John Andrew La Nauze (9 June 1911 – 20 August 1990) was an Australian historian 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 t ...

. He was born in the Goldfields town of

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

. Shortly after his fourth birthday, his Mauritian-born father Captain Charles La Nauze was killed by Turkish artillery fire at Silt Spur (southern ANZAC sector)

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles s ...

. His mother moved the family to

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 is ...

where he attended South Perth Primary School and

Perth Modern School , motto_translation = Knowledge is Power , location = Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia , country = Australia , coordinates = , mapframe-stroke-colour = #C60C30 , mapframe-marker-co ...

. He completed degrees in Arts at 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 ...

and (as

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

for 1931) at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...

before joining the Economics Departments at

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

(from 1935) and Sydney (1940-49). In 1950 La Nauze became Foundation Professor of Economic History in the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...

, moving to the newly created Ernest Scott Chair in the Department of History in 1956. In 1966 he succeeded Sir Keith Hancock as Professor of History in the Institute of Advanced Studies at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

. On his retirement in 1977 he became the first Professor of Australian Studies at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1978. In the Melbourne History Department he introduced courses in Later British History – which he believed essential to an understanding of Australian History — and fostered research in both fields.

Publications

*''Political Economy in Australia'' (1949), *''Alfred Deakin'' (1962) *''The Hopetoun Blunder'' (1957) *''Federated Australia. Selections From Letters to the Morning Post 1900-1910. Deakin, Alfred. 1968 (Edited with introduction by)'' *''The Making of the Australian Constitution'' (1972) *''Walter Murdoch'' (1977)

References

Notable Historians
University of Melbourne
La Nauze, John (1911–1990)
Obituaries Australia *

Edward Duyker Edward Duyker (born 21 March 1955) is an Australian historian, biographer and author born in Melbourne. Edward Duyker's books include several ethno-histories – ''Tribal Guerrillas'' (1987), ''The Dutch in Australia'' (1987) and ''Of the Star ...

& Pauline McGregor Currien, 'La Nauze, Charles Andrew (1882-1915)’, ''Dictionnaire de Biographie Mauricienne'', no. 58, décembre 2006, pp. 2032–5.
Australian Dictionary of Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:La Nauze, John 1911 births 1990 deaths Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Australian Rhodes Scholars Harvard University faculty People educated at Perth Modern School University of Adelaide faculty University of Western Australia alumni Australian people of Mauritian descent People from Boulder, Western Australia