Marcel Aurousseau

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

( Syd.) MC '' C. de G.'' (19 April 1891 in

Woollahra Woollahra is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woollahra is located 5 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra. ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountains ...

– 22 August 1983 in Sydney) was an Australian

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alth ...

, war hero, historian and translator.''Oxford Companion to Australian Literature'', 2004, "Aurousseau, Marcel"
(4 September 2015).
(4 September 2015). Aurousseau, who was of French and

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

descent, attended

Sydney Boys High School , motto_translation = With Truth and Courage , established = , location = Cleveland Street, Moore Park, Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pu ...

alongside three students who were also later prominent in various fields: Arthur Wheen (a historian and translator), Raymond Kershaw (an economist) and Arthur McLaughlin (a medical practitioner). He began his scientific career as an "office boy" at the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. It is the oldest museum in Australia,Design 5, 2016, p.1 and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the ...

in Sydney. While completing the Bachelor of Science course at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's six ...

, Aurousseau won the ''University Medal in

Geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

''. In 1913, he was appointed to the position of assistant lecturer at the newly formed geology department 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 facilities ...

(UWA), 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 is ...

Army service

Following the outbreak of World War I, Aurousseau obtained leave from UWA, to join the Australian Imperial Force. He was assigned initially to the 28th Battalion (1915), before joining the 51st Battalion on the Western Front.University of Sydney, 2015, ''Marcel Aurousseau: Book of Remembrance Entry''
(4 September 2015). Aurousseau first saw action in France at the battles of Fleurbaix (Fromelles), the Pozières and the Mouquet Farm (14–15 August 1916), which resulted in him being severely wounded. He was subsequently awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

. Promoted to

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, Aurousseau also served at the Battle of Messines, the

Third Battle of Ypres The Third Battle of Ypres (german: link=no, Dritte Flandernschlacht; french: link=no, Troisième Bataille des Flandres; nl, Derde Slag om Ieper), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by t ...

(Polygon Wood), the

First Battle of Dernancourt The First Battle of Dernancourt was fought on 28 March 1918 near Dernancourt in northern France during World War I. It involved a force of the German 2nd Army attacking elements of the VII Corps, which included British and Australian troops, a ...

(part of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux), and was wounded again at

Hourges Hourges () is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. See also *Communes of the Marne department The following is a list of the 613 communes in the French department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, divisi ...

, during the Battle of Amiens, in August 1918. As a result of his war service, Aurousseau was also awarded the French ''

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first aw ...

'' (1919).

Scientific and literary career

Returning to Perth after the war, Aurousseau again taught geology at UWA. He subsequently moved to the United States, to work at the Geophysical Laboratory of the

Carnegie Institution The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...

, in

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

. During 1923–24, Aurousseau worked for the

American Geographical Society The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...

in New York. After returning briefly to Australia, Aurousseau moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

to pursue a literary career. Between 1936 and 1955 he worked as executive secretary of the British Government

Permanent Committee on Geographical Names The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) is an independent inter-departmental body in the United Kingdom established in 1919. Its function is to establish standard names for places outside the UK, for the use of the British governme ...

. During World War II, Aurousseau contributed to military geographical dictionaries used by Allied forces. In 1956 he declined the award of an

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language of t ...

. In his most influential work, ''The Rendering of Geographical Names'' (1957), Aurousseau coined the term

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, o ...

:Marcel Aurousseau, 1957, ''The Rendering of Geographical Names'', London, Hutchinson, pp. 2–3, and; Kelsey B. Harder, 1996, "The term", in: Ernst Eichler & Walter de Gruyter (eds), ''Namenforschung/Name Studies/Les noms propres. 2. Halbband+Registerband'', Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, p. 1012. a

place name Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road name ** Often ...

that is the common name only in countries or regions outside the place in question, usually for historical reasons. Usage of "exonym" has grown to include non-geographical proper names for things such as languages, cultures or populations. Some significant examples of exonyms therefore include: the English language " China" for '' Zhōngguó''; the Spanish word '' estadounidenses'' ( lit. "unitedstatesians") for "

Americans Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ameri ...

", and; the English " German" for '' Deutsch''. In 1969, the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

presented Aurousseau with the Victoria Medal, an annual award "for conspicuous merit in research in geography".

Authored works

Aurousseau's published works include: ;

Travel book The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period ...

s: * ''Highway Into Spain'', London, Peter Davies (1930), 1st ed., 686 pages. * ''Highway Into Spain'', London, Peter Davies (1931), 2nd ed., 294 pages. * ''Beyond the Pyrenees'', London, Peter Davies (1931), orig. publ. 1930 as part of ''Highway Into Spain''. ; Geography/history * ''The Rendering of Geographical Names'', London, Hutchinson (1957). * ''The Letters of F. W. Ludwig Leichhardt'' (transl. & ed.), London, Hakluyt Society/Cambridge University Press (1968). ;Sound recording
''Marcel Aurousseau interviewed by Hazel de Berg for the Hazel de Berg collection
' (1977), c. 36 minutes; held by the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aurousseau, Marcel 1891 births 1983 deaths Australian geographers University of Western Australia faculty People from the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) People from Sydney Australian Army officers Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) Australian translators Australian military personnel of World War I People educated at Sydney Boys High School 20th-century translators Australian people of Irish descent Australian people of French descent 20th-century Australian historians Victoria Medal recipients 20th-century geographers