Australian journalist, newspaper editor, author and amateur ornithologist
Alexander Hugh Chisholm OBE FRZS (28 March 1890 — 10 July 1977) also known as Alec Chisholm, was a noted Australian naturalist, journalist, newspaper editor, author and ornithologist. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), President of the RAOU 1939–1940, and editor of its journal the "Emu" from 1926 to 1928. In 1941 he was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1941 and the previous year he had been the first recipient of the Australian Natural History Medallion for his work in ornithology and popularising natural history. Chisholm was a prolific and popular writer of articles and books, mainly on birds and nature but also on history, literature and biography.
Early life.
Alec H. Chisholm was born on 28 March 1890 at Maryborough, Victoria, seventh of eight children. His father was Colin Chisholm, an Australian-born grocer, and his wife Charlotte, née Kennedy, from Scotland. He was educated at Maryborough State School until the age of 12.
Conservationist.
By the time he began work as a journalist, Chisholm already had a name as a conservationist. In 1907, aged seventeen, he joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union and during the next year wrote six articles in the organisation's journal, the "Emu". In the "Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser" he campaigned in 1908 against the killing of egrets for feathers for women's hats, a crusade in which he won support from Australian poet Dame Mary Gilmore. In 1911 he was employed at the newspaper as a journalist, leaving in 1915 for a position at the "Brisbane Mail". He continued to campaign for the conservation of Australia's birds, animals and plants for the rest of his life.
Personal life.
On 8 November 1923 Chisholm married Olive May Haseler in Brisbane. They had one daughter, Deirdre, who was born on 26 December 1924. From 1964, Olive Chisholm's health deteriorated seriously. Chisholm cared for her as best he could until late 1968, when she was committed to Balmoral Hill Convalescent Home, where she died in 1970. By this time, his own health was in serious decline, although he continued living alone in a small flat in Sydney's Cremorne Point until his death in 1977.
Journalist and editor.
Chisholm worked as a journalist in Queensland from 1915 to 1922, then moved to Sydney, where he became news editor of the "Daily Telegraph" and later editor of the "Sunday Pictorial". After moving to Melbourne in 1933, he was for many years editor of the "Australasian", before being appointed editor of "The Argus" in June 1937. He spent ten years, from 1948 to 1958, editing the ten-volume "Australian Encyclopaedia", for which he was awarded the Order of the British Empire. Chisholm was also editor of "The Victorian Naturalist" and "Who's Who in Australia." In his late years he wrote several entries on ornithologists, naturalists and explorers in the "Australian Dictionary of Biography". He was a contributor of articles to a number of publications, including "Walkabout", the latter mostly on Australian bird life and history.
Historian.
Visiting England in 1938, Chisholm discovered a large number of documents relating to the nineteenth-century ornithologist John Gould. They included the diary kept by Gould's principal collector, John Gilbert, during his participation in Ludwig Leichhardt’s 1844-45 expedition to Port Essington. This diary became the foundation of Chisholm's 1941 book, "Strange New World". He published several later works of history, but none achieved the popularity or notoriety of his Gilbert and Leichhardt book.
References.
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