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When Plutarch placed in noble array for the contemplation ofages to come his images of heroes and sages, or when Dr Johnsondrew that gallery of poets, so many of whom only survive in hisportraiture, the writers must have been conscious how little of thereal men lay behind those strong or graceful representations, howmuch that was even faithfully recorded may convey a falseimpression, how much was inevitably omitted which might contradictevery deduction and alter every estimate.

R. MONCTON MILNES, LORD HOUGHTON,Monographs,1873.

[* Indicates a female. Alas, thereare only 46.]

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PREFACE

The first attempt at a dictionary of Australian biography iscontained in (Sir) J. Henniker Heaton'sAustralian Dictionary ofDates and Men of the Time. It was published in 1879 and withinits limits was a conscientious piece of work. David Blair in hisCyclopaedia of Australasia, published in 1881, leanedheavily on Heaton and added little to his work, but PhilipMennell'sThe Dictionary of Australasian Biography from theInauguration of Responsible Government, which appeared in 1892,had many good qualities and, though not free from errors, isusually reliable. It was a pity, however, that the authorrestricted himself to the period mentioned, and that oneconsequently finds no account in his book of Phillip, Macquarie,Macarthur, and many other remarkable men belonging to the earlydays of Australia. In 1906 Fred Johns of Adelaide began his seriesof volumesJohns's Notable Australians. Johns was carefuland conscientious and seldom fell into error. Towards the end ofhis life he prepared his comprehensiveAn AustralianBiographical Dictionary, which contains about 3000 biographies.He had not finished it when he died, and it was publishedposthumously in 1934 without the benefit of his final revision. Itis and will remain a very useful publication, but as the averagelength of each biography is about ninety words, it is evident thatin most cases it was not possible to give more than the bare facts.The Australian Encyclopaedia, published in 1925-6, has alarge number of accounts of prominent Australians and is especiallystrong in connexion with men belonging to the early days. Thesebiographies are of great interest.

The present volumes contain 1030 biographies of Australians, ormen who were closely connected with Australia, who died before theend of 1942. This date practically closes the first one hundred andfifty years of Australia's history, for although the first fleetarrived in January 1788, the first emigrant ship, theBellona, did not come until January 1793. Until thenAustralia had been merely a dumping ground for convicts, but thearrival of free emigrants foreshadowed the founding of a nation.The average length of the biographies is about 640 Words, and theymay be roughly classified into the following twelve groups:

1.  Army and Navy                                              102.  Artists, including architects, actors, and musicians      1303.  Governors and administrators                               504.  Lawyers                                                    695.  Literary men and women                                    1376.  Notorieties                                                177.  Pioneers, explorers, pastoralists, men of business        1618.  Politicians                                               1749.  Scholars, philosophers, clergymen                          7610. Scientists, including physicians, surgeons, and engineers 14011. Social reformers, philanthropists, educationists           5312. Sporting men (cricketers and athletes)                     13                                                             1030The 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 andwomen in each group resulted as follows:

                                                                 Av. age1.  Scholars, philosophers, clergymen                          76   74.52.  Lawyers                                                    69   71.53.  Social reformers, philanthropists, educationists           53   70.44.  Scientists, including physicians, surgeons and engineers  140   70.15.  Politicians                                               174   68.86.  Governors and administrators                               50   68.57.  Pioneers, explorers, pastoralists, men of business        161   68.28.  Army and navy                                              10   68.29.  Sporting men (cricketers and athletes)                     13   67.510. Literary men and women                                    137   65.111. Artists, including architects, actors and musicians       130   63.912. Notorieties                                                17   55 2TOTAL                                                        1030   68.0

In three cases, Nos 8, 9, and 12 the figures are valuelessbecause of the small number in each group, and in the last somewere executed or met violent deaths. The average ages of the groupsare usually what might have been expected. Literary men and artistshave often passed through hard times in Australia, in conditions inno way conducive to longevity and it is natural to find them at thebottom of the list.

Of the total of 1030 it was possible to trace the father'soccupation in only about 560 cases. It was found that 84 of thesewere the sons of clergymen, and even if we assume there were noclergymen's sons among the remainder, it means that more than onein every 13 of the 1030 were sons of the parsonage. An article inMunsey's Magazine for September 1907, showed that in theUnited States nearly one in 12 of Americans who had risen todistinction were clergymen's sons, practically the same as theAustralian figures. An investigation made some time ago, thedetails of which I have been unable to trace, showed I believe,that the sons of clergy headed the list in theEnglishDictionary of National Biography. Contrary to a popular beliefthat "clergymen's sons are always the worst" it may be mentionedthat 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 probablyshopkeepers), 38; medical men, farmers, and officials, about 30each. Teachers had 20, after which the numbers for each occupationrapidly tapered off.

