Dame Alexandra Margaret Martin Hasluck, Lady Hasluck, (née Darker; 26 August 1908 – 18 June 1993), also known as Alix Hasluck, was an author and

social historian Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

from

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. She was the

wife A wife (plural, : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally Dissolution (law), dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, ...

of Sir

Paul Hasluck Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck, (1 April 1905 – 9 January 1993) was an Australian statesman who served as the 17th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1969 to 1974. Prior to that, he was a Liberal Party politician, holding min ...

, Governor-General of Australia.

Biography

Born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Western Australia, the only child of John William Darker and Evelyn Margaret ( Hill) Darker, she attended Presbyterian Ladies' College from 1916 to 1918, followed by Perth College, and was a graduate of the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilitie ...

. In 1932, she married

, who (as Sir Paul) was Governor-General of Australia 1969–1974. In 1974 he was offered an extension of his term by the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the ...

, and he was willing to serve an extra two years, but Lady Hasluck (as she then was) refused to remain at Yarralumla longer than the originally agreed five years. Whitlam then appointed Sir John Kerr. Historians of the period are certain that if Hasluck had still been Governor-General in 1975, as he would have been had his wife not intervened, the

constitutional crisis In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variations to this ...

of that year would have ended differently. Hasluck himself implied this in his book, ''The Office of Governor-General'' and also in the Queale Lecture. In the 1978 Queen's Birthday Honours, Lady Hasluck was appointed the first Dame of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gov ...

for "pre-eminent achievement in the fields of literature and history and for extraordinary and meritorious public service to Australia". Dame Alexandra Hasluck's published works included talks to the Royal West Australian Historical Society as well as 11 books and numerous articles. Another achievement was the editing of ''Audrey Tennyson's Vice-Regal Days'', written by Lady Audrey Tennyson, wife of

Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, (11 August 1852 – 2 December 1928) was a British aristocrat who served as the second governor-general of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1904. He was previously Governor of South Australia from 1899 to 1 ...

, who was Governor-General from 1903 to 1904.

Death

She died in 1993. Dame Alexandra and Sir Paul Hasluck are joint eponyms of the Western Australian Federal

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

Division of Hasluck The Division of Hasluck is an electoral division of the Australian House of Representatives, located in Western Australia. History The division was proclaimed at a redistribution of Western Australia's electoral divisions on 20 November 2000, ...

Publications

* ''Georgiana Molloy: Portrait with Background'' (1955) * '' Unwilling Emigrants'' (1959) * ''Thomas Peel of Swan River'' (1965) * ''Audrey Tennyson's Vice-Regal Days'' (1978) * ''Portrait in a Mirror'' (1981).

References

External links

Alexandra Hasluck interviewed by Hazel de Berg
– audio recording {{DEFAULTSORT:Hasluck, Alexandra 1908 births 1993 deaths Historians from Western Australia Dames of the Order of Australia Writers from Perth, Western Australia Spouses of Australian Governors-General Australian people of English descent University of Western Australia alumni Australian women historians 20th-century Australian historians 20th-century Australian women writers Australian monarchists Wives of knights

Biography

Death

Publications

See also

References

Further reading

External links