Geoff Serle was an eminent Australian historian and biographer.
Early years
Serle was born to Percival Serle, scholar and bibliographer and Dora Serle, artist, on 10 March 1922 at Hawthorn. He excelled at school at Scotch College and then read history at the University of Melbourne.
He left university in 1942 to join the A.I.F., serving in New Guinea. He was wounded in battle at Finschhafen and returned to Melbourne in 1944.
After the war, he resumed study at the University of Melbourne. He won a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford, and then returned to Melbourne to teach.
He married Jessie Macdonald in 1955 who became an art historian herself. Together they had one daughter and 3 sons.
Career and contributions
He took a position in the history department at Monash University in 1961 and worked there until retirement.
Serle was a prolific writer and produced seminal works on Victoria such as The Golden Age and The Rush to be Rich. Generations of students of Australian history have studied his works. He also wrote histories of art, literature, music, theatre and architecture.
His biographies are well regarded and include those of Robin Boyd, John Monash, Sir John Medley and an evocative memoir of his father, Percival Serle.
He was active in many organisations including the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, the Royal Australian Historical Society and the Australian Academies of the Humanities and of the Social Sciences.
He contributed to the National Trust of Australia, Victoria where he was a member of the Buildings Classification Committee for many years.
Death
He died in Epworth Hospital on 27 April 1998.
His eulogist, Dr Davis McCaughey, remarked that "through his understanding of our past he helped us understand ourselves".
Bibliography
Adapted from material supplied by historian Dr Jan Penney, GMCT Trust member 2010-2020.
Ritchie J (2000) Serle, Alan Geoffrey (Geoff) (1922-1998), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University [website]
Image source
Image from Australian National University.
