Dame Alexandra Margaret Martin Hasluck, Lady Hasluck, (née Darker; 26 August 1908 – 18 June 1993), also known as Alix Hasluck, was an Australian author and

social historian Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to co ...

. She published a number of works on the history of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. She was the

wife A wife (: wives) is a woman in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until their marriage is legally dissolved with a divorce judgment; or until death, depending on the kind of marriage. On t ...

of Sir

Paul Hasluck Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck (1 April 1905 – 9 January 1993) was an Australian statesman who served as the 17th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1969 to 1974. Prior to that, he was a Liberal Party politician, holding minis ...

, Governor-General of Australia.

Early life

Hasluck was born on 26 August 1908 in

North Perth, Western Australia North Perth is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Vincent. This old, established suburb three kilometres north of the Perth central business district is a place of mainly solid brick homes built from the early 19 ...

. She was the only child of Evelyn Margaret (née Hill) and John William Darker. Her father was an engineer and her mother was one of the first female graduates of the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. Hasluck attended

Ormiston College Ormiston College, located in Redland City, Queensland, Australia, is an independent, co-educational, non-denominational Christian school, for students from prep to year 12. The school also has an Early Learning Centre for children between 15 mon ...

from 1914 to 1918 and Perth College from 1919 to 1925. As a high school student her poetry was published in ''

The Australasian The ''Australasian Post'', commonly called the ''Aussie Post'', was Australia's longest-running weekly picture magazine. History and profile Its origins are traceable to Saturday, 3 January 1857, when the first issue of ''Bell's Life in Victori ...

''. She went on to attend the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, 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 1929. Hasluck was a sub-editor of the university magazine ''Black Swan'' and enrolled in an

honours Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as valo ...

course, but had to discontinue her research on the

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

for financial reasons. She subsequently taught English and French at a small private school and later at

St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls is an Australian independent non-selective Anglican single-sex primary and secondary day and boarding school for girls, located in Mosman Park, a western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. In addition ...

Marriage and public life

In 1932, she married

, who (as Sir Paul) was Governor-General of Australia 1969–1974. In 1974 he was offered an extension of his term by the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being ...

, and he was willing to serve an extra two years, but Lady Hasluck (as she then was) refused to remain at Yarralumla longer than the originally agreed five years. Whitlam then appointed Sir John Kerr. Historians of the period are certain that if Hasluck had still been Governor-General in 1975, as he would have been had his wife not intervened, the

constitutional crisis In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the constitution, political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variat ...

of that year would have ended differently. Hasluck himself implied this in his book, ''The Office of Governor-General'' and also in the Queale Lecture. In the 1978 Queen's Birthday Honours, Lady Hasluck was appointed the first Dame of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for "pre-eminent achievement in the fields of literature and history and for extraordinary and meritorious public service to Australia".

Writing

Hasluck wrote poetry and prose from a young age. Her early interests included medieval England, and in the 1930s she wrote a historical novel titled ''Tudor Blood'' which was rejected for publication. She developed an interest in the

history of Western Australia The human history of Western Australia commenced "over 50,000 years ago and possibly as much as 70,000 years ago" with the arrival of Aboriginal Australians on the northwest coast. The first inhabitants expanded across the east and south of the ...

at university, which she shared with her husband, and in 1934 she replaced him as honorary secretary of the

Western Australian Historical Society Royal Western Australian Historical Society has for many decades been the main association for Western Australians to collectively work for adequate understanding and protection of the cultural heritage of Perth and Western Australia. History T ...

. Hasluck published eleven books on history as well as a collection of short stories and an autobiography. Her works focused on the early colonial period of Western Australia and included full-length biographies of

Georgiana Molloy Georgiana Molloy (23 May 1805 – 8 April 1843) was an early settler in Western Australia, who is remembered as one of the first botany, botanical collectors in the colony. Her husband, John Molloy (Australian settler), John, was involved in ...

(1955),

Thomas Peel Thomas Peel (1793 – 22 December 1865)Alexandra Hasluck,, ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Vol. 2, MUP, 1967, pp 320-322. retrieved 2009-11-04 organised and led a consortium of the first British settlers to Western Australia. He was a ...

(1965), and Edmund Du Cane (1973), as well as shorter works on James Stirling and

C. Y. O'Connor Charles Yelverton O'Connor, (11 January 1843 – 10 March 1902), was an Irish engineer who is best known for his work in Western Australia, especially the construction of Fremantle Harbour, thought to be impossible, and the Goldfields Water Su ...

. Her 1959 book ''

Unwilling Emigrants ''Unwilling Emigrants'' is a book by Alexandra Hasluck. It is both a general study of Western Australia's convict era, and a biography of a particular convict, William Sykes. First published in 1959 by Oxford University Press in Melbourne, it ...

'' examined the

convict era of Western Australia The convict era of Western Australia was the period during which Western Australia was a penal colony of the British Empire. Although it received small numbers of juvenile offenders from 1842, it was not formally constituted as a penal colony u ...

through a study of convict William Sykes. Her writing was targeted at general readers and "brought the history of Western Australia to a popular audience at a time when the State's historiography was in its infancy".

Death

She died in 1993. Dame Alexandra and Sir Paul Hasluck are joint eponyms of the Western Australian Federal

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

Division of Hasluck The Division of Hasluck is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, electoral division of the Australian House of Representatives, located in Western Australia. History The division was proclaimed at a redistribution of Wester ...

Publications

* ''Georgiana Molloy: Portrait with Background'' (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1955) * ''

'' (London: Oxford University Press, 1959) * ''Remembered With Affection'' (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1963; book design by Alison Forbes) * ''Thomas Peel of Swan River'' (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1965) * ''

Audrey Tennyson Audrey Georgiana Florence Tennyson, Baroness Tennyson ( Boyle; 15 August 1854 – 7 December 1916) was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British letter-writer, hospital founder and wife of Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, the se ...

's Vice-Regal Days'' (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1978) * ''Portrait in a Mirror'' (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1981)

References

External links

Alexandra Hasluck interviewed by Hazel de Berg
– audio recording * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hasluck, Alexandra 1908 births 1993 deaths Historians from Western Australia Dames of the Order of Australia Writers from Perth, Western Australia Spouses of Australian governors-general Australian people of English descent University of Western Australia alumni Australian women historians 20th-century Australian historians 20th-century Australian women writers Australian monarchists Wives of knights