View articles from the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7
Period: 1891-1939
Names: A-Ch
General Editor: Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle
Published in hardcopy 1979
This volume of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, containing 658 entries by 469 authors, is the first of six for the 1891-1939 section. The two volumes of the 1788-1850 and the four of the 1851-1890 sections have already been published. This chronological division was designed to simplify production, for more than 7000 entries will be included in volumes 1-12. (Volumes 1-2, for 1788-1850, had 1116 entries; volumes 3-6, for 1851-1890,2053; and 4000 are planned for volumes 7-12). The placing of each individual's name in the appropriate section has been determined by when he/she did his/her most important work (floruit). A general index volume will be prepared when the three sections are completed.
The selection of names for inclusion has been the result of much consultation and co-operation. After quotas were estimated, Working Parties in each State and the Armed Services Working Party prepared provisional lists, which were widely circulated and carefully amended. Many of the names were obviously significant and worthy of inclusion as leaders in politics, business, the armed services, the professions, the arts, the labour movement, etc. Many others have been included as representatives of ethnic and social minorities and of a wide range of occupations, or as innovators, notorieties or eccentrics. Many had to be omitted through pressure of space or lack of material, and thereby joined the great mass whose members richly deserve a more honoured place; however, many thousands of these names, and information about them, are accumulating in the Biographical Register at the Dictionary headquarters in the Australian National University.
Most authors were nominated by Working Parties. The burden of writing has been shared almost equally by university historians and by a wide variety of specialists in other fields.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography is a 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 were originally determined by the National Committee, composed mainly 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 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.
Special thanks are due to Professor K. S. Inglis for his guidance as chairman of the Editorial Board. Professor J. A. La Nauze has retired; his contribution as chairman is gratefully acknowledged. Those who helped in planning the shape of the work have been mentioned in earlier volumes.
The Dictionary is grateful for many privileges extended by the Australian universities, especially the Australian National University.
Within Australia the Dictionary is greatly indebted to many librarians and archivists in Canberra and in each State; to the secretaries of many historical and genealogical societies; to the historical research officers of the Australian Post Office; to the Registrars-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and of Probates, in the various States, and to Registrars of Supreme and Family Courts, whose generous co-operation has solved many problems; and to the Department of Defence for authenticating many details. Warm thanks for the free gift of their time and talents are due to all contributors and to all members of the National Committee, Editorial Board, and the Working Parties. For particular advice the Dictionary owes much to B. G. Andrews, J. J. Auchmuty, M. Austin, P. L. Brown, K. J. Cable, Frank Cusack, B. Gandevia, A. J. and Nancy Gray, N. Gunson, R. F. Holder, J. N. Molony, Heather Radi, F. B. Smith, P. Spearritt, A. K. Stout and G. P. Walsh.
For assistance overseas, thanks are due to Ivan Page, Liaison Officer of the National Library of Australia in London and to his staff; to Alice Gay, Paris, Leonie Glen, London, Deirdre Pescott, Brussels, and Margery Walton, New Zealand; to the archives and/or libraries of the universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Durham, London and Oxford in England; of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews in Scotland; of Florence and Padua in Italy; of Chicago and San Francisco, and of Cornell and Princeton in the United States of America; of Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia; Humboldt University, Berlin, and Karl-Marx University, Leipzig, in the German Democratic Republic; the Frederick-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and the University of Marburg, in the Federal Republic of Germany; to University College, Cardiff, Wales; to the Imperial College of Science and Technology and Jews' College, London and the Liverpool School of Medicine, England; to official archives and/or national libraries in U.S.A., Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Wales and New Zealand; to the General Register Office, Edinburgh, and the Public Record Office, London, and County Record Offices; to Bureaux of Vital Statistics in State health departments in New York, Ohio and Utah; the British Embassy, Asuncion, Paraguay; Dictionaries of Canadian and South African Biographies; Army Records Centre, England; public libraries of Boston and Los Angeles; and to other individuals and institutions who have co-operated with the Dictionary.
The Dictionary deeply regrets the death of such notable contributors as B. W. Champion, A. H. Chisholm, R. Clark, Louise T. Daley, B. T. Dowd, E. W. Dunlop, W. H. Frederick, H. A. K. Hunt, J. S. Legge, G. B. Lincolne, Catherine Mackerras, T. Inglis Moore, S. F. Rowell, J. R. Stevenson, J. H. Thyer, I. A. H. Turner, and W. G. D. Upjohn who, in their several capacities, greatly assisted the work of this and previous volumes.
Grateful acknowledgment is due to the director and staff of Melbourne University Press; to the editorial staff in Canberra: Nan Phillips, Martha Campbell, Sally O'Neill, James Gibbney, Suzanne Edgar, Chris Cunneen, Frank Brown, Jean Fielding, Merrilyn Lincoln, Ann Smith and Margaret Steven; to Ruth Frappell and Naomi Turner in Sydney; Noeline Hall and Betty Crouchley in Brisbane; Joyce Gibberd and Marlene Cross in Adelaide; Wendy Birman and Margaret Brown in Perth; Beth McLeod, Mary Nicholls and Margaret Glover in Hobart; Mimi Colligan, Ray Duplain, David Dunstan, Jill Eastwood, John Lack, Janet McCalman and Vicky McCalman in Victoria; and to the administrative staff: Dorothy Smith, Norma Gregson, Ivy Meere, Frances Dinnerville and Dorothy McBride.