 Lionel Arthur Gilbert OAM ( 8 December 1924 – 28 January 2015 ) was an Australian historian , author , curator , lecturer , and biographer , specializing in applied , natural , and local history . Born in Burwood , New South Wales , he studied at Sydney Teachers College and , beginning in 1946 , worked as a teacher and later a school principal in the New South Wales Department of Education , retiring in 1989. Begriffe und Definitionen aus dem Bereich der Geschichte. 1984 wurde er in die American Academy of Arts and Sciences und 1988 in die American Philosophical Society gewählt. The Australian Dictionary of Biography