Our Founding Patron
The Late Professor Leslie Ronald Marchant, AM (1924 – 2003)
Chevalier, Ordre National du Mérite, Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society,
Foreign Member Académie des Sciences d'Outre-mer.
West Australian-born Professor Leslie Ronald Marchant was one of the most extensively and deeply informed and productive research historians. After active service on tankers in World War II, where he learned the arts of navigation and seamanship, he was educated as an historian and researcher at the University of Western Australia; Canberra University College; the National Library School for Librarians and Archivists, and the London School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.
In France, he located and listed the records of the French explorers of Australia and New Zealand, including those in provincial repositories such as Le Havre. In 1958, he was appointed by the New Zealand government to list and copy the French records and art works of exploration relating to that nation. On returning to Australia, the late Professor Marchant conducted a series of expeditions to exactly locate the anchorage and scientific survey sites of French explorers. Following his expeditions, he wrote his seminal book France Australe and a series of other publications, including the latest French Napoleonic Placenames of the South West Coast, about Australian explorations based on original records, data from his expeditions and his knowledge of navigation. The late Professor Marchant's contributions in this field were recognised by a French knighthood, Chevalier, Ordre National du Mérite, and his election as Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1995, he was awarded the Mapping Sciences Institute Medal for the best article in the journal, Cartography, he was made a Foreign member of the prestigious, Paris-based Académie des Sciences d'Outre-mer and on Australia Day 2005 was appointed a Member (AM) in the General Order of Australia.
The late Professor Marchant's main field of academic teaching related to China. In 1960, he was appointed to the University of Western Australia to develop that field, which preceded his appointment as the Foundation Director of the UWA East Asian Studies Centre in 1975. He also served as Chief Examiner for the Chinese language, making new contributions in three separate fields of study. Using French, British, German and Chinese sources, he showed the significance of the provincial administrations in trade and diplomacy in Confucian China in the late Ch'ing Period, 1875-1911. This field of endeavour is, in many ways, linked to the study of French explorations, for both Britain and France looked to Australia as a base for trade with East Asia. The late Professor Marchant also pioneered the use of Protestant Christian missionary sources for the study of modern China, proving these records not only give insight into daily life in China from 1795, but also that nation's modern transformation and development.
The importance of Professor Marchant's work, his pioneering book, Records of Protestant Christian Missions from the British Isles to China, and other works have since been used as the model for the American Princeton Project on missionary sources for China, for which he was made European adviser. He was invited as Visiting Professor to the Chinese Academia Sinicain 1971-1972 and has also been awarded a Ford Foundation Grant to visit the United States of America. The late Professor Marchant's work in Chinese studies was further recognised by his naming as a Visiting Scholar in Germany with the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst in 1979-1980, and again in 1986-1987. He was also, awarded a Leverhulme European Fellowship in 1979-1980.
The late Professor Marchant taught and wrote extensively on Maoism and Marxist-Leninism in China, producing a number of monographs and articles on these topics, including To Phoenix Seat, a study of Maosim, and The Turbulent Giant. His unique collection of works in this field, known as the The Marchant East Asian Collection, was, in part, on loan to the State Library of Western Australia for the purpose of scholarly research.
The late Professor Marchant's work about transformation of the Confucian monarchy made it necessary for him to study the Westminster system of government, which some in China viewed as a model. This topic was one of his core subjects of study at the University of Western Australia, for which he wrote a book entitled The Westminster Tradition and Australia. Correlative with this, and arising from his life-long association with archives and archival study, he has written extensively about the need to preserve public records in a book entitled Westminster or Whitehall; Modern problems and issues in Records management and Preservation in changing British Constitutional Monarchies, which has been recommended as a guide.
The late Professor Marchant's first contribution to Australian history was in the field of Aboriginal studies. His book on Native Administration in Western Australia from 1886-1905 is based on archival researches and his practical experience as a field officer and Native Protector in the former Department of Native Affairs in Western Australia. This field of study is also proving to be closely related to the field of French exploration of Australia, for much of the language and culture of the various native peoples has been lost. Records of French scientific explorers, including early anthropologists and artists are assisting in this regard. In keeping with this development, the late Professor Marchant was recently made Scholar/Adviser to the Noongar Group to assist in the retrieval of their language and culture.
Sadly after a long battle with Motor Neurone disease the late Professor Marchant passed away in March of 2004, his counsel and encyclopaedic knowledge is sorely missed.
Click here for Professor Marchant’s Curriculum Vitae and Publications/Research.