Bede Nairn - obituary

Bede Nairn (1917-2006), was born on 6 August 1917 at Turill, near Mudgee, New South Wales, youngest of six children of Robert John (Jack) Nairn, labourer, and his wife Rose Ann, née Hopkins. He was baptised Noel Bede but was known by his second Christian name - reputedly his parents’ intention to name him Lloyd George had been foiled by the officiating priest. In 1923 the Nairns moved to Sydney where Jack worked as a council watchman and cleaner and the family lived in Bathurst Street. ‘We were still poor, damned poor’, Bede later said, but ‘one step up from real poverty’; Rose probably financed the piano she purchased and Bede’s music lessons by taking in boarders. Educated at St John’s Poor School, in Kent Street, and by the Christian Brothers at St Mary’s Cathedral School, after completing the Intermediate certificate (1934) he took a job with the New South Wales Electoral Office. His poor eyesight meant that he wore glasses for the rest of his life and was rejected for service in World War II.  While studying for matriculation part time he worked as a clerk at the Sydney Technical College; later he was an evening student at the University of Sydney (BA Hons 1945; MA 1955). He married Jean Hayward on Australia Day 1943 at St Mary’s Cathedral.

In 1948 Nairn taught at the Sydney Technical College, Ultimo, then from 1949 lectured in history at the newly founded New South Wales University of Technology (later University of New South Wales). He became senior lecturer and head of the school of history at UNSW in 1956 and in 1961 associate professor of history. In 1957, on a Rockefeller grant, he went with the family to Balliol College, Oxford, England, where he researched British trade unions. From 1959 to 1976 he was a trustee (councillor) of the Public (State) Library of New South Wales and in 1971-82 represented it on the New South Wales Archives Authority.

An influential figure in the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History from its foundation in 1961, Nairn was a member of its executive and of the editorial board of Labour History. In Gerry Walsh’s words, ‘he wrote history according to the evidence and not according to an ideology: his canons were integrity and common sense’. In 1963 his article, 'Writing Australian History’, in the journal Manna was both an insightful review of volume one of Manning Clark’s History of Australia and a refutation of attacks by critics such as Malcolm Ellis; it was praised in The Times of London as ‘one of the first great essays in historical criticism in Australia’. With G. J. Abbott, Nairn co-edited Economic Growth of Australia 1788-1921 (1969). His groundbreaking Civilising Capitalism: the Labor Movement in NSW 1870-1900 (1973) stressed, as John Merritt has written, ‘the pragmatic reform agendas of men and women seeking independence and security within a capitalist society’. He followed this in 1986 with The Big Fella, a biography of Jack Lang and an account of the Labor Party in New South Wales to 1949.

In 1962 Nairn had become chairman of the New South Wales working party of the Australian Dictionary of Biography.  In 1965 he moved to Canberra to join the ADB staff at the Australian National University. When Douglas Pike fell ill in 1973 Nairn became ADB general editor for volume 6. In a significantly harmonious partnership, he and Geoffrey Serle were joint general editors for volumes 7 to 10.

Warm and approachable as leader of the ADB team in Canberra, Nairn had a firm commitment to continuing the high standards set by Pike. A fine administrator, sensitive to human frailties and fiercely devoted to the project, Nairn consolidated the dictionary’s achievements. He was a skilful editor, as adept at cutting a superfluous phrase as in summarising a wordy paragraph. His own writing was clear and graceful (with occasionally a Beethovian deliberate discord). He retired as general editor in 1984. Among the most notable of the eighty ADB entries he wrote himself are those on Sir John Robertson, Jack Lang, Jack Beasley and Chris Watson, politicians, Frank Dickson, trade unionist, Archie Jackson and Victor Trumper, cricketers, and Jimmie and ‘Darby’ Munro, jockeys.

Nairn had joined the Royal Australian Historical Society in 1964, and was elected a fellow in 1987. In the society’s Journal he chose to publish major articles such as ‘The political mastery of Sir Henry Parkes’ (March 1967). His last publication in the JRAHS was ‘The governor, the bushranger and the premier’ (December 2000). Throughout his career he supported young scholars, and was much in demand as a sympathetic examiner, and a generous adviser on manuscripts. He had a world-wide circle of friends and correspondents. In 1988 he was appointed AO for service to education as an historian and a biographer. The History Council of New South Wales presented a citation to him in 2000 in recognition of his contribution to Australian biography and history.

A tall, gentle man, with a neat moustache and a good head of hair, Nairn spoke softly but held his opinions firmly. His Catholic faith was a lifelong commitment. Politics were also an abiding interest - he had joined the Australian Labor Party at the age of 16 and though he ceased his membership when he moved to Canberra, he remained strongly committed to the party and scornful of the failings of ‘the conservatives’ who opposed it. He was a devoted and loving family man. Nairn combined a keen interest in philosophy and religion with a passion for sport and music. He had an enduring love for Beethoven’s piano works. A good cricketer in his youth, he played regularly before moving to Canberra, and occasionally after. He was a combative New South Wales patriot in sport (and in other matters as well) and both a practical and theoretical devotee of horse-racing, which he saw as a metaphor for life. Nairn died in Canberra on 21 April 2006 and after a Requiem Mass was buried in Gungahlin Lawn Cemetery. His wife, their three sons and three daughters, seventeen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren survived him; he was also close to his niece who lived in Canberra.

Rugby League had been an abiding enthusiasm. South Sydney was his team and his last entry for the ADB was an article on the ‘Little Master’ Clive Churchill; it appears in this volume. For Bede Nairn, as for his colleagues and friends Pike, Serle and Ritchie, it can be said:  for his memorial, turn these pages.

by Chris Cunneen, Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol 17, pp xiii-xiv