Obituaries

Wallace (“Wal”) Kirsop occupied a distinguished position within the Australian academy, spanning the fields of French Studies, bibliography, book history, and Australian Studies. Born in Chatswood, New South Wales, on 4 November 1933, he was the son of William Kirsop, an accountant and keen cricketer, and Doris Ida Kirsop, née Harris. After attending North Sydney Boys

An Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, Marguerite was elected to the Academy in 2022. An Emeritus Professor at The Australian National University (ANU), Isabel was elected to the Academy in 1979. She is widely regarded as the “Mother of Australian Archaeology.” Isabel was appointed as the first lecturer

Professor Marguerite Johnson FAHA was born in 1965. Marguerite received her Bachelor of Arts (Honours in Classical Civilisation) at The University of Newcastle in 1988 and was awarded the University Medal. After a brief period exploring her interests in poetry and art, she returned to the University of Newcastle after the abolition of full-year courses

A Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum where she worked from 1989, Val was elected to the Academy in 2009. Her research focused on the Holocene period subsistence patterns, resource use and stone tool technology of Aboriginal peoples, particularly in south-eastern Australia. These interests, as well as human responses to climate change and the

Remembering David Malouf David Malouf, award-winning writer, librettist, public intellectual, winner of multiple prizes, and member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities has died aged 92. I first knew David Malouf when he became a lecturer at Sydney University in 1968. I was in my MA year when he started and my first impression

In memory of Andrew Pawley Eight years before he died, Andrew Pawley’s autobiographical essay, ‘Memoirs of an anthropological linguist’, was published in Te Reo, the journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand.[1] Rarely has the subject of an obituary helped its writer as much as Andy has helped me. The essay is a delightful

The journalist, editor and historian was born Mary Patricia Ryan on 30 July 1926 in Alphington, a suburb of Melbourne, in the house built by her father John Laurence Ryan, a teacher. Patricia’s mother Annie Teresa, née McSweeney, a bookbinder, had an aversion to hospitals, with two younger brothers also born at home. From 1932

With the passing of Anne Elizabeth McLaren on 6 March this year, the Academy of Humanities lost an esteemed member. A distinguished scholar, committed educator and tireless contributor to the field of Chinese studies, Anne was variously colleague, mentor and friend to many of us over a long period of time. Those who had the

Brian David Ellis (27 September 1929—21 November 2025) was a paradigmatically philosophical thinker. His thoughts instinctively ran straight to the deepest presuppositions in any given area of study. The academic discipline of Philosophy in Australia experienced a remarkable vibrancy and international influence throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and Ellis was part of

Takamitsu was elected to the Academy as a Fellow in 1984 as a leader in Biblical Studies with a mastery of Greek, Hebrew (classical and modern), Aramaic, Syriac and Ethiopic. He became a Corresponding Fellow after moving to Leiden University, The Netherlands in 1991 to take the chair of Hebrew Language and Literature, Israelite Antiquities,

John R. Melville-Jones, the celebrated scholar of numismatics and Byzantine history, passed away on January 28th 2026 at the age of 92. He was born in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and educated at Clifton College (Bristol) and Cambridge University (Emmanuel). He began his study of Classics with Latin aged 8 and Greek aged 10. His schooling was

Christopher Keith Wallace-Crabbe was born in Richmond, Victoria on 6 May, 1934 and died on 16 December, 2025 at the age of 91. He was born into an artistically gifted family. His father, Kenneth Eyre Inverell Wallace-Crabbe was a Group Captain in the RAF during World War II. After the war he was a motoring journalist