Ernest Scott

Scott was born in Northampton, England, on 21 June 1867, the son of Hannah Scott, a housekeeper; William Scott, civil engineer, was cited as his father when Ernest married.{{cite book |author=Fitzpatrick, Kathleen | author-link = Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Australian academic) |chapter-url=http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110560b.htm |title=Scott, Sir Ernest (1867–1939), Australian Dictionary of Biography | chapter = Sir Ernest Scott (1867–1939) |volume=11 |publisher=Melbourne University Press |year=1988 |pages=544–546 |access-date= 22 December 2009}} Ernest Scott was educated at St Katherine's Church of England School, Northampton and worked as a journalist on the London Globe. On 7 May 1892 Scott married Mabel Emily Besant, daughter of Rev. Frank and Annie Besant, the theosophist; they had one child, Muriel (1893–1924).

In 1892 Scott (who began to call himself Besant-Scott at his wife's insistence) migrated to Australia, where he joined the staff of The Herald newspaper, edited the Austral Theosophist (established by Isabel Cooper-Oakley{{citation |last1=Harris |first1=Philip Sydney |last2=Oliveira |first2=Linda |chapter=Australia, Theosophy in |title=Theosophical Encyclopedia |editor-last=Harris |editor-first=Philip Sydney |location=Quezon City |publisher=Theosophical Publishing House |year=2006 |chapter-url=https://theosophy.world/encyclopedia/australia-theosophy}}) which appeared from January 1894 to February 1895,{{citation |title=The Austral theosophist: a magazine devoted to the diffusion of knowledge on the esoteric philosophy and kindred subjects |publisher=National Library of New Zealand |access-date=30 April 2025 |url=https://natlib-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/1s57t7d/NLNZ_ALMA21193869170002836}} and lectured. Around 1896 Mabel converted to Roman Catholicism and became estranged from her husband, although they continued nominal cohabitation. Scott subsequently abandoned theosophy. Mabel returned to England in 1909, taking their daughter Muriel, but Scott did not sue for divorce until 1915. On 25 May in Melbourne, Scott married to Bendigo-born Emily Illinden Fortuna, sister of Edward Dyason. They had no children.

From 1895 to 1901 Scott was a member of the Victorian Hansard staff, and from 1901 to 1914 was on the Commonwealth Hansard staff. After the publication of Terre Napoléon: A History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia (London, 1910), Laperouse (Sydney, 1912) and The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders (Sydney, 1914), Scott's reputation as a historian was established.

In 1913 Scott was appointed Professor of History at the University of Melbourne, even though Scott had never attended a university. He had, however, shown ability both in research and as a lecturer, and the experiment proved a great success. Future professors of history who passed through Scott's school included (Sir) Keith Hancock, Fred Alexander, Marnie Bassett, (Sir) Stephen Henry Roberts, Manning Clark, N. D. Harper and A. G. B. Fisher of Christchurch.

Scott's other works included A Short History of Australia (1916), Men and Thought in Modern History (1916), History and Historical Problems (1925), Australian Discovery (1929) and in 1933 appeared volume VII of The Cambridge History of the British Empire, edited and partly written by Scott. Australia During the War, being volume XI of The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, appeared in 1936. Scott retired in 1936, was knighted in June 1939 and died of a coronary thrombosis on 6 December 1939.

Scott was above medium height, bluff and open in manner. He was much interested in music, the drama and poetry, in which he had read widely. He had a sound knowledge of his own subject, and was an industrious and fast worker. He did much to bring Australian history to life. He did not always carry out his urgent advice to his students that they should "verify their references" and consequently errors will be found in some of his books. Generally, however, they are in comparatively unessential things and were caused by trusting to a usually reliable memory. As a rule his work is excellent and was always based on conscientious research. As a teacher he was interesting, vivid and inspiring, exacting hard work from his students and insisting on the value of original documents, while also pointing out that even they cannot be blindly accepted. He had a human interest in his students and no trouble was too great for him if it would help them in their work.{{cite web | url=http://australian_biography.academic.ru/837/SCOTT,_Sir_Ernest_(1867–1939) | title=Scott, Sir Ernest (1867–1939) | publisher=Angus and Robertson | work=Dictionary of Australian Biography| author=Serle, Percival | author-link = Percival Serle | date=1949 | access-date=30 August 2016}}

Scott's widow Emily Scott donated money to the University of Melbourne to establish the Ernest Scott Prize for History, which is awarded annually for the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia or New Zealand.[http://www.unimelb.edu.au/Statutes/r6061.htm Statute R6.61 – Ernest Scott Prize] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060830011530/http://www.unimelb.edu.au/Statutes/r6061.htm |date=30 August 2006 }} at the University of Melbourne[http://arts.unimelb.edu.au/scholarships/prizes-and-scholarships/ernest-scott-prize Ernest Scott Prize page] at the University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts

Lines of historians in Australia can be traced to Scott at the University of Melbourne. Among his undergraduate students were future historians Manning Clark and W. K. Hancock. Unlike Hancock, Clark spent his career in Australia and went on to teach a third generation of historians which included Geoffrey Blainey, Geoffrey Serle, Ken Inglis, and Michael Roe. This generation would "transform the writing of Australian history over the following five decades."Rae Frances and Bruce Scates, Obituary of Ken Inglis, Australian Historical Studies, 2018, Vol. 43, No. 3, 410-412. A fourth generation was taught by Blainey, including Janet McCalman and Stuart Macintyre. Inglis taught Bill Gammage and Hank Nelson. Among Macintyre's former undergraduate students was Frank Bongiorno.

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• [http://www.pictureaustralia.org/apps/pictureaustralia?action=PASearch&mode=search&complete1=true&attribute1=subject&term1=Scott%2C+Ernest%2C+1868-1939+--+Photographs Pictures of Ernest Scott]{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} at Picture Australia
• {{Gutenberg author |id=1406| name=Ernest Scott}}
• {{Gutenberg Australia |id=plusfifty-n-z.html#scott |name=Ernest Scott |author=yes}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Ernest Scott |sopt=t}}

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Category:1867 births

Category:1939 deaths

Category:20th-century Australian historians

Category:Australian biographers

Category:Academics from Melbourne

Category:Historians of Australia

Category:Knights Bachelor

Category:People from Northampton

Category:Academic staff of the University of Melbourne

Category:19th-century British journalists

Category:19th-century Australian journalists

Category:19th-century Australian male writers

Category:Australian male journalists

Category:British emigrants to Australia