Laurie Fitzhardinge
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Laurence Frederic Fitzhardinge (7 July 1908 – 31 October 1993) was an Australian historian and librarian. He was known as a pioneer of the '' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', and also as the official biographer of Billy Hughes (the eleventh Prime Minister of Australia).


Biography

Fitzhardinge was born in
Chatswood, New South Wales Chatswood is a major business and residential district in the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 10 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the lo ...
. He was educated at the Sydney Church of England Grammar School before going on to the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...
, where he graduated with a
B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in 1930. He specialised in Classics, and continued his studies at New College, Oxford, where he was awarded a B.A. (Oxon) in 1932 and a B.Litt in 1933. Returning to Australia, in 1934 Fitzhardinge began working at the Commonwealth National Library as the research officer responsible for Australian collections. He compiled two major
bibliographies Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...
of Australia, and helped expand the library's manuscript collection. From 1944 to 1945, Fitzhardinge was seconded to
Canberra University College Canberra University College was a tertiary education institution established in Canberra by the Australian government and the University of Melbourne in 1930. At first it operated in the Telopea Park School premises after hours. Most of the initi ...
to teach Australian history to diplomatic cadets; one of his students there was
Donald Horne Donald Richmond Horne (26 December 1921 – 8 September 2005) was an Australian journalist, writer, social critic, and academic who became one of Australia's best known public intellectuals, from the 1960s until his death. Horne was a prol ...
. He was appointed a classics lecturer at the University of Sydney in 1945, and also began the research that would lead to the creation of the
Sydney University Press Sydney University Press is the scholarly publisher of the University of Sydney. It is part of the Library. Sydney University Press was founded as a traditional university press and operated as such from 1962 to 1987. It was re-established in 20 ...
. In 1951, Fitzhardinge returned to Canberra to work at the fledgling
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...
(ANU), as a
reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
in Australian history. He began compiling an Australian biographical register in 1954, and with the support of Sir Keith Hancock began to advocate for the creation of a national dictionary of biography. The result of his lobbying was the '' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', which published its first edition in 1966. Fitzhardinge retired from ANU in 1973. He was elected a Fellow of the
Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australia ...
in 1983 and a Fellow of the
Royal Australian Historical Society The Royal Australian Historical Society, formerly Australian Historical Society, is a voluntary organisation founded in Sydney, Australia in 1901Helen Doyle, "Royal Australian Historical Society" in Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Ma ...
in 1987. In retirement, Fitzhardinge lived on a farm near
Queanbeyan, New South Wales Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in the south-eastern region of New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the ...
, which he and his wife Verity Hewitt (married 1936) had bought in 1959. He died in Queanbeyan in 1993, aged 85, of heart disease.


Works

Fitzhardinge authored several chapters in ''Nation Building in Australia'' (1941), a biography of Sir
Littleton Groom Sir Littleton Ernest Groom KCMG KC (22 April 18676 November 1936) was an Australian politician. He held ministerial office under four prime ministers between 1905 and 1925, and subsequently served as Speaker of the House of Representatives fr ...
. In 1951, a year before he died, former prime minister Billy Hughes appointed him as his official biographer. Hughes' biography became Fitzhardinge's ''magnum opus'', taking him almost 30 years of research to compile (amid complaints from Dame
Mary Hughes Dame Mary Ethel Hughes GBE (née Campbell; 6 June 18742 April 1958) was the second wife of Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923. She was the daughter of a well-to-do grazier, and grew up in country New South Wales. Sh ...
). Titled ''William Morris Hughes: A Political Biography'', it was published in two volumes: ''That Fiery Particle, 1862–1914'' (1964) and ''The Little Digger, 1914–1952'' (1979). Fitzhardinge's other major work was ''The Spartans'' (1980), a survey of art in ancient
Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...
.


References


Fitzhardinge, Laurence Frederic (Laurie) (1908–1993)
Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2017
Fitzhardinge, Laurence Frederic (Laurie) (1908–1993)
Canberra Times obituary, 1993


External links


List of Publications
(
Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...
) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzhardinge, Laurie 1908 births 1993 deaths 20th-century Australian historians Australian biographers People from Sydney University of Sydney alumni Alumni of New College, Oxford Academic staff of the University of Sydney Academic staff of the Australian National University Australian classical scholars Scholars of ancient Greek history Australian book and manuscript collectors