Guide to the Papers of Kenneth Gifford, 1846-2002 (bulk 1930s-1990s)
Collection context
Summary
- Collection number:
- MS 9217
- Creator:
- Gifford, Kenneth, 1923-2005
- Extent:
- 1.82 metres and (13 boxes + 1 map folio package}
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
- Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Kenneth Gifford, National Library of Australia, MS 9217, [series and/or file number]'.
- Availability:
- Available
- Access conditions:
- Available for reference with the exception of Series 6 which is closed until 2036. Not for loan.
Background
- Content Summary:
-
This collection contains correspondence, manuscript and typescript drafts of writings, fees books, photographs, family history material, juvenilia, certificates, programs, posters, bookplates and other documents.
These papers largely relate to Gifford's early career as a poet and publisher of poetry, particularly his membership of the Jindyworobaks, an Australian poetry movement of the 1930s and 1940s. Together with drafts of poems by Gifford and others, this material includes correspondence with E.J. Brady, Clem Christesen, Rev. Frank Coaldrake, Norma L. Davis, Flexmore Hudson, Rex Ingamells, Victor Kennedy, Ian Mudie, A.P. Murphy and E.W. Salier.
The collection also features personal files which document events and activities in Gifford's life from 1923 to 2002; general correspondence with family, friends and contemporaries; files concerning Gifford's relationship with the Law Book Company as an author and editor of publications regarding the law, town planning and local government; material relating to the 1998 Constitutional Convention, to which Gifford was a delegate; and family papers, including papers of Gifford's wife, Elizabeth Gifford, and his father, A.S.H. Gifford.
- Biographical Note:
-
Kenneth Harril Gifford was born on 8 March 1923 in Melbourne, son of Alfred Silva Harril Gifford (1897-1985) and Gwen Leaver (1896-1937). From 1930 to 1939 he attended Scotch College, Melbourne, followed by a year at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide. In 1941 Gifford joined the Australian Army as a Private, serving in Melbourne until his discharge in 1944. In 1949 he married Elizabeth (Betty) Eleanor Lorraine Caldwell (1915-1997), and they had two children, Donald and Anne.
Gifford began writing poetry from an early age. From the early 1940s to 1944 he was the Victorian editor of The Jindyworobak Club. Gifford's two poetry collections The glad season and The reluctant lover were published in 1944, together with his work Jindyworobak : towards an Australian culture. Around this time he established the Arura Writers publishing company, which continued until c.1949.
Gifford graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne in 1946, and began his clerkship at Maddock, Lonie Chisholm, Solicitors, Melbourne, that same year. He was admitted to the Bar in Victoria in 1947, Queensland in 1957, Tasmania in 1961 and Fiji in 1972. He was appointed as a Queen's Counsel in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania in 1965. Gifford retired from active practice in 1983.
From 1955 to 1966 Gifford was an independent lecturer in Central and Local Government and Law of Planning at the University of Melbourne. He was also affiliated with and lectured international for the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association. Throughout his legal career Gifford wrote and edited numerous works on law, local government and town planning, ranging from the Victorian town-planning handbook (1956) to How to understand an act of Parliament (with Donald Gifford, 1994).
Gifford was a member of numerous clubs, committees and groups, including Bread and Cheese Club, Melbourne, Australian-Britain Society, Board of Freemason's Homes Victoria, Rotary Club, United Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of Victoria, National Trust of Australia, Old Scotch Collegians Association and Australian Monarchist League.
In 1977 Gifford received the Total Community Development Award from the Urban Land Institute of Australia. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Municipal Administration in 1958 and of the Royal Australian Planning Institute in 1969, awarded the Freedom of the City of London in 1979, and in 1996 was made an Honorary Life Member of the University of Melbourne Law Society. In 1998 Gifford was a popularly elected delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Canberra. In 2000 his philanthropy was recognised by Scotch College when a newly constructed clock tower was named 'The Gifford Tower' in his honour.
Gifford died in Melbourne on 20 January 2005.
- Provenance:
-
Papers relating to the 1998 Constitutional Convention (now Series 8) were donated to the Library by Gifford in 1998. The remainder of the collection was donated by Gifford in 2002.
- Arrangement:
-
The original order of the files, where apparent, has been maintained by the Library; otherwise a chronological order has largely been imposed. The titles of files are based on original file titles, where present.
- Container List:
-
Series File/Item Box 1 1-5 1 1 6 Map Folio 1 2 1-4 1 2 5-12 2 3 1-9 3 3 10-18 4 3 19-26 5 4 1-3 6 5 1-3 6 5 4-7 7 6 1-6 8 6 7-10 9 7 1-6 10 7 7-8 11 8 1-4 11 8 5-10 12 8 11 Map Folio 1 8 12-13 12 9 1 13 10 1-3 13 10 4 Map Folio 1 10 5-6 13
Indexed terms
- Names:
- Gifford, Kenneth, 1923-2005
Access and use
- Conditions Governing Access:
- Access conditions may apply to this collection, please refer to the collection's catalogue record for further information (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn369464).
- 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 Kenneth Gifford, National Library of Australia, MS 9217, [series and/or file number]'.
- Location of this collection:
-
Parkes PlaceCanberra ACT 2600, Australia
- Contact: