Geoffrey Remington (1897-1968): a most unusual citizen [thesis]

Carmel Jane Maguire
2012
Developments over the past fifty years in the craft of life writing have opened new possibilities and new challenges for biographers. Historical sources have become much more accessible through digitization of files, especially when they are made available through online indexes if not full texts. There have been shifts in understandings of what constitutes biography. No longer can any topic in a subject s life can be kept off limits. At the same time, there is a healthy and widespread
more » ... on, largely derived from postmodern ideas, that no biography can be definitive. Not only is it impossible to gather all the facts of anyone s life, however voluminous the sources, the truth contained in them remains open to interpretation. So with Geoffrey Remington. Born into a privileged family, Geoffrey Remington s youth was marked by tragedy in the suicide of his father in 1908; for the effect on him there is no direct evidence. He was educated largely in private schools and qualified as a solicitor in 1923. Comfortably wealthy all his life, he volunteered a large part of his time and effort to the service of others. The reason for this compulsion to service, he claimed he could never identify. The evidence of its existence is to be found in his deeds. His most sustained and energetic campaign was the Free Library Movement which resulted in the Library Act 1939 to enable establishment of free public libraries in New South Wales, supported by local and state government funds.. He served as a Trustee of the Public Library of New South Wales from the 1930s and on the Library Board of New South Wales from its inception. His interest in public administration stemmed from his belief in democracy and especially in the need for better government. In World War II he served as a Commonwealth public servant in the Department of War Organization of Industry and then in a United Nations agency. Anxious to influence better standards in the management of Australian business and industry as in the public service, he pursued a campaign [...]
doi:10.26190/unsworks/15775 fatcat:f7yi4nzuyvh37hozfnlpdlh244