{{Short description|Australian historian}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}} {{Use Australian English|date=November 2016}} {{Infobox scholar | honorific_suffix = [[Officer of the Order of Australia|AO]] | name = Geoffrey Serle | image =Geoffrey Serle.png | imagesize = | alt = | caption =Serle in 1946 | birth_date = {{birth date|1922|03|10|df=yes}} | birth_place = [[Hawthorn, Victoria]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1998|04|27|1922|03|10|df=yes}} | death_place = [[Richmond, Victoria]] | relatives = [[Percival Serle]] (father)<br />[[Dora Serle]] (mother} | era = | region = | workplaces = [[Monash University]]<br />[[University of Melbourne]] | alma_mater = [[University of Melbourne]] (BA [Hons])<br />[[University of Oxford]] (DPhil) | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | school_tradition = | main_interests = Australian history<br />Biography<br />Colonial Victoria | principal_ideas = | major_works = ''The Golden Age'' (1963)<br />''The Rush to be Rich'' (1971)<br />''John Monash'' (1982) | awards = [[Rhodes Scholarship]] (1947)<br />[[Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities]] (1970)<br />[[Colin Roderick Award]] (1971, 1982)<br />[[Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia]] (1973)<br />[[The Age Book of the Year#Non-fiction Award|''The Age'' Non-fiction Award]] (1982)<br />[[Officer of the Order of Australia]] (1986) | influences = [[Percival Serle]]<br />[[Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Australian academic)|Kathleen Fitzpatrick]]<br />[[Max Crawford]]<br />[[Manning Clark]] | influenced = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Alan Geoffrey Serle''' {{postnominals|country=AUS|size=100%|sep=,|AO|FAHA|FASSA}} (10 March 1922 – 27 April 1998), known as Geoff, was an Australian historian, who is best known for his books on the colony of Victoria; ''The Golden Age'' (1963) and ''The Rush to be Rich'' (1971) and his biographies of [[John Monash]], [[John Curtin]] and [[Robin Boyd (architect)|Robin Boyd]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://john.curtin.edu.au/events/speeches/serlebio.html|title = Biography of Elsie Curtin | JCPML [live]|date = 15 January 2020}}</ref><ref name=":0">[[Wallace Kirsop]] (1998), [http://latrobejournal.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-61/t1-g-t8.html "Library Profile: Geoffrey Serle"], ''The La Trobe Journal'', No 61, Autumn 1998, State Library of Victoria Foundation.</ref>
==Early life== Serle was born on 10 March 1922, in the [[Melbourne]] suburb of [[Hawthorn, Victoria|Hawthorn]], the son of [[Percival Serle]] and [[Dora Serle|Dora]], née Hake. He attended [[Scotch College, Melbourne|Scotch College]] and briefly read history at the [[University of Melbourne]] where he was a resident at [[Ormond College]] before joining the [[Second Australian Imperial Force]] in 1941. He was seriously wounded in action at [[Finschhafen]], [[New Guinea]]. He was discharged in 1944, and resumed study at the University of Melbourne, also being active in the University Labour Club. In 1946, he completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree and won a [[Rhodes Scholarship]]. This enabled him to enter [[University College, Oxford]], where he graduated with a doctorate in 1950.<ref name="adb.anu.edu.au">{{Cite web |url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/node/54 |title=Geoff Serle - obituary | Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=18 April 2010 |archive-date=16 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616141319/http://adb.anu.edu.au/node/54 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Academic career== From 1950 Serle taught Australian History at the [[University of Melbourne]], and after 1961 was Reader in History at the newly established [[Monash University]]. His first book appeared in 1957; ''The Melbourne Scene'' was a selection of documents relating to Victoria and was edited with James Grant.<ref>Geoffrey Serle and James Grant (1957) ''The Melbourne Scene 1803–1956.'' Melbourne University Press</ref>
Serle was active in the establishment of the Victorian branch of the [[Australian Fabian Society]] and in establishing the [[Friends of the La Trobe Library]] in 1966.<ref name=":0" /> He was also closely associated with ''[[Meanjin]]'' and ''[[Overland (literary journal)|Overland]]'' magazines. Serle also edited Volumes 7–11 of the ''[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]]'' (Volumes 7–10 with Bede Nairn).<ref name="adb.anu.edu.au"/>
John Ritchie's entry in the ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' makes pointed reference to Serle's passion for Australia. When Ritchie sent him a letter from London in 1972 "extolling the virtues of England, [Serle] sent a postcard in reply: on one side it had a painting by [[Tom Roberts]], on the other he wrote, ''aut Australia, aut nihil''."<ref>Meaning roughly "Either Australia or nothing." Recounted in http://adb.anu.edu.au/node/54 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616141319/http://adb.anu.edu.au/node/54 |date=16 June 2009 }}</ref>
Serle was appointed an [[Officer of the Order of Australia]] in 1986.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/872561|title=Dr Alan Geoffrey Serle|website=honours.pmc.gov.au|access-date=2019-12-19}}</ref>
==Personal life==
On 12 January 1955 Serle married Jessie Macdonald, an art historian, with whom he had four children: Oenone, Donald, Jamie and Richard.
