Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 20 June 1929, page 4


THE MAN OF THE WEEK

(1) Dr. J. S. Battye.

Researches into the history of Western Australia have been al-most the life-long hobby of James Sykes Battye, Litt. D., B.A., LLB., general secretary of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia since 1912, mem-ber of the University Senate, and vice-chairman of the Cen-tenary Celebrations Executive Committee. He first devoted his at-

tention to the history

of the State when, with Mr. Malcolm Fraser (the late Regis-trar-Gen- and Mr. W. Sieben-haar (De-puty Re-

gistrar-General), he checked the historical notes contained in the year book of Western Australia, 1902. On completing that work, which involved collection of ma-terial from the Public Records Office (London), the Admiral-ty's journals of early sea cap-tains and the records of the Colonial Office (London), he maintained his interest in West Australian history and after 20 years' research wrote a thesis for his doctorate which was ac-cepted by the Melbourne Uni-versity. Some years ago the Government appointed a State Archives Committee, of which he was chairman, to consider the preservation of important his-torical records, but lack of funds retarded the work. Recently the committee was re-organised and hopes eventually to publish pub-lic and private historical docu-ments relating to the establish-ment and early history of West-ern Australia. Much of the suc-cess of the Centenary celebra-tions to date may be attributed to Dr. Battye's untiring efforts.