Historian Honoured

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32253, 23 March 1970, Page 1

Historian Honoured

A world authority on Captain Cook, Dr John Cawte Beaglehole, has been appointed by the Queen to the Order of Merit. Dr Beaglehole, one of New Zealand's most distinguished historians, was invested with the insignia of the order by the Queen at Government House in Wellington on Saturday. Dr Beaglehole is the first New Zealander appointed to the order since Lord Rutherford. The order, which is limited to 24 members, is designed as a special distinction for eminent men and women —without conferring a knighthood upon them.

Among members of the order are Earl Mountbatten, the composers, Sir William Walton and Benjamin Britten, the novelist, E. M. Forster, the painter, Graham Sutherland, the sculptor, Henry Moore, and the architect, Sir Basil Spence. Two Australian members are Sir Owen Dixon, a former Chief Justice, and Sir Macfarlane Burnet, who is noted for his virus research.

There are two women members of the order. They are Professor Dorothy Hodgkin, winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1964, and Dame Veronica Wedgwood, a distinguished historian.

Dr Beaglehole, who is 68, was professor of British Commonwealth history at Victoria University of Wellington from 1963 to 1966. He is internationally known as editor of the journals of Captain Cook and the Endeavour journal of Sir Joseph Banks. His other historical works include “Captain Hobson and the New Zealand Company,” “Exploration of the Pacific,” and “The Discovery of New Zealand." Born in Wellington, Dr Beaglehole was educated at Wellington College, Victoria University College, and the University of London. He gained his Ph.D. in 1929, and was then a tutor-organiser for the Otago and Waikato W.E.A. and a lecturer in history at Auckland University. From 1933 to 1935 he was unemployed or doing odd jobs. In 1936 Dr Beaglehole began his long association with Victoria University of Wellington. He became a senior lecturer in history, and then was a senior research fellow and lecturer in colonial history until appointed to the chair of British Commonwealth history. Dr Beaglehole has been honoured by several universities and learned societies for his work as an historian. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature by Oxford University, and has received the Royal Geographical Society’s Gill Memorial Award, the Condliffe Memorial Award from the University of Canterbury, and the Ernest Scott Memorial Prize from the University of Melbourne. In 1967 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Since 1938 Dr Beaglehole has served terms as historical adviser to the Department of Internal Affairs, chairman of the board of management of the New Zealand University Press, and president of the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties, and the New Zealand Institute for International Affairs. He is a member of the National Historic Places Trust, and a former member of the State Literary Fund advisory committee.