An investigation into the countries of origin showed thatapproximately:

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, 9from Germany, and 6 from New Zealand. These figures came as ashock, but consideration showed they should have been expected. Inthe early years all the population of mature years had of coursecome from Europe, and in the middle of the 19th century there wasan immense influx of immigrants. Of distinguished Australians bornafter the middle of the century a large proportion was still aliveon 31 December 1942.

The question of selection was full of difficulties and it wasimpossible to make set rules. In science, all Fellows of the RoyalSociety London were included, and preference was given to other menwho 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; inlaw, most chief justices of States, and all judges of the HighCourt; in literature all of established reputation, or who had beenhighly popular, or represented in the best anthologies; in art,most artists whose work had been purchased for the leadingAustralian national galleries were considered to have claims. Butin a large number of cases it was most difficult to decide whatshould be considered sufficient grounds for inclusion, and I wasfortunate in being able to obtain advice from personal friends andothers in all the States. It must, however, be understood thatthese gentlemen are in no way to be considered responsible for anysins of omission or commission. I have frequently had to makealmost arbitrary decisions and cannot hope that the course takenwas always the right one. It may possibly cause surprise that somany artists and literary men have been included. It will, however,be found that the position is similar in theEnglish Dictionaryof National Biography, and there is a good reason for it. Manypoliticians, men of business, and professional men, who seemedimportant in their day, are soon completely forgotten; but bookspersist in living on, if only in public libraries, picturescontinue to be exhibited in national galleries, and there is alwaysthe possibility of some inquiry arising to which a book of thiskind may give the answer. There is, too, another reason. It isnotoriously difficult to judge the artistic and literary work ofone's own generation, and if too much discrimination is exercisedit may be found after a few years that some authors or artistsrejected had come to be considered of much more importance thansome included.

The term Australian has covered several men and women whoseconnexion with Australia was comparatively slight. If anyone ofdistinction was merely born in Australia that in itself was notconsidered sufficient ground for inclusion. As a general rule ithas been thought necessary, as in the case of Samuel Alexander,that he should have stayed long enough in Australia for his life tohave been influenced by his education and surroundings. MrsHumphrey Ward, the novelist, was an exception. She left at fiveyears of age, and the eventual cause of her inclusion was that shewas really an Australian of the third generation. Her mother was anAustralian, one grandfather spent all his adult life in Australia,and one of her great-grandfathers was William Sorell, one of theablest governors that ever came to Australia. Her inclusion alsogave an opportunity to say a few words about her father, ThomasArnold, who influenced the early days of education in Tasmania.With regard to people not born in Australia, the endeavour was toomit mere birds of passage. The extreme limit of inclusion may beinstanced by the famous actors Joseph Jefferson, G. V. Brooke, andBarry Sullivan. All three were in Australia for fairly long periodsand there can be little doubt that the usually high standard oftheatrical productions in Australia was based on the foundationslaid by these men. Brooke indeed is so much a tradition that hesimply could not be omitted. Most of the early governors wereincluded, but when responsible government had been granted theinfluence of the governors was much lessened, and it was decided toomit later State governors. Most of those who were men of realdistinction will be found recorded in theDictionary of NationalBiography.

There has been a fairly general impression that the onlyimportant productions of Australia have been wool, wheat, andcricketers. I hope this book will help to remove that impression.Too low a place has been allowed in the past to Australianliterature, largely because of the undue prominence given to someof the more popular writers. Australian painting has been more andmore appreciated of late years, but there is still far too littleencouragement given to sculpture, architecture, and music. Someexcellent singers and executive musicians have made their mark inthe world among whom may be mentioned Melba, Ada Crossley, andWilliam Murdoch; but though some interesting music has beencomposed little is known of it and comparatively little has beenpublished. A few outstanding scientists have been born here, suchas Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, and a few others, such as Sir WilliamHenry Bragg, have come from Europe to Australia and found theconditions favourable to the development of their great ability.There has also been an enormous amount of honest spade work inscience done in Australia, much of which has been recorded here. W.J. Farrer did very valuable early work in wheat-breeding; LawrenceHargrave had much more say in the development of flying than isgenerally allowed in America and Great Britain; Bertram DillonSteele's micro-balance has been of great value to science andGrayson was a great pioneer in the ruling of diffraction gratings.James Harrison was a pioneer in refrigeration; J. H. Michell andWilliam Sutherland in their modest unobtrusive way did someremarkable work in mathematics and physics; Charles Ledger, whopractically saved quinine for the world, had more than oneconnexion with Australia and ended his days there; John Ridley andH. V. McKay were responsible for great improvements in harvesting.J. M. Templeton established the non-forfeiture principle in lifeassurance policies now universally adopted, and Sir RobertTorrens's simplification of the transfer of land has been of greatbenefit to the public.

