Guide to the Papers of William Keith Hancock

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MS 2886

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Collection Summary

Creator
William Keith Hancock
Title
Papers of William Keith Hancock
Date Range
1930-1974
Collection Number
MS 2886
Extent
2.1 metres (15 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Repository
National Library of Australia

Introduction

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of the drafts, typescripts and related material of some of the later books written by Sir Keith Hancock, particularly his biography of General J.C. Smuts. The material related to the Smuts biography includes copies of letters by General Smuts and Sir Keith's correspondence with various people while collecting material for the book. Correspondents include Lord Trenchard, Professor P.G. H. Boswell, Piet Beukes, Sir Dougal Malcolm, Professor D.W. Kruger, Dr W.J. de Kock, Professor K. Kirkwood, Lord Reith, Alan Paton, Mrs M.C. Gillett, Professor L.W. Thompson, V.C.H.R. Brereton, Lord Brand, J.C. Smuts and Clark Bancroft.

The material in the collection relating to the Fraser Island and Black Mountain Tower controversies include the draft of the book on Black Mountain by Hancock and his correspondence with various people over the issue.

Conditions Governing Access

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1790491).

Conditions Governing Use

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred Citation

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of William Keith Hancock, National Library of Australia, MS 2886, [series and/or file number]'.

Provenance

The first part of this collection was donated by Sir Keith Hancock in February 1963 when he gave his original manuscript of the first volume of his biography of General Smuts to the National Library. He subsequently made several large additions to the collection.

In October 1968 Sir Keith donated a further draft of his Smuts biography, working notebooks, correspondence, and copies of excerpts from the Smuts archives. Sir Keith destroyed his own personal papers and gave material relating to the Australian National University to the Registrar of the University. Any material he had retained on the British War History was sent to the Australian War Memorial.

The corrected typescript of Attempting History was received by the National Library in June 1969. The manuscript of Discovering Monaro was donated by Sir Keith in August 1971, with the typescript following in February 1972.

In August 1975 Sir Keith donated all his material on the Black Mountain Tower and Fraser Island controversies. This included court transcripts, correspondence, newspaper cuttings and other papers. These were supplemented by further donations by Pam Coward (Hancock's secretary) in October 1976, Joan Lynravn in 1978 and Stephen Foster in 1996.

Bibliography

Low, D.A., ed. Keith Hancock; the legacies of a historian, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 2001

Biographical Note

William Keith Hancock was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne on the 26 June 1898. The son of Archdeacon William Hancock, he was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and later the University of Melbourne. At the age of nine he won the Royal Humane Society's medal for rescuing another child from drowning in the Mitchell River, Victoria.

As a Rhodes Scholar, Hancock went to Balliol College, Oxford in 1922. He graduated in 1924 with a Bachelor of Arts with first class honours in Modern History. He then became the first Australian to gain a Fellowship of All Souls College, Oxford in 1923. After returning to Australia he was Professor of Modern History at the University of Adelaide between 1924 and 1933. His highly influential book Australia was published in 1930.

From 1934 to 1944 Hancock was the Professor of History at Birmingham University and during this war period was also appointed to the War Cabinet Offices. His Survey of British Commonwealth affairs was published in three volumes in 1937-42. He was appointed Supervisor of the Civil History of the War in 1941 and was thereafter editor of the series and the author of The British war economy (1949). Between 1944 and 1949, he was Chichele Professor of Economic History at the University of Oxford.

In 1949 he was appointed Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and he was the Professor of British Commonwealth Affairs at the University of London until 1956. During this period he was sent as a government expert to examine constitutional questions in Uganda in 1954. He also began to write the biography of General Smuts, which appeared in two volumes in 1962 and 1968.

Hancock returned to Australia in 1957. He was Director of the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University from 1957 to 1961 and was Professor of History at the Institute of Advanced Studies, ANU until his retirement in 1965. On his retirement he was made Emeritus Professor (1968) and created the first University Fellow of ANU. Other positions he has held were Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Australian Dictionary of Biography from 1958 to 1965 and President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1970-1971.