Serle's background was "middle-class, Protestant and Melburnian". Serle was known in his youth for his sporting prowess and in his middle age for being an "enthusiastic spectator". In John Ritchie's obituary, Serle is described as "incisive and insightful, pragmatic and down-to-earth, left-leaning in his political sympathies without being dogmatic, he was gentle in nature, thoughtful in temperament, egalitarian in outlook, exceptionally hard-working, and a loyal friend. He enjoyed a can of beer, a glass of wine, a cigarette and his pipe. In private life, he succeeded in the three things that matter most, as a son, a husband and a father."<ref>{{cite web |title=Alan Geoffrey (Geoff) Serle (1922–1998) |first=John |last=Ritchie |year=2000 |website=Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |url=https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/serle-alan-geoffrey-geoff-13512 |access-date=2023-05-20 }}</ref>
==Published works== * {{cite book |title=The Melbourne Scene 1803–1956|last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |author2=James Grant |author2-link=James Grant (Australian bishop) |year=1957 |publisher=Melbourne University Press|location=Melbourne |author-mask=1}} * {{cite book |title=The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victoria 1851–1861|last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |year=1963 |publisher=Melbourne University Press|location=Melbourne |author-mask=1}} * {{cite book |title=The Rush to be Rich|last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |year=1971 |publisher=Melbourne University Press|location=Melbourne |isbn=9780522840094 |author-mask=1}} * {{cite book |title=A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament|last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |author2=Kathleen Thomson |year=1972 |publisher=Australian National University Press|location=Canberra |isbn=9780708107393 |author-mask=1}} * {{cite book |title=From Deserts the Prophets Come: The Creative Spirit in Australia 1788–1972 |last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |year=1973 |publisher=Heinemann |location=Melbourne |isbn=9780855610296 |url=https://archive.org/details/fromdesertsproph0000serl |author-mask=1 |url-access=registration }} * {{cite book |title=John Monash: A Biography|last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |year=1982 |publisher=Melbourne University Press|location=Melbourne |isbn=9780522842395|author-mask=1}} * {{cite book |title=The Creative Spirit in Australia: A Cultural History |last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |year=1987 |publisher=Heinemann |location=Melbourne |isbn=9780855611040 |url=https://archive.org/details/creativespiritin00serl |author-mask=1 |url-access=registration }} * {{cite book |title=Percival Serle 1871–1951, Biographer, Bibliographer, Anthologist and Art Curator: A Memoir|last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |year=1988 |publisher=Officina Brindabella|location=Canberra |isbn=9780909422165|author-mask=1}} * {{cite book |title=Sir John Medley: A Memoir|last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |year=1993 |publisher=Melbourne University Press|location=Melbourne |isbn=9780522845402|author-mask=1}} * {{cite book |title=Robin Boyd: A Life|last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |year=1995 |publisher=Melbourne University Press|location=Melbourne |isbn=9780522846690|author-mask=1}} * {{cite book |title=For Australia and Labor: Prime Minister John Curtin|last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |year=1998 |publisher=John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library|location=Perth |isbn=9781863426558|author-mask=1}} * {{cite book |title=Colin Gilray|last=Serle |first=Geoffrey |year=1999 |publisher=History Department, University of Melbourne|location=Melbourne |author-mask=1}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Serle, Geoffrey}} [[Category:1922 births]] [[Category:1998 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of University College, Oxford]] [[Category:Australian Army soldiers]] [[Category:Australian male biographers]] [[Category:Australian Army personnel of World War II]] [[Category:Australian Rhodes Scholars]] [[Category:Academics from Melbourne]] [[Category:Australian historians]] [[Category:Historians of Australia]] [[Category:Officers of the Order of Australia]] [[Category:People educated at Scotch College, Melbourne]] [[Category:University of Melbourne alumni]] [[Category:Academic staff of the University of Melbourne]] [[Category:20th-century Australian biographers]] [[Category:20th-century Australian male writers]] [[Category:People from Hawthorn, Victoria]] [[Category:Military personnel from Melbourne]] [[Category:Writers from Melbourne]]