Alexandra Hasluck

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Sir Paul and Lady Hasluck (on right) with Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, 1960

Dame Alexandra Margaret Martin Hasluck, Lady Hasluck, AD (née Darker, 26 August 1908 – 18 June 1993), was an author and social historian from Western Australia. She was the wife of Sir Paul Hasluck, Governor-General of Australia.

Biography[]

She was born in Perth, Western Australia, attended Presbyterian Ladies' College from 1916 to 1918, followed by Perth College, and was a graduate of the University of Western Australia.

In 1932 she married Paul Hasluck, 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, Gough Whitlam, 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.[1] 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 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 for "pre-eminent achievement in the fields of literature and history and for extraordinary and meritorious public service to Australia".[2]

Dame Alexandra Hasluck's published works included talks to the as well as 11 books[3] and numerous articles. One of her achievements was the editing of Audrey Tennyson's Vice-Regal Days, written by Lady (Audrey) Tennyson, wife of Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, who was Governor-General from 1903 to 1904.

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

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).

See also[]

  • Spouse of the Governor-General of Australia

References[]

  1. ^ 'How one strong woman changed the course of Australian history, The Age, 2 January 2010
  2. ^ "Australian Government Gazette – Special" (PDF). Government House of The Commonwealth of Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  3. ^ "Author Hasluck dies, 84". The Canberra Times. 19 June 1993. p. 3. Retrieved 9 January 2014 – via National Library of Australia.

Further reading[]

  • "[Obituaries for Sir Paul Hasluck and Dame Alexandra Hasluck]", Early Days, 10 (5): 439–441, 1993, ISSN 0312-6145
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