Hancock was knighted in 1953 and made a Knight of the British Empire in 1965. He married Theaden Brocklebank in 1925; she died in 1960. He married Marjorie Eyre in 1961. He died in Canberra in 1988.

Item Descriptions

Series 1. Papers relating to Smuts biography

Subseries 1A. Smuts - Box 1-3

This subseries includes the first draft, notes and original manuscript of Hancock's biography of the South African soldier and Prime Minister, Jan Christian Smuts (1870-1950). It was published in 1962 (vol.1) and 1968 (vol. 2). Correspondence with Cambridge University Press relating to the publishing of the book has also been included.

Subseries 1B. Correspondence about Smuts, 1951-1967

This second subseries contains letters written between Sir Keith Hancock and various people relating to the collection of information on General Smuts for his book. The correspondents included Lord Trenchard, Professor P.G.H. Boswell, Piet Beukes, Sir Dougal Malcolm, Prof. D.W. Kruger, Dr W.J. de Kock, Professor K. Kirkwood, Lord Reith, Alan Paton, Mrs M.C. Gillett, Professor L.M. Thompson, V.C.H.R. Brereton, Lord Brand, J.C. Smuts (son of General Smuts) and Clark Bancroft

Amery, L.S (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Baylen, J.O (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Beresford, Frank (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Beukes, Piet (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Boswell, P.G.H., Prof. (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Bradley, Joan (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Brand, Robert, 1st Baron (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Brereton, V.C.H.R (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Brincker, Dr I.A.H (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Brown, Ethel (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Bunting, A.H (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Churchill, Sir Winston (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Clark, Bancroft (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Clay, Sir Henry (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Cohn, Alfred (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Cooper, J.A.B. see Syfret's Trust (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Curtis, Lionel (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Davenport, Rodney (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Davis, T.B., Dr (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
D'Egville, Sir Howard (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
De Kock, W.J., Dr (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Elliot, G., Prof. (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Egeland, Leif (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Enock, A.G (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Farrer-Brown, Leslie see Nuffield Foundation (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Flower, J.C., Rev (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Frewer, Lousis B (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Fry, Ruth (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Gillett, M.C., Mrs (2 files) (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Harvey, G.E (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Hayman, J.D (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Hobbs, M.G., Mrs (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Howarth, O.J.R., Dr (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Huxley, Sir Julian (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Hutchinson, J., Dr (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Inman, Peggy (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Kirkwood, K., Prof. (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Kruger, D.W., Prof. (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Lamont, T.S (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Lane, E.F.C (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Lean, P., Mrs (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Legum, Colin (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Le May, G.H.L., Prof. (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Le Roy, Jean (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Lewin, G.L. see Cohn, Alfred (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Lloyd, A.W (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Lloyd George, David (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Lovell, Colin R (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Malcolm, Sir Douglas (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Macdermot, T.W.L (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Mackworth-Young, Robin see Windsor Castle Archives (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Malhermot, E.G., Prof. (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Marais, J.S., Prof. (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Meinertzhagen, R., Col. (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Meldrum, L.W (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Millin, S.G., Mrs (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Moore, Daphne, Lady (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Morshead, Sir Owen see Windsor Castle Archives (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Murray, Gilbert, Prof. (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Nuffield Foundation (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
O'Dowd, C (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Oppenheimer, Sir Emest (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Paton, Alan (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Parkin, G.R (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Pearn Pollingham and Higham (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Raath, E.A., Mrs (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Radcliffe Brown, A.R., Prof (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Raven, C.E., Canon (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Reith, Sir John, 1st Baron (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Rennell, Francis, 2nd Baron (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Richardson, S (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Roberts, H.V (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Robinson, R (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Rockefeller Foundation (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Salter, Sir Arthur (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Schonland, Sir Basil (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Smuts, J. C. (Jannie) (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Steed, Wickham (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Stein, L (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Steytler, F.A (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Syfret's Trust (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Thompson, Kenneth see Rockefeller Foundation (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Thompson, L.W., Prof. (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Trenchard, Hugh, 1st Viscount (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Waverley, Ada, Viscountess (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Wayland, E.J (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Whyte, L.L (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Windsor Castle Archives (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6
Miscellaneous letters (File [unnumbered]) - Box 4-6

Subseries 1C. General correspondence and speeches on Smuts, 1951-1960 - Box 7

This subseries contains Hancock's general correspondence including correspondence relating to Smuts' article on Walt Whitman and Hancock's correspondence with various people about biographies other than Smuts. The drafts of some lectures given by Hancock on Smuts are also part of this subseries.

