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ANU Founders - Professor Sir Keith HancockABLative No.12, Spring/Summer 1990 Author: Michael Saclier
Professor Sir Keith Hancock died in Canberra in August 1988. In an obituary published in The Guardian newspaper he is referred to as an 'historian who died with his boots on'. This description indicates some of the characteristics of the man. An historian by instinct, by training, by inclination and by practice, he was internationally regarded as being of the first rank in his profession and an example to all who aspired to profess it. Although he lived to the age of 90 years, he continued not only to practice but also to contribute to his profession to the very end of his life. As well, he lived an active life, walking for interest and for pleasure, and for exploration of the landscape in the regions and the countries where he lived. He learned as well 'with his boots on'. Evidence of all these characteristics and of the thread of his activity can be followed through a collection of records held by the ANU Archives Program. The collection is made up of several parts and has accumulated in the Archives over the period 1972-1989. It comprises the following groupings of records, listed in order of receipt.
This book, subtitled A Study of Man's Impact on his Environment, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1972 and the research material was deposited in the Archives in September of that year. The records include correspondence relating to land use and conservation in the Monaro region and to settlement by Aboriginal people as well as by selectors taking up grazing leases. Information on land holdings of the region is provided from a questionnaire, Historical Notes on Monaro Properties, where the information is organised to cover sections on The Present and The Past and includes questions on the physical environment - water and rainfall, temperature range, trees and grasses, pests and bushfires, as well as stock numbers, crops and labour, improvements and husbandry. The planning and process of this research project are expounded in what Hancock calls (here and in other such instances) the 'cockshy': the outline, and the mechanisms to arrive at the end result set out for examination and possible amendment. Notes for talks on the project expand on the aims and the methodology. 2.Personal records; research material. This part of the collection is made up of 3 sections.
Personal Papers These papers provide some indication of Hancock's professional concerns. While he himself describes some of these records as 'personal' the range is not extensive either in scope or in the period they cover. The more significant material of this nature is located in the collection of letters from Hancock written to family members and friends (see 3 below). The limited scope of personal records is perhaps best explained in Hancock's own words '18th November (1941?) I have made few attempts at keeping a diary·I don't know why it is, all my attempts at diarising are artificial : I can't stop myself from writing bad essays even when I just want to note down things that have happened. So now I give it up. Yet there are always things I do want, and shall want, to remember and talk about and from now on I intend to try a new plan. I'm going to put into a box a few of the papers that will start my memory ranging, if ever the time comes when I have leisure to let it range. For me, this is quite a new plan. For years I have been too busy (always writing immense books) and too untidy to keep any papers·But now I have a box - quite empty. This very night I start a reform. Exhibit one enters the box ·'. (ANU/ABL P96/14/10) Some of the records are then a conscious attempt to accumulate some representation of life and work to present some reflection of personal attitudes. Some record thoughts and opinions on the occasion of events of moment. While not voluminous, especially in view of the life they stand to describe, their very diversity is itself telling. The Australian National University The Australian National University was established in 1946 by an Act of the Commonwealth Parliament. The aim to provide a research centre of excellence was supported by the idea of attracting back to Australia scholars who had achieved international recognition of their work in various fields. These Australian-born international scholars were to be the nucleus of research groups in various disciplines which would provide research and development initiatives as part of Australia's post-war reconstruction programme. Professor Sir Keith Hancock was to become Director of the Research School of Social Sciences, one of the four schools proposed to make up the new university. The papers dealing with Hancock's involvement with the new university, his appointment as Director and his role in the development of the School, all provide important background to these significant government initiatives in higher education in Australia. As well they offer a view of a developing Canberra, at that time only a very small and isolated country town, a far cry from Oxford, Birmingham and London to which Hancock was then accustomed. While again, not extensive in volume or in time frame, the correspondence in particular is densely packed with ideas and perceptions of this new direction in Hancock's career. Research and publications The most significant records in this section relate to Hancock's work on his biography of Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, South African soldier and politician. Progress on this work as an ongoing research project absorbed much of Hancock's efforts over a decade and a half and included involvement in an accompanying project to set up an archives of Smuts' papers in South Africa. Work on both these tasks was assisted by Dr Jean van der Poel and includes some notes in Afrikaans produced by her. Other material in this section consists of notes and scripts of papers for lectures and publications, and covers a wide range of topics. These papers also include reports and correspondence relating to the setting up of the project to produce the series of Documents on Australian Foreign Policy. Hancock was the Chairman of the Advisory Committee which reported on the proposal to initiate this project in 1967, under the sponsorship of the Minister (Paul Hasluck) and the Department of what was then designated External Affairs 3. Correspondence with family and friends; other papers relating to Hancock and his work. The records gathered in this part of the collection provide insight into Hancock's personal professional life. Correspondence amplifies events and opinions glimpsed in earlier sections of the material in the collection . We owe this most valuable expansion of information to those in receipt of the correspondence who chose to accumulate what Hancock wrote to them over the years. The most valuable part of this section is an accumulation of letters written by Hancock to C.R. Badger covering the period 1928-1988. Colin Badger (later Director of Adult Education in Victoria) was in the first instance one of Hancock's students during his period as a young Professor of History at Adelaide University. A strong bond of friendship developed between the two and this continuing correspondence is evidence of that friendship. The letters give indications of research interests, of the workload of the teacher and writer of history, as well as clear statements of some of the difficulties and successes facing Hancock throughout his career. Periods at University posts in Birmingham, Oxford, and London and in Australia are represented, as well as reports of visits to Europe, to South Africa, and home to Australia. The correspondence is on a personal level but deals always with matters of career. While the letters are usually short and the occurrence is sporadic within a lengthy time frame, there is sketched the framework of a life filled with the enthusiasms and the sometimes exhausting demands of the practising academic historian. Not all of what passes in the correspondence is weighty or serious however - Hancock discusses 'neckties and learning Latin' in one, comments on his flourishing vegetable garden and its contribution to the war effort in another. Perceptive comments on the approach of war in letters at the end of the 1930s lead in positive and optimistic terms to the role of Britain and the Empire in what were the gloomy times of 1940 and 1941. Another 'war' reflected in this correspondence is the dispute which raged in Canberra in the 1970s over the building of a telecommunications tower in the bush on Black Mountain in Canberra's centre. The vigour of opinion is in no way diminished by the passage of years. The other significant part of the accumulation of correspondence comprises letters collected by Hancock's sister, Dora (Mrs P H Dicker). These are letters to various other family members as well, including his father Archdeacon William Hancock, his mother, his brother Justin and sister Marjorie, through most are to Dora. All these too make important comment on significant events while at the same time reflecting the influence of family on Hancock's life. In addition to the correspondence there is further material giving evidence of the continuing work of the historian. This work is the subject of a final grouping of papers which are some of those presented by other notable historians at a Hancock Memorial Seminar in December 1988 at the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. The collection of records relating to Professor Sir Keith Hancock is designated
P96. It is available on application to the University Archivist, ANU
Archives Program.
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