Marcel Aurousseau MC '' C. de G.'' (19 April 1891 in

Woollahra Woollahra ( ) is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woollahra is located east of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local go ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

– 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" a ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

, 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 descent, attended Sydney Boys High School alongside three students who were also later prominent in various fields: Arthur Wheen (an 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, originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney, William Street, Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, New South Wales. It is the oldest natural ...

in Sydney. While completing the

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

course at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, Aurousseau won the ''University Medal in

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

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

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

(UWA), in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Army service

Following the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, 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 France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

at the battles of Fleurbaix (Fromelles), the Pozières and the

Mouquet Farm The Fighting for Mouquet Farm, also known as the Battle of Mouquet Farm was part of the Battle of the Somme 1916 and began during the Battle of Pozières (23 July – 3 September 1916). The fighting began on 23 July with attacks by the British ...

(14–15 August 1916), which resulted in his being wounded severely. He was subsequently awarded the

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

. Promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

, Aurousseau also served at the Battle of Messines, the Third Battle of Ypres (Polygon Wood), the First Battle of Dernancourt (part of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux), and was wounded again at Hourges, during the Battle of Amiens, in August 1918. For his war service, Aurousseau was also awarded the French '' Croix de Guerre'' (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, in

Washington DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. 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 United States, Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows f ...

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

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to pursue a literary career. Between 1936 and 1955 he worked as executive secretary of the British Government Permanent Committee on Geographical Names. During World War II, Aurousseau contributed to military geographical dictionaries used by Allied forces. In 1956 he declined the award of an MBE. In his most influential work, ''The Rendering of Geographical Names'' (1957), Aurousseau coined the term

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

: a

place name Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper nam ...

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 China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

" for '' Zhōngguó''; the Spanish word ''estadounidenses'' ( lit. "unitedstatesians") for "

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...

", 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". He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australi ...

in 1972.

Authored works

Aurousseau's published works include: ;

Travel book Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel ca ...

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 20th-century Australian historians 20th-century geographers 20th-century Australian translators Academic staff of the University of Western Australia Australian Army officers Australian geographers Australian military personnel of World War I Australian people of French descent Australian people of Irish descent People educated at Sydney Boys High School People from the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) Australian recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) Victoria Medal recipients Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities