Sir Ernest Scott (21 June 1867 – 6 December 1939) was an Australian historian and professor of history at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

from 1913 to 1936.

Early life

Scott was born in Northampton, England, on 21 June 1867, the son of Hannah Scott, a housekeeper; William Scott, civil engineer, was cited as his father when Ernest married. Ernest Scott was educated at St Katherine's Church of England School, Northampton and worked as a journalist on the London ''

Globe A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model glo ...

''. On 7 May 1892 Scott married Mabel Emily Besant, daughter of Rev. Frank and Annie Besant, the

theosophist Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion ...

; they had one child, Muriel (1893–1924).

Career

In 1892 Scott (who began to call himself Besant-Scott at his wife's insistence) migrated to Australia, where he joined the staff of ''The Herald'' newspaper, edited the ''Austral Theosophist'' and lectured. Around 1896 Mabel converted to Roman Catholicism and became estranged from her husband, although they continued nominal cohabitation. Scott subsequently abandoned theosophy. Mabel returned to England in 1909, taking their daughter Muriel, but Scott did not sue for divorce until 1915. On 25 May in Melbourne, Scott married to Bendigo-born Emily Illinden Fortuna, sister of Edward Dyason. They had no children. From 1895 to 1901 Scott was a member of the Victorian

Hansard ''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official prin ...

staff, and from 1901 to 1914 was on the Commonwealth Hansard staff. After the publication of ''Terre Napoléon: A History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia'' (London, 1910), ''Laperouse'' (Sydney, 1912) and '' The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders'' (Sydney, 1914), Scott's reputation as a historian was established. In 1913 Scott was appointed Professor of History at the

, even though Scott had never attended a university. He had, however, shown ability both in research and as a lecturer, and the experiment proved a great success. Future professors of history who passed through Scott's school included (Sir) Keith Hancock,

Fred Alexander Frederick Beasley Alexander (August 14, 1880 – March 3, 1969) was an American tennis player in the early 20th century. He won the singles title at the 1908 Australasian Championships and six double titles at Grand Slam events. Career In 1908, ...

, Marnie Bassett, (Sir) Stephen Henry Roberts,

Manning Clark Charles Manning Hope Clark, (3 March 1915 – 23 May 1991) was an Australian historian and the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume ''A History of Australia'', published between 1962 and 1987. He has been descri ...

, N. D. Harper and A. G. B. Fisher of

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

. Scott's other works included ''A Short History of Australia'' (1916), ''Men and Thought in Modern History'' (1916), ''History and Historical Problems'' (1925), ''Australian Discovery'' (1929) and in 1933 appeared volume VII of ''The Cambridge History of the British Empire'', edited and partly written by Scott. ''Australia During the War'', being volume XI of '' The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918'', appeared in 1936. Scott retired in 1936, was knighted in June 1939 and died of a coronary thrombosis on 6 December 1939.

Personality and personal life

Scott was above medium height, bluff and open in manner. He was much interested in music, the drama and poetry, in which he had read widely. He had a sound knowledge of his own subject, and was an industrious and fast worker. He did much to bring Australian history to life. He did not always carry out his urgent advice to his students that they should "verify their references" and consequently errors will be found in some of his books. Generally, however, they are in comparatively unessential things and were caused by trusting to a usually reliable memory. As a rule his work is excellent and was always based on conscientious research. As a teacher he was interesting, vivid and inspiring, exacting hard work from his students and insisting on the value of original documents, while also pointing out that even they cannot be blindly accepted. He had a human interest in his students and no trouble was too great for him if it would help them in their work.

Legacy

Scott's widow Emily Scott donated money to the University of Melbourne to establish the Ernest Scott Prize for History, which is awarded annually for the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia or New Zealand.

The Scott lineage of historians

Lines of historians in Australia can be traced to Scott at the

. Among his undergraduate students were future historians

and

W. K. Hancock Sir William Keith Hancock, (26 June 189813 August 1988) was a prominent Australian historian. Early life and education He was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of Archdeacon William Hancock. At the age of nine, he won the Royal Human ...

. Unlike Hancock, Clark spent his career in Australia and went on to teach a third generation of historians which included

Geoffrey Blainey Geoffrey Norman Blainey (born 11 March 1930) is an Australian historian, academic, best selling author and commentator. He is noted for having written authoritative texts on the economic and social history of Australia, including '' The Tyranny ...

Geoffrey Serle Alan Geoffrey Serle (10 March 1922 – 27 April 1998), known as Geoff, was an Australian historian, who is best known for his books on the colony of Victoria; ''The Golden Age'' (1963) and ''The Rush to be Rich'' (1971) and his biographies of J ...

Ken Inglis Kenneth Stanley Inglis, (7 October 1929 – 1 December 2017) was an Australian historian. Early life and education Inglis was born in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe, on 7 October 1929, the son of Stan and Rene Inglis. He was educated at Tyler ...

, and Michael Roe. This generation would "transform the writing of Australian history over the following five decades."Rae Frances and Bruce Scates, Obituary of Ken Inglis, Australian Historical Studies, 2018, Vol. 43, No. 3, 410-412. A fourth generation was taught by Blainey, including Janet McCalman and

Stuart Macintyre Stuart Forbes Macintyre (21 April 1947 – 22 November 2021) was an Australian historian, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne from 1999 to 2008. He was voted one of Australia's most influential historians. Early lif ...

. Inglis taught

Bill Gammage William Leonard Gammage (born 1942) is an Australian academic historian, adjunct professor and senior research fellow at the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University (ANU). Gammage was born in Orange, New South Wales, ...

and

Hank Nelson Hyland Neil "Hank" Nelson (21 October 1937 – 17 February 2012) was one of Australia's foremost historians of the Pacific, particularly Papua New Guinea. His interest in the region began in 1966 when he took a teaching position at the Adminis ...

. Among Macintyre's former undergraduate students was

Frank Bongiorno Francis Robert Bongiorno, (born 1969) is an Australian historian, academic and author. He is a professor of history at the Australian National University, and was head of the university's history department from 2018 to 2020. Bongiorno is the P ...

References

External links

Pictures of Ernest Scott
at

Picture Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Ernest 1867 births 1939 deaths 20th-century Australian historians Australian biographers Academics from Melbourne Historians of Australia Knights Bachelor People from Northampton University of Melbourne faculty 19th-century British journalists 19th-century Australian journalists 19th-century Australian male writers Australian male journalists