West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Wednesday 17 March 1948, page 3


UNIVERSITY POSTS Mr. E. W. Gillett As Chancellor Mr. E. W. Gillett, ProChancellor of the University of Western Australia since 1943, was elected Chancellor in succession to Professor W. Murdoch, who has retired from both the Chancellorship and the Senate, at a meeting of the Senate on Monday night. He is the first graduate of the University to be elected its Chancellor. Mr. Gillett, who is a Perth solicitor, was born at York in 1899. He received his early education at State schools at Pingelly and Claremont, later entering the University of W.A. from Scotch College. He was president of the Guild of Undergraduates in 1921. He graduated in 1921 and obtained first-class honours in English and Latin for a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1922. In 1923

Mr. E. W. GILLETT.

he obtained an LL.B. degree at London University and was admitted to the Bar in Perth in the following year. Elected to the Senate by Convocation in 1931, Mr. Gillett has been a member ever since. He was the first graduate of the University to be elected ProChancellor. During the war he served with the Australian Army Legal Corps. He has been Mayor of Claremont since 1940, having served as a councillor since 1935. NEW PRO-CHANCELILOR Mr. A. J. Reid, the UnderTreasurer, who is also a graduate of the University, and who has served as a Government nominee on the Senate, was elected Pro-Chancellor. Tributes to the work of Professor Murdoch were paid by Mr. Gillett, who was the only person nominated for the Chancellorship. Professor Murdoch, he said, was a member of the original University staff appointed in 1912. He first became a member of the Senate in 1917 and had acted periodically as Vice-Chancellor

Mr. A. J. REID. 1

when that position was filled in an honorary capacity by members of the professorial staff. For the past five years he had been Chancellor. The Senate and many others both within and without the University regretted his decision to retire. "I know that you will join with me in wishing him many years of happy and active retirement, with the hope that his wealth of knowledge will still be available in other ways to the people of Australia in general and to those of Western Australia and this University in particular," Mr. Gillett said. The Senate agreed that the degree of Doctor of Letters be conferred on Professor Murdoch at the forthcoming graduation ceremony for his contribution to Australian literature, and for his services to the University. A committee was also appointed to examine the question of hanging a portrait in oils of the former Chancellor. Mr. E. M. Barker was coopted to the Senate for a further term.