Family papers, 1875-1958

 
Component identifier:
Series 12
Content Summary:

Hughes married twice. In 1886, or thereabouts, he married Elizabeth Cutts of Sydney (thus like Andrew Fisher marrying his landlady's daughter). There were seven children: Arthur, Ethel, Lily, Dolly, Ernest, Charles, and a son who died in infancy. Elizabeth Hughes died in 1906. The second marriage, in June 1911, was to Mary Campbell, and there was a daughter, Helen, born in 1915.

The family papers consist almost entirely of correspondence arranged chronologically, the bulk being letters to Hughes from his second wife, his children, and nephews, nieces and grandchildren. There is only one letter from Mrs Elizabeth Hughes. Letters to Hughes from his wife and children written while he was overseas in 1918, 1919, 1921 and 1924 can be found in Series 23-26 and all letters to Dame Mary Hughes are in Series 13. The letters from the children, mainly Charles and Helen, are full of family news and many refer to financial problems. Birthday greetings from the children are also filed here. There is also correspondence between Hughes and the Commonwealth Bank, C. S. Daley and Sir John Butters regarding a tender his son Ernest sought from the Federal Capital Commission in 1929, letters and telegrams of sympathy following Helen's death in London in 1937 and following a grandson's death in 1940, and letters from solicitors about the children of Hughes' first marriage.

A group of miscellaneous papers follows. It includes Helen's birth certificate, some cuttings on her social activities and some of her school reports, Elizabeth Hughes' death certificate, a draft document in which Hughes makes provision for his three eldest daughters (1925), one of Lily Hughes' school exercise books (1900), a copy of Hughes' birth certificate and will (1930), and some certificates (1875-1877) relating to his attendance at St Stephen's School, Westminster.

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).

Contents

Access and use

Parent Restrictions:
Available for research.
Parent Terms of Access:
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.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact: