Andrew Arthur Abbie, also known as A. A. Abbie (8 February 1905 – 22 July 1976) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist.

Biography

Born in Gillingham,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, Abbie was educated at a mathematical school in

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

where he obtained a scholarship which enabled him to graduate from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

in 1922. Soon after the family immigrated in Australia, where he enrolled in medicine at Sydney University, obtaining a master's degree in 1929. He became medical officer at the

Royal Prince Alfred Hospital The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (abbreviated RPAH or RPA) is a major public teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia, located on Missenden Road in Camperdown. It is a teaching hospital of the Central Clinical School of the Sydney Medical School a ...

a year later, and then won a scholarship that permitted him to return to England and pursue a doctorate in anatomy at

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

(1934). On returning to Sydney later that year he married the gynaecologist Freida Ruth Heighway. He was called up for military service in 1941, given the rank of major and, after training in the Chemical Warfare Physiology school at Melbourne University, instructed army personnel how to treat casualties affected by chemical warfare, such as gases. He left the army in 1944, to take up the Elder chair of anatomy and histology at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

in December, and quickly rose to be dean of the faculty. Abbie had always been interested in ethnography, an interest reflected professionally in his being twice (1948 and 1959) appointed president of the

Anthropological Society of South Australia The Anthropological Society of South Australia was established in 1926 with the aim to promote the study of anthropology, archaeology and other related disciplines. Early members of the society included Norman Tindale, Charles Mountford, Frederic ...

, and in leading expeditions from 1951 to 1969 across South Australian and the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

make anthropometricala and social studies of the indigenous peoples. The data he collected was eventually written up in his book, ''The Original Australians'' (1969). Abbie insisted on the essential homogeneity of Australian aborigines, and opposed the Barrinean hypothesis that had originally been advanced by Joseph Birdsell, and supported by the Australian ethnographer

Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. Life Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ther ...

. Abbie published over 120 scientific papers. He retired in 1970, and died six years later at Unley Park.

Personal

Abbie married gynaecologist Freida Ruth Heighway (2 June 1907 – 30 December 1963) in 1934. On 14 February 1967 he married again, to Audrey Katherine Allen Simpson (30 January 1917 – 27 February 2014). Simpson, a physiotherapist, was a daughter of industrialist

Alfred Allen Simpson Alfred Allen Simpson (15 April 1875 – 27 November 1939) was an industrialist in South Australia and a partner in the firm A. Simpson & Son, founded by his grandfather Alfred Simpson. He was the mayor of Adelaide from 1913 to 1915. History ...

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abbie, Andrew Arthur 1905 births 1976 deaths Australian anthropologists British emigrants to Australia 20th-century British anthropologists