Ernest Edgar Vyvyan Collocott (7 June 1886 – 9 October 1970) was an Australian

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

missionary, ethnologist and peace activist. He was known for his ethnological works on

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

, where he served as a missionary between 1911 and 1924.

Early life

Collocott was born on 7 June 1886 in

Northcote, Victoria Northcote () is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Darebin Local government areas of Victoria, local go ...

. He was the son of Alice Jane (née Bickford) and Alfred John Collocott, a Methodist missionary in

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

. His older brother was Harold Collocott. Collocott was educated at

The Geelong College The Geelong College is an Australian Independent school, independent and co-educational, Christianity, Christian Day school, day and boarding school located in Newtown, Victoria, Newtown, an inner-western suburb of Geelong, Victoria (Australia), ...

where he was

dux ''Dux'' (, : ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, ''dux'' coul ...

in 1902. He went on to the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, graduating

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in 1907 and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in 1909 with honours in

classical philology Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...

. He later completed a

Bachelor of Divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD, DB, or BDiv; ) is an academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies. ...

by correspondence through the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1916 and was awarded the degree of

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

by Melbourne in 1928.

Tonga

After a period as a schoolteacher, Collocott entered the Methodist ministry and was sent to Tonga in 1911. He was initially posted to the

Haʻapai Haʻapai is a group of islands, islets, reefs, and shoals in the central part of Tonga. It has a combined land area of . The Tongatapu island group lies to its south, and the Vavaʻu group lies to its north. Seventeen of the Haʻapai islands are ...

archipelago before becoming principal of

Tupou College Tupou College is a Methodist boys' secondary boarding school in Toloa on the island of Tongatapu, Tonga. It is located on the Eastern District of Tongatapu near the village of Malapo. The school is owned by the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga. Est ...

in 1915. He oversaw the college's relocation from

Nukuʻalofa Nukualofa ( , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tonga. It is located on the north coast of the island of Tongatapu, in the country's southernmost island group. History First western records of Nukualofa On 10 June 1777, British ...

to Nafualu in 1921, returning to Australia in 1924 due to his family's ill health. Collocott took a keen interest in the history and culture of the

Tongan people Tongans, a Polynesian group, represent more than 98% of the inhabitants of Tonga. The rest are European (the majority are British), mixed European, and other Pacific Islanders. There also are several hundred Chinese. Almost two-thirds of the po ...

. He wrote on Tongan myths, legends, linguistics, customs and astronomy. He also assisted American anthropologists

Edward Winslow Gifford Edward Winslow Gifford (August 14, 1887 – May 16, 1959) devoted his life to studying California Indian ethnography as a professor of anthropology and director of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Gifford was ...

and William C. McKern with their work in Tonga in association with the

Bishop Museum The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. Founded in 1 ...

. Collocott was the first to date the advent of the

Tuʻi Tonga Empire The Tui Tonga Empire, or Tongan Empire, are descriptions sometimes given to Tongan expansionism and projected hegemony in Oceania which began around 950 CE, reaching its peak during the period 1200–1500. It was centred in Tonga on the island ...

to 950 AD, using dynastic genealogies. After returning to Australia, he published ''Koe Ta'u'e Teau'' (1926) and ''Tales and Poems of Tonga'' (1928), as well as lecturing on Tongan culture and beginning an English-language history of Tonga. Along with Gifford's ''Tongan Myths and Tales'' (1924), ''Tales and Poems'' has been described as one of the two major collections of Tongan legends.

Later life and activism

After returning to Australia Collocott was posted to various towns in country New South Wales, eventually retiring to Epping in 1952. From the early 1930s he was active in the pacificist movement, serving as president of the Peace Pledge Union in 1933 and as chairman of the New South Wales Peace Council from 1953 to 1955. He was the editor of ''

The Peacemaker Peacemaker or The Peacemaker may refer to: Individuals and groups * UN Peacemaker, a project of the UN to support international peacemakers and mediators * Peace makers, a list of contemporary individuals and organizations involved in peacemak ...

'', the movement's newspaper. Identifying as a

Christian socialist A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Chr ...

, Collocott joined the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

in 1957 but was also associated with the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian communist party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been ...

. He had a long association with pro-Soviet organisations, initially with the Friendship with Russia League in the 1930s and later as president of the Democratic Rights Council (DRC), a Communist front. He represented the DRC at the 1952 session of the

World Peace Council The World Peace Council (WPC) is an international organization created in 1949 by the Cominform and propped up by the Soviet Union. Throughout the Cold War, WPC engaged in propaganda efforts on behalf of the Soviet Union, whereby it criticize ...

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

. He was national chairman of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society and visited the Soviet Union in 1953 and 1962.

Personal life

Collocott married Edith Idabelle Bickford in 1909, with whom he had five sons. He was widowed in 1947, remarrying to Dorothy Williams. He died on 9 October 1970 in

Dundas, New South Wales Dundas is a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Dundas is located 21 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Parramatta, and the electoral division of Bennelong. Dundas ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collocott, E E V 1970 deaths People educated at Geelong College Australian expatriates in Tonga Australian ethnologists Australian Methodist missionaries Methodist missionaries in Tonga Australian pacifists Australian communists Australian Christian socialists Historians of Oceania University of Melbourne alumni 1886 births