Australian Dictionary of Biography

Period: 1851-1890
Names: A-C
General Editor: Douglas Pike
Published in hardcopy 1969

Preface

This volume of the Australian Dictionary of Biography is the first of four for the section 1851-1890. The two volumes for the first section (1788-1850) have already been published, and six have been planned for the third section 1891-1938. This chronological division was designed to simplify production, for some six thousand articles are likely to be included. A general index volume will be prepared when the three sections are completed. Meanwhile free copies of the provisional list of names proposed for inclusion in the remaining volumes of the 1851-1890 section are available from the Dictionary office as a temporary guide.

The placing of each individual's name in the appropriate section has been generally determined by when he did his most important work (floruit). For articles that overlap the chronological division, preference has usually been given to the earlier period, although all the important Federationists will appear in the third section.

The selection of names for inclusion in the Dictionary has been the result of much consultation and co-operation. After quotas were estimated, Working Parties in each State prepared provisional lists, which were widely circulated and carefully amended. Many of the names were obviously significant and worthy of inclusion. Others, less notable, were chosen simply as samples of the Australian experience. Some had to be omitted through lack of material, and thereby joined the great anonymous mass whose members richly deserve a more honoured place; however, many thousands of these names are accumulating in a 'Biographical Register' at the Dictionary headquarters in the Australian National University, and copies of this register are circulated at intervals to Australian libraries.

Most authors were nominated by the Working Parties, and nearly all contributed their entries without payment. The burden of writing has been shared almost equally by university historians and by members of Historical and Genealogical Societies and other specialists. Most of the unsigned entries were prepared in the Dictionary office.

The Dictionary is an all-Australian, Commonwealth-wide project based on consultation and co-operation. The Australian National University has borne the cost of the headquarters staff, of much research and of some special contingencies, while other Australian Universities have supported the project in various ways. Its policies have been determined by the National Committee of representatives from the Departments of History in each Australian University. At Canberra the Editorial Board has kept in touch with all these representatives and, through them, with the Working Parties, librarians, archivists and other local experts, as well as overseas correspondents and research assistants in each Australian capital. With such varied support the Australian Dictionary of Biography can truly be called a national project.

Acknowledgments

Special mention is due to Sir Keith Hancock who organized the foundation of the Dictionary and as its first Chairman gave the project his inspiring leadership; others who helped in planning the shape of the work have been acknowledged in the first two volumes.

For this volume, the Dictionary is grateful for financial help from the Bushell Trust, and for many privileges extended by the Australian Universities, especially the Australian National University. Acknowledgment is also made to the Churchill Foundation on behalf of Mrs Helen van der Poorten whose scholarship grant enabled her to complete many fine entries.

For assistance overseas special thanks are due to Mrs Judy Egerton in London and her correspondents in Edinburgh and Dublin, to the officials of the Public Record Office, Somerset House and the County Records Offices, and to the host of clergy, archivists and others who have answered Mrs Egerton's calls for help; to Dr W. J. de Kock, editor-in-chief of the Dictionary of South African Biography, Dr D. M. Hayne, general editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, and Professor M. Pavan, chief editor, Institute of the Italian Encyclopaedia; to Professor S. C. McCulloch as correspondent in America; and to the cultural officers of the Embassies of Belgium, Italy and Japan for generous co-operation.

Within Australia the Dictionary is greatly indebted to countless librarians and archivists in Canberra and each State, to the secretaries of many Historical and Genealogical Societies, to the Registrars-General of Births, Marriages and Deaths, and of Probates, whose generous co-operation has solved many problems of research. Warm thanks for the free gift of their time and talents are due to all contributors, to Mrs A. Mozley for preparing a list of scientists, to Professor Bernard Smith, consultant on the Fine Arts and Dr H. L. Oppenheim on the Theatre; and for particular advice, to E. R. Pretyman, Rev. A. A. Dougan, Professor A. Corbett, P. L. Brown, Professor D. J. Whalan, Miss Valerie Cox, Mrs F. M. Brooke, Mrs M. Woodhouse, Mrs D. F. Bumard, C. C. Macknight, Dr Leonard Searle, P. R. Corns, Mrs M. L. Lenehan, Rev. Professor J. D. McCaughey, Professor J. J. Auchmuty, E. A. Huck, Miss J. E. Cave, Professor L. J. Lawrence, Dr F. Forster, Mrs N. E. Hart, Mrs C. P. Gilbert, Neville Hicks, G. Tobin, Keast Burke, Mrs A. J. Hill, C. H. Powditch, Major-General J. Stevenson, Michael Persse, Dr E. L. French, Charles Bateson, J. H. Love, Professor A. D. Trendall, B. A. Mitchell, D. J. Mulvaney, Robert Langdon and many others; and to the Chairman, Professor J. A. La Nauze, and the members of the National Committee, the Editorial Board and the Working Parties. Grateful acknowledgment is also due to the Director and staff of Melbourne University Press; to the editorial staff: N. B. Naim from September 1965, H. J. Gibbney from July 1965, Nan Phillips from July 1967, Deborah Cook in 1967; Martha Rutledge and Sally O'Neill from September 1967 and Mollie Huxley from February 1968; to the painstaking research assistance of A. J. and Nancy Gray, Tony Cable, Audrey Ferguson and Ruth Teale in Sydney, Mary O'Keeffe in Brisbane, Kathleen Thomson in Melbourne, Marjorie Findlay and E. Zalums in Adelaide, Wendy Birman in Perth and Margery Walton in New Zealand; to Norma Gregson, the secretarial staff and specially to Dorothy Smith, assistant to the General Editor.