The superb Northern Territory Genealogical Society's reference library in Darwin overflows with great material , stories galore . Built up from many sources over the years ,including donations, deceased estates ,book sales, subscriptions ,it includes ephemera and photographs ,with filing cabinets and credenzas filled with treasures .
It is exciting to explore its contents from the back of a swaying elephant , armed with a notebook and camera .
Upon opening , an inscription is found revealing it had once belonged to Professor Geoffrey Forrester Fairbairn , Reader in Australian History, at the Australian National University, Canberra , who died in London on September 11,1980.
The National Library of Australia contains the Geoffrey Fairbairn Collection ,annotated by his wife, Dr Anne Fairbairn , the granddaughter of Australia's fourth Prime Minister ,George Reid . It includes a South Vietnam flag,some items subjected to damp and mould .
A poet, journalist and Arab culture expert ,In 1998 ,she received the Order of Australia for services to literature and international relations between Australia and the Middle East. She died on October 22,2018, aged 90.
The author of the book, Sir William Hunter , had started off in the Indian Civil Service in 1862, became a magistrate and a prodigious writer on matters relating to India . He presided over the Commission on Indian Education ,was Vice- Chancellor of the University of Calcutta , wrote a regular weekly column about India for The Times and contributed to the Encyclopedia Britannica .
UPCOMING : More gems from the library involving America and Canada, Crimea , Australian Jews .