I began collecting the materials for this book some twenty yearsago. Realizing how quickly records disappear, I felt that a goodservice would be done if an attempt were made to gather togetherinformation likely to be useful to the compilers of the futureAustralian Dictionary of National Biography. The work wasinterrupted a great deal, but by 1936 some 17,000 items relating toabout 7,000 men, largely clipped from various books of referenceand newspapers, had been arranged and indexed. It was difficult,however, to provide for the safe keeping of these records in futureyears, for though they could be given or bequeathed to the PublicLibrary of some State, a biographical dictionary might be compiledin another State without its editor being aware of the existence ofthese records. I mentioned this problem when writing to my friend,H. M. Green, librarian of the Fisher Library, Sydney, and hesuggested that I should write the dictionary myself. Eventually Idecided to do so. I realized that the ideal way of preparing a bookof this kind would be to have a strong editor in charge of a staffof experts. But they would have to be paid, and there seemed to beno likelihood of the money being available. I hope Mr Green'sconfidence in me has not been unjustified. In many cases thebiographies will fall short of what might have been desired. Itried to find the best authorities, but, excellent as the MelbournePublic Library is, there were occasional instances when requiredbooks or newspapers were not available. In other cases informationmay have been missed for want of the knowledge of where to look forit. Often after careful search I found that my only authoritieswere old newspapers, and I owe much to them. Many of the obituarynotices in them had evidently been prepared with much care and wereexcellently done. In recent years, however, there has been afalling off in these biographies, and during the war years it hasno doubt been impossible to spare adequate space. It would be wellto have biographies of eminent men written soon after their death.Sometimes a pamphlet of thirty or forty pages might give anadequate short account. Such organizations as the Fellowship ofAustralian Writers would be able to suggest biographers who woulddo a competent and accurate piece of work. If something of the kindis not done it will become extremely difficult to compilesupplementary volumes of this and similar works. I would stress thenecessity for accuracy.

In preparing this book, though every endeavour was made to beaccurate, hundreds of statements had to be accepted which could notpossibly be checked. It was found, too, that frequently an errorhad been made in an early authority which had been copied in laterbooks, and it was decided that it would be best to work from theearliest authorities. When it was known that biographies of aparticular person would be available in theDictionary ofNational Biography, Johns'sAn Australian BiographicalDictionary, or theAustralian Encyclopaedia, thebiography 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 directreference is made to the authority used. Though Heaton's andMennell's books frequently appear among the authorities cited, theyalso were used sparingly. I have had to decide between manyconflicting statements; on two occasions at least there was achoice of four different dates of birth. All that could be done wasto adopt the date for which there appeared to be the best evidence.Though it was many years before Australia was generally accepted asa title, I have used this name from the beginning, and the sameapplies to Tasmania, though Van Diemen's Land was used until wellinto the middle of the nineteenth century. In New South Walespremiers were always prime ministers until 1901, but in this workto save confusion the leader of the government in that State hasbeen called premier from the beginning. I have endeavoured to makethe book worthy of its subject. It would have been better could Ihave spent another five years on it, but at seventy-five years ofage one realizes there is a time to make an end.

PERCIVAL SERLE.
70 Church Street, Hawthorn E.2.,
Victoria.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A work of this kind could not possibly have been completedwithout much help from librarians and others. I am much indebted tothe staff of the Public Library, Melbourne, especially to Mr E. R.Pitt, formerly chief librarian, to the late W. C. Baud, formerlychief librarian, to the late A. B. Foxcroft, assistant-librarian,to Mr C. A. McCallum, the present chief librarian, and indeed toall the staff, including that of the newspaper room. Mr T. FlemingCooke, formerly librarian of the lending library, and his staffwere also often helpful to me. Other librarians were most kind inanswering inquiries, in particular Miss Ida Leeson, formerlylibrarian of the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and Miss M. Flower,formerly of the same library; Mr H. M. Green, formerly librarian ofthe Fisher Library, University of Sydney; Mr Kenneth Binns,formerly librarian of the National Library at Canberra; Mr LeighScott, librarian of the University of Melbourne Library; the lateH. Rutherford Purnell, librarian of the Public Library of SouthAustralia; Mr G. H. Pitt, formerly archivist, now librarian of thesame institution; Dr J. S. Battye, public librarian of WesternAustralia; Mr J. D. A. Collier, State librarian, Hobart; and Mr J.H. Hornibrook, honorary secretary of the John Oxley MemorialLibrary, Brisbane. The late D. J. Mahony, formerly director of theNational Museum, Melbourne, his successor, Mr R. T. M. Pescott,other members of the museum staff, including Messrs A. R. Keble, J.Clark, G. Mack, and M. J. C. Malone, and Mr E. H. Penrose, directorof the Museum of Applied Science, have obtained information for merelating to scientists. Mr J. S. MacDonald, formerly director ofthe National Gallery, and Mr Daryl Lindsay, the present director,have both added to my knowledge of Australian artists. In Melbournemany other men and women have helped me in various ways and 1should like to record my obligations to Mr W. Baragwanath, the lateL. V. Biggs, Mr W. Brennan, the late F. Chapman, Mr A. H. Chisholm,the late R. H. Croll, Mr J. F. Foster, Mr J. S. Grierson, Dr C. A.Kellaway, the late A. S. Kenyon, Dr Charles Mackay, Mr J. K. Moir,Mr P. F. Morris, Sir Keith Murdoch, Professor W. A. Osborne, MrVance Palmer, the late E. L. Piesse, the late Frank Wilmot,Constable Harrington of Avenel, Mrs J. S. Grierson, Mrs NettiePalmer, Mrs Dora B. Serle, Mrs Marian Serle, and Lady Scott.

Among residents of Sydney to whom I owe thanks I should like torecord Mr C. H. Bertic, Sir William Dixson, Professor A. P. Elkin,Mr W. E. FitzHenry, the late Sir Kelso King, Dr G. Mackaness, thelate William Moore, Mr C. Pearl, Dr A. B. Walkorn, and Sir RobertStrachan Wallace. In Adelaide I received help from Mr Travers C.Borrow, Professor J. B. Cleland, Mr B. R. Elliott, Mr H. J. Keyes,and Mr J. A. Somerville; in Brisbane from Professor Alcock, Mr C.Christesen, Mr E. J. Hanson (formerly Speaker of the LegislativeAssembly), Mr H. A. Longman, Mr Firmin McKinnon, Professor H. C.Richards, and Professor F. W. Robinson; in Perth from the Rev.Canon P. U. Henn, Sir John Kirwan, and Professor Walter Murdoch,and in Hobart from Professor E. Morris Miller.

I should also like to thank the University of Melbourne whichmade a grant from its research fund towards the cost of collectingand preserving materials, and the Commonwealth Literary Fund for asimilar grant towards the cost of typing the manuscript.

P.S.

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SERLE, Percival (1871-1951), editor and biographer, (View this painting at theNational Library of AustraliaWeb Site)

[NOTE: This biographical note did not form part of theDictionary of Australian Biography. It just seemed like agood idea to have a biography of the biographer.--Colin Choat]

was born at Elsternwick, Victoria. He worked for twenty years ina life assurance office before becoming chief clerk and accountantat the University of Melbourne. In 1910 he married the artist DoraBeatrice Hake. Moderately successful with investments, he was ableto retire in 1920 to pursue his cultural interests, although he rana second-hand bookshop in the Eastern Market, Melbourne, in theDepression years 1931-36. He was guide-lecturer at the NationalGallery of Victoria 1929-38, curator of the Art Museum of theGallery 1934-36, and member of the council of the VictorianArtists' Society for about forty years. He was also president ofthe Australian Literature Society 1944-46. Serle's firstpublication was an edition, with notes, ofA Song to David andOther Poems (1923) by Christopher Smart, the eighteenth-centuryEnglish poet. Serle's meticulous scholarship is evident inABibliography of Australasian Poetry and Verse: Australia and NewZealand (1925), a much-needed reference work of Australianliterature at that time, to which later bibliographies wereindebted. To complement hisBibliography he published, incollaboration with 'Furnley Maurice' and R.H. Croll,AnAustralasian Anthology (1927), a standard Australian literarywork not supplanted until after the Second World War. His mostsignificant work, laboured over for almost twenty years, was hisDictionary of Australian Biography (1949). It comprises morethan 1000 biographical sketches of prominent Australians or peopleconnected closely with Australia. In 1944 Serle edited the poems of'Furnley Maurice' and in 1951 publishedA Primer ofCollecting. Serle brought to all his literary work a rigoroussense of, and passion for, scholarship. A commemorative number ofSoutherly was published in 1953 and his son, Geoffrey Serle,has written the memoirPercival Serle (1988).

FromThe Oxford Companion to AustralianLiterature (Second Edition, 1994).

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