Australian Dictionary of Biography

Sir Bruce Roy Macklin (1917–2000), accountant, company director, and arts administrator, was born on 23 April 1917 in North Adelaide, only son and elder child of Hubert Vivian Macklin, clerk, and his wife Lillian Mabel, née Roy, both South Australian born. Bruce attended Unley High School, then the Collegiate School of St Peter, Adelaide (1932–34), where he was outstanding at athletics and tennis. In 1932 he won the Tennyson medal as the State’s top student in English literature at the intermediate examination. While at St Mark’s College he studied accountancy and commerce at the University of Adelaide (1938–39), during which time he played piano in a jazz band and hosted a swing music program on local radio.

During World War II, and shortly after starting work with the chartered accountancy firm Thomas and Sara, on 23 April 1941 Macklin enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. Appointed on probation with the rank of pilot officer in April 1942, he trained with the Royal Air Force in Britain and was promoted to flying officer in October. From May 1943 he served as a navigator-bomber aboard Catalina aircraft based in India with No. 191 Squadron, RAF, conducting maritime reconnaissance, and in February 1944 was promoted to acting flight lieutenant (temporary in April). On 17 August, at All Saints’ Anglican Church, Srinagar, he married British army nurse Dorothy Potts from Northumberland, whom he had met while convalescing from illness in Karachi. After his appointment was terminated in October 1945, he returned to his accountancy work in Adelaide, and in 1947 became a partner in the firm Thomas, Sara, Macklin, and Fisher. He served as president of the Adelaide Chamber of Commerce (1965–66) and of the Association of Chambers of Commerce of Australia (1967–68) before retiring in 1969 as the senior partner of Thomas, Sara, Macklin and Co.

Macklin’s retirement freed him to concentrate on his work as an independent director of many companies, including Elder Smith Goldsbrough Mort Ltd (1968–81). He was chairman of GRE Holdings Ltd, Standard Chartered Bank Australia Ltd, Hyundai Automotive Distributors Ltd, and Homestake Gold of Australia Ltd. His most significant role was with the State’s monopoly gas supplier South Australian Gas Co. (1962–88), the last twenty years as chairman. He became a director of Advertiser Newspapers Ltd in 1967 and later served as chairman (1983–88). When Rupert Murdoch bought control of the company’s masthead, the Advertiser, in 1987, he kept Macklin on for the first, transitional year. By this time, he was being referred to by the local press as ‘the Super Whiz’ and ‘Mr Adelaide.’

Macklin’s success arose from his intelligence, skill, experience in accountancy, and unflappable confidence. While maintaining a cheerful sense of humour, he was a good listener and rewarded others’ skill, but ultimately made his own clear, sensible, and accountable decisions. He believed that while directors must give priority to the interests of the shareholders, they should also weigh the effects of their decisions on employees, customers, and the environment. This foreshadowed the era of corporate responsibility for the triple bottom line of financial, social, and environmental outcomes.

Most conspicuous among Macklin’s achievements was his role as a founder in 1958 of the Adelaide Festival of Arts, a not-for-profit initiative guaranteed by a small group of enlightened businesspeople that included Sir Lloyd Dumas, Professor John Bishop, and Sir Arthur Rymill. Macklin became the inaugural treasurer-secretary of the festival’s board, and then chairman (1972–78), overseeing the then biennial 1974, 1976, and 1978 festivals. He was motivated not only to provide entertainment but also, in his words, to ‘get us out of our parochialism’ (Despoja 1978, 24) and embrace more deeply the city’s music, theatre, and art. Through the festival he sought to improve both the cultural lives of South Australians and the local economy. He brought to this task his experience as a governor of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, as a director of the South Australian Theatre Company, and as a council member of the Australian Opera. The festival also benefited from his financial experience, and a determination that each annual event should pay its own way through ticket sales. As he put it, ‘The Festival IS Adelaide. Can you think of anything that is more important to Adelaide?’ (Despoja 1978, 24).

Besides his contributions to business and the arts, Macklin supported charitable institutions and not-for-profit enterprises, including as chair of Bedford Industries, a major employer of people with disabilities; of the Australian Kidney Foundation; and of the inaugural Foundation for the Art Gallery of South Australia. He was also a governor of St Peter’s College, a councillor of the University of Adelaide, president of the Naval, Military and Airforce Club, and, for the last decade of his life, deputy prior of the Order of St John, Knights Hospitaller. Other honours included being appointed honorary consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in South Australia in 1968, and awarded the republic’s commander’s cross of the Order of Merit in 1986. In 1970 he was appointed OBE, and in 1981 knighted.

Sir Bruce played the piano adeptly, enjoyed social tennis with friends and, with Dorothy, regularly attended their local parish church. He died at Glenside, Adelaide, on 29 August 2000 and, following a private funeral, a memorial service was conducted at St Peter’s Anglican Cathedral. Lady Macklin and their children, David, Christopher, and Annabel, survived him.