Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 276–278. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020276-03

Obituary Ann Veronica Helen Moyal AM, FRSN, FAAH

23 February 1926–21 July 2019

nn’s mother named her after the heroine Guide to the Manuscript Records of Australian Aof H.G. Wells’ scandalous novel of a Science (1966) and embarked on a biogra- rebellious New Woman — and, though both phy of the colonial geologist (and founder of mother and father raised her in the comfort- the Royal Society), W. B. Clarke. A book of able respectability of Sydney’s North Shore, documents on Scientists in Nineteenth-Cen- Ann broke many barriers.1 tury Australia (1975) appeared subsequently. Upon graduating in 1946 with first-class By this time she had accompanied her third honours in history from the University of husband, the mathematician José Enrique Sydney, Ann Hurley worked as a research Moyal, to the Atomic Energy Laboratory in assistant for W. C. Wentworth (then gather- Illinois and, while working as science editor ing information on communists) and John for the University of Chicago Press, she pub- Carrick (research officer for the New South lished an arresting article on the problems of Wales branch of the Liberal Party). A scholar- the Argonne laboratory. ship took her to the in In 1971 Ann took up a lectureship at the 1949, but she soon abandoned postgraduate NSW Institute of Technology (now UTS), research to work for Nicholas Mansergh at from where she produced an equally strin- the Royal Institute of International Affairs gent account of the mismanagement of the and then Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, Australian Atomic Energy Commission. By whom she helped write his recollections of this time her interest in the history of science Men and Power, 1917–1918 (1956) in the extended to science policy and she had a spell British government during the Great War. at the celebrated Science Policy Research Ann would return to academic employ- Unit at Sussex University. Her appointment ment, but never for long. At the ANU from to in 1976 was to direct 1959 to 1962 she laid the foundations of the Social Policy Research Centre at Grif- the Australian Dictionary of Biography, while fith, an arrangement that broke down during the two titular editors, and 1979 in an acrimonious dispute over her Malcolm Ellis, did combat, and then worked impossible teaching burden. Never cowed with on his memoirs, Truant Sur- by authority, Ann was disconcerted by the geon (1963). As a joint research associate of way her academic colleagues bowed to its the Research School of Social Sciences and misuse. For the rest of career she would work the Academy of Science, she produced a as an independent scholar. She did so at first as an associate of 1 Ann Moyal was the inaugural winner of the RSNSW Henry Mayer’s department of politics at History and Philosophy of Science Medal in 2014. the . Mayer, a restless The late poet, Les. A. Murray, dedicated his 1993 poem, “The Tube”, to her. [Ed.] and irreverent polymath, encouraged her