Subseries 1D. Smuts general correspondence and speeches - Box 7

The subseries comprises copies of a small number of letters of Smuts, written between 1924 and 1949, including letters to Dr John Hutchinson, a botanist, for whom Smuts wrote the forward to his book A Botanist in South Africa. Other correspondents include Sarah Millin, General Sir Charles Crewe and Lord Hankey. Smuts' speeches were addressed to various audiences including the United Party Congress (October 1944), a BBC broadcast (May 1946), some addresses at Cambridge and on the occasion of his receiving of the Freedom of Johannesburg (May 1950).

Series 2. Discovering Monaro - Box 8, 9

This series contains Hancock's plans, notes, progress reports, drafts and typescripts of his book Discovering Monaro,which was published in 1972. Correspondence with the publisher, Cambridge University Press, regarding the book is also part of this series.

Series 3. Attempting History - Box 9

Attempting History was the title of the University Lectures which Hancock delivered at the Australian National University in 1968. The first draft of the book, comprising the original four lectures and a proof copy of the book, make up this series. The book was published by the ANU Press in 1969.

Series 4. Selections from the Smuts Papers - Box 10-12, 12A

This book, edited by Hancock and Jean van der Poel, was published in four volumes in 1966 and covered the years 1886-1919. The drafts of each volume and some of the working notes for the book are contained in this series. Correspondence with the publisher, Cambridge University Press, relating to the book has also been included.

Series 5. Papers Relating to the Black Mountain Controversy, 1973-1974 - Box 13

Series 5A. The Battle of Black Mountain - Box 13

This subseries contains notes, drafts, and typescripts of Hancock's book The Battle of Black Mountain, which was published in 1974. The comments on the manuscript of the book by Hancock's contemporaries has also been included in this subseries. Some of Hancock's correspondence with the publisher, Melbourne University Press, also comprises part of the series.

Series 5B. The Campaign - Box 13, 14

There is a wide variety of material relating to the unsuccessful campaign, in which Hancock played a leading role, to prevent the construction of a telecommunication tower on Black Mountain in Canberra. Hancock collected many newspaper clippings, extracts of meeting minutes and a vast amount of correspondence with other leading activists, including Bruce Kent, and many personal notes on the subsequent events of the controversy.

Also includes two files of papers relating to the Black Mountain controversy of 1973-1974, which were added in 1996. These papers include newspaper clippings and copies of correspondence of the Committee to save Black Mountain, collected by Ross Hohnen. There are also two copies of the judgment of Justice Smithers of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory (31 October 1973) and a copy of Hancock's book, The battle of Black Mountain: an episode of Canberra's environment history, Canberra 1974.

Series 6. Fraser Island Controversy, 1975 - Box 14

This series of material collected by Hancock related to controversy over sand mining on Fraser Island in Queensland. The papers includes letters from Hancock to E.G. Whitlam and H.C. Coombs, and letters received by Hancock from Judith Wright and J.G. Mosley. A few newspaper clippings on the subject were also collected by Hancock.

Series 7. Miscellaneous Items - Box 14

This series contains miscellaneous items such as a list of General Smuts papers held at Irene, a draft of the speech made by Hancock at the launching of P. Mander-Jones' book Manuscripts in the British Isles relating to Australia. New Zealand and the Pacific, and Hancock's notes on the Afrikaans language.

Material added in March 1978 includes drafts of Hancock's autobiography Professing history and correspondence with H. Duncan Hall, Professor J.D.B. Miller and R.G. Menzies (1957-1961). Hancock's annotated copy of Buganda and British Overrule by D.A. Low and R.C. Pratt (1960) was added in 2003.


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