General correspondence, 1903-1952

Component identifier:

Series 1

Content Summary:

The first series is made up of letters and telegrams to Hughes and copies or drafts of some of his replies which do not naturally relate to the subjects, activities or events of the remaining series. They are arranged in date order, with undated letters placed last. Many of the letters are from personal friends of Hughes. There are replies to sympathy letters, welcomes to Hughes upon his return from overseas trips, letters of introduction, invitations, letters of regret following his resignation in 1923, requests for photographs and autographs, copies of invitation acceptances, and applications for positions as secretary. Other letters deal with arrangements for golf, the supply of hearing aid batteries, people's reactions to speeches and broadcasts, requests for money, the forwarding of reports and publications and Hughes' opinion on the abdication in 1936.

The main correspondents are Sir Ronald Anderson, Joynton Smith, Claude McKay, George Payne, Lord Novar, L. S. Amery, Sir John Quick, Sir Atlee Hunt, Sir George Rich, Dame Mary Gilmore, Sir Keith Murdoch, Lindley Walker, C. R. Hall, Sir Philip Game, W. S. Robinson, Pauline Grieve, H. V. Howe, M. Hillary, Sir Charles Jones, Randolf Bedford, Sir Percy Hunter, R. M. Pontey, Percy Deane, and Field-Marshal Birdwood.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The W. M. Hughes Papers were presented to the National Library of Australia by Dame Mary Hughes in 1953. The collection was received in two consignments. One consisted of papers taken from the Perpetual Trustee Company comprising material from Hughes' Lindfield home and from his office rooms at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney; the other came directly from Lindfield. Lists of the contents of both consignments are held in the Library's Manuscript Branch. With the agreement of the executors and the Library, much of the collection, was for a time, held at the Australian National University by Fitzhardinge. He was permitted sole access to the collection while writing the biography Hughes commissioned in 1951. Fitzhardinge's own papers documenting the writing of the biography are also held by the Library (MS 5400). The papers transferred to the Library in 1953 are by no means the total collection of Hughes' personal papers, although it is impossible to say what proportion has survived. (see Fitzhardinge, p.936).

Names:

Hughes, W. M. (1862-1952)

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