, have come from Europe to Australia and found the conditions favourable to the development of their great ability. There has also been an enormous amount of honest spade work in science done in Australia, much of which has been recorded here. W. J. Farrer did very valuable early work in wheat-breeding; Lawrence Hargrave had much more say in the development of flying than is generally allowed in America and Great Britain; Bertram Dillon Steele's micro-balance has been of great value to science and Grayson was a great pioneer in the ruling of diffraction gratings. James Harrison was a pioneer in refrigeration; J. H. Michell and William Sutherland in their modest unobtrusive way did some remarkable work in mathematics and physics; Charles Ledger, who practically saved quinine for the world, had more than one connexion with Australia and ended his days there; John Ridley and H. V. McKay were responsible for great improvements in harvesting. J. M. Templeton established the non-forfeiture principle in life assurance policies now universally adopted, and Sir Robert Torrens's simplification of the transfer of land has been of great benefit to the public. I began collecting the materials for this book some twenty years ago. Realizing how quickly records disappear, I felt that a good service would be done if an attempt were made to gather together information likely to be useful to the compilers of the future Australian Dictionary of National Biography. The work was interrupted a great deal, but by 1936 some 17,000 items relating to about 7,000 men, largely clipped from various books of reference and newspapers, had been arranged and indexed. It was difficult, however, to provide for the safe keeping of these records in future years, for though they could be given or bequeathed to the Public Library of some State, a biographical dictionary might be compiled in another State without its editor being aware of the existence of these records. I mentioned this problem when writing to my friend, H. M. Green, librarian of the Fisher Library, Sydney, and he suggested that I should write the dictionary myself. Eventually I decided to do so. I realized that the ideal way of preparing a book of this kind would be to have a strong editor in charge of a staff of experts. But they would have to be paid, and there seemed to be no likelihood of the money being available. I hope Mr Green's confidence in me has not been unjustified. In many cases the biographies will fall short of what might have been desired. I tried to find the best authorities, but, excellent as the Melbourne Public Library is, there were occasional instances when required books or newspapers were not available. In other cases information may have been missed for want of the knowledge of where to look for it. Often after careful search I found that my only authorities were old newspapers, and I owe much to them. Many of the obituary notices in them had evidently been prepared with much care and were excellently done. In recent years, however, there has been a falling off in these biographies, and during the war years it has no doubt been impossible to spare adequate space. It would be well to have biographies of eminent men written soon after their death. Sometimes a pamphlet of thirty or forty pages might give an adequate short account. Such organizations as the Fellowship of Australian Writers would be able to suggest biographers who would do a competent and accurate piece of work. If something of the kind is not done it will become extremely difficult to compile supplementary volumes of this and similar works. I would stress the necessity for accuracy. In preparing this book, though every endeavour was made to be accurate, hundreds of statements had to be accepted which could not possibly be checked. It was found, too, that frequently an error had been made in an early authority which had been copied in later books, and it was decided that it would be best to work from the earliest authorities. When it was known that biographies of a particular person would be available in the Dictionary of National Biography, Johns's An Australian Biographical Dictionary, or the Australian Encyclopaedia, the biography for this book was written quite independently. Occasionally, when some essential fact could not be traced, recourse was had to these works, but in those cases a direct reference is made to the authority used. Though Heaton's and Mennell's books frequently appear among the authorities cited, they also were used sparingly. I have had to decide between many conflicting statements; on two occasions at least there was a choice of four different dates of birth. All that could be done was to adopt the date for which there appeared to be the best evidence. Though it was many years before Australia was generally accepted as a title, I have used this name from the beginning, and the same applies to Tasmania, though Van Diemen's Land was used until well into the middle of the nineteenth century. In New South Wales premiers were always prime ministers until 1901, but in this work to save confusion the leader of the government in that State has been called premier from the beginning. I have endeavoured to make the book worthy of its subject. It would have been better could I have spent another five years on it, but at seventy-five years of age one realizes there is a time to make an end. PERCIVAL SERLE. 70 Church Street, Hawthorn E.2., Victoria.
SERLE, Percival (1871-1951),editor and biographer,(View this painting at the National Library of Australia Web Site) |