276 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Ann Moyal, 1926–2019 to accept a commission to write a history Woman of Influence: Science, Men and His- of telecommunications in Australia. Clear tory (2014), took up particular aspects of her Across Australia (1984) met with acclaim, and dealings with all three. Her range of friend- deservedly so for it integrated the techno- ships was large, and to the end she kept them logical dimensions with the role of govern- up, curious, encouraging and supportive. ment, the men and women who staffed the Ann Moyal was a Fellow of the Royal Postmaster-General’s Department and the Society of New South Wales (and contrib- profound effects of telecommunications on uted articles to its Journal & Proceedings right Australian life. up to 2019) and the Australian Academy of In the course of this project Ann moved the Humanities, and was awarded honorary with her husband to Canberra, where she doctorates by the ANU and the University became editor of the ANZAAS bimonthly of Sydney. She was appointed a Member journal, Search. It was here also that she of the Order of Australia in 1993 for her produced A Bright & Savage Land: Scien- “contribution to the history of Australian sci- tists in Colonial Australia (1987), two strik- ence and technology, especially the writing ing works of natural history, Platypus (2001) of its history.” That citation understates her and Koala (2006), and an edited edition of achievement, as does the level of her honour. W. B. Clarke’s correspondence, The Web of She was a path-breaker who worked across Science (2001). A visiting scholar in several domains of knowledge, an exceptionally university departments, she was profoundly intelligent woman with unshakeable prin- out of sympathy with the changes made to ciples. universities in the 1990s, from which a — Professor Emeritus Stuart Macintyre, AO, number of her friends resigned, and with FAHA, FASSA the assistance of Warren Horton, then Director-General of the National Library, Select Bibliography she established the Independent Scholars Aitken, Max (Lord Beaverbrook) (1956) Men Association. Ann made the Petherick Room and Power, 1917–1918, Hutchinson, London. of the National Library her base of opera- Moyal, Ann (1971) “Change in Argonne tions and used its manuscript collections National Laboratory: a case study,” Science 174 Issue 4004: 30–38. to write a brief and compelling life of Alan Moyal, Ann M. (1975) “The Australian Moorehead (2005), the journalist, biographer Atomic Energy Commission: a case study in and historian whose life as a writer reaching Australian science and government,” Search, a popular audience exemplified her ideal of Vol 6(9): 365–384. the independent scholar. Moyal, Ann (1976) Scientists in Nineteenth There were other works that appeared Century Australia: A Documentary History, Cassell Australia. in this final phase of Ann’s life, including a Moyal, Ann (1984), Clear Across Australia: biography of her third husband, Maverick A History of Telecommunications, Nelson, Mathematician (2006). Her own volume of Melbourne. memoirs, Breakfast with Beaverbrook (1995) Moyal, Ann (1986). A Bright & Savage Land: carried the subtitle “Memoirs of an Inde- Scientists in Colonial Australia, Collins, Sydney. pendent Woman,” and ranged memorably across her adventures. A later volume, A

277 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Ann Moyal, 1926–2019

Moyal, Ann (1989). Women and the Telephone Moyal, Ann (2017) “P. A. M. Dirac and in Australia: A Study prepared for Telecom the maverick mathematician.” Journal & Australia, Melbourne, Telecom. Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Moyal, Ann (1995) Breakfast with Beaverbrook: Wales 150: 188–194. Memoirs of an Independent Woman, Hale & Moyal, Ann (2017) “Creative foundations. The Iremonger, Melbourne. Royal Society of N.S.W.: 1867 and 2017.” Moyal, Ann (2001) Platypus: The Extraordinary Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Story of How a Curious Creature Baffled the New South Wales150: 232–245. World, Smithsonian Press, Washington DC. Moyal, Ann, with Robert Marks. (2019) Moyal, Ann (2003) The Web of Science: The “The scientists and Darwin’s The Origin of Scientific Correspondence of the Rev W. B. Species in nineteenth century Australia. A Clarke, Australia’s Pioneer Geologist, Australian re-evaluation.” Journal & Proceedings of the Scholarly Publishing. Royal Society of New South Wales 152: 5–26. Moyal, Ann (2005). Alan Moorehead: A Mozley Moyal, Ann (1966) Guide to the Rediscovery, National Library of Australia, Manuscript Records of Australian Science, Canberra. Australian Academy of Science in association Moyal, Ann (2005) “The Rev. W. B. Clarke with Australian National University Press, and his scientific correspondents.” Journal & Canberra. Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Murray, Les. A. (1993), Dog Fox Field: Poems, Wales 138: 31–38. Farrar Straus & Giroux, New York. Moyal, Ann (2006) Maverick Mathematician: Page, Earl (1963) Truant Surgeon: The Inside The Life and Science of J. E. Moyal, A.N.U. Story of Forty Years of Australian Political Press., Canberra Life, edited by Ann Mozley,2 Angus and Moyal, Ann (2008) Koala: A Historical Robertson, Sydney. Biography, Melbourne, CSIRO Publishing. Wells, H. G. (1909) Ann Veronica, A Modern Moyal, Ann (2012) “Friends, savants and Love Story, T. Fisher Unwin, London. founders: W. B. Clarke and J. D. Dana.” Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of 2 E. Mozley was her second husband. New South Wales 145: 54–58. Moyal, Ann (2014) A Woman of Influence: Science, Men and History, U.W.A. Publishing, Perth.

278