Guide to the Papers of Brian Fitzpatrick, 1921-1965

Summary

Collection number:

MS 4965

Creator:

Brian Fitzpatrick

Extent:

8.85 metres and (59 boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Brian Fitzpatrick, National Library of Australia, MS 4965, [series and/or file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

The bulk of the collection consists of the records of Australian Council for Civil Liberties (1936-1965) including correspondence, minutes, financial papers, notes, manuscripts and publications.

The papers also contain Fitzpatrick's general correspondence, manuscript, notes, publications, certificates, photographs and press cuttings documenting his work as publicist and historian.

The material is divided into subject series, each of which is described briefly; the correspondence is indexed on cards.

Biographical Note:

Brian Fitzpatrick was born in Warrnambool, Victoria on 17 November 1905, the third son and seventh child (of eight) of Peter Fitzpatrick, a state school teacher and his wife Mary nee Callister. He was educated at state schools in the country and in Melbourne, matriculating with first-class honours in French and winning a scholarship to the University of Melbourne. He graduated Bachelor of Arts (with honours) in 1925 and Master of Arts in 1934. For ten years, from 1925, he worked as a journalist in London, Sydney and Melbourne.

In 1937 Fitzpatrick won the University of Melbourne's Harbison Higinbotham Scholarship with his manuscript of British imperialism and Australia 1783-1833; it was published by George Allen and Unwin in 1939. A sequel was The British Empire in Australia: an economic history, 1834-1939 (1941). Other published works included A short history of the Australia labor movement (1940), The rich get richer (1944), The Australian Commonwealth: a picture of the community 1901-1955 (1956), The highest bidder; a citizen's guide to problems of foreign investment in Australia (1965) with E.L. Wheelwright and Readings in Australian history (1965) with B.J. Munday.

Fitzpatrick edited The Australian democrat, an independent non-party monthly news- review (1947-1950), The Australian news-review (1951-1953), and from 1958 until his death in 1965, he published Brian Fitzpatrick's Labor newsletter: what is going on in Australian politics.

During the 1940s Fitzpatrick wrote a weekly column 'Where do we go from here' in Smith's weekly. He broadcast regularly from 3XY during the late 1940s and early 1950s and for ten years before 1965 wrote a monthly article for The Rationalist. His economic analyses were presented to the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration by the Australian Council of Trade Unions as part of its case in the Basic Wage Enquiry in 1940, and also to the Standard Hours Enquiry in 1949.

In 1940 Fitzpatrick was appointed a Research Fellow in the Department of History, University of Melbourne, but in September 1942 he was given leave to join the Commonwealth Rationing Commission; subsequently in June 1943 he worked for the Department of War Organisation of Industry. He resumed his Fellowship at the University in 1944 and remained there until 1947.

Fitzpatrick was a foundation member of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties in 1935. From 1939 until his death he was its General Secretary, devoting much of his lifetime to its affairs.

In 1932 he married Kathleen Pitt who was later Associate Professor History, University of Melbourne. The marriage was dissolved. In 1940 Fitzpatrick married Dorothy Davies, an executive member of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, and later a Senior Teaching Fellow at Monash University. They had two children, Sheila and David.

Brian Fitzpatrick died in Sydney on 3 September 1965.

Provenance:

The National Library received the bulk of the papers of Brian Fitzpatrick from his widow, Mrs Dorothy Fitzpatrick, during 1975 and 1976. Papers added as Series 2(d) and 2(e), and added to Series 1(d), 2(c), 10 and 13(m), were received in 2001 together with the papers of Dorothy Fitzpatrick. This material was received from the Fitzpatrick's children, Professor Sheila Fitzpatrick and Professor David Fitzpatrick.

Indexed terms

Names:

Brian Fitzpatrick

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1917348).

Conditions Governing Use:

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.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Brian Fitzpatrick, National Library of Australia, MS 4965, [series and/or file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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