Kenneth Wheare

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Sir Kenneth Clinton Wheare, CMG (26 March 1907 – 7 September 1979)[1] was an Australian academic, who spent most of his career at Oxford University in England.[2] He was an expert on the constitutions of the British Commonwealth.[3] He advised constitutional assemblies in former British colonies.[4]

Early life and family[edit]

Wheare was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne[1] and was later a student at Ormond College, Melbourne University and Oriel College, Oxford, gaining a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and also undertaking postgraduate study. He met his wife Joan (1915–2013) when he was her tutor.[5] One of their sons is Tom Wheare. Another son is Henry Wheare, the champion British rower who later became a leading intellectual property lawyer in Hong Kong.

Career[edit]

In 1944, Kenneth Wheare was appointed Gladstone Professor of Government at All Souls College. He was Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Children and the Cinema from 1947 to 1950 and chaired a committee to examine film censorship in the United Kingdom.[1][6] The Wheare committee's findings published in 1950 led to the introduction of a compulsory certificate, X (Explicit Content), allowing only those aged 16 and older to enter.[6] Another outcome of the Wheare report was the creation of the Children's Film Foundation.[7]

In 1956, he became Rector of Exeter College, Oxford. A gargoyle of his likeness is carved on the Bodleian Library, visible from the Exeter College Fellows' Garden.[1]

Wheare was Chairman of the Rhodes Trust (1962–69), President of the British Academy (1967–71), Chancellor of the University of Liverpool from 1972. He was also a Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1964 to 1966.[8]

In 1948 he had contributed Abraham Lincoln and the United States to the "Teach Yourself History" series.

In June 1973, Wheare was shortlisted for appointment as Governor-General of Australia,[9] but was overlooked by then-prime minister Gough Whitlam in favour of Sir John Kerr.

Honours[edit]

Kenneth Wheare was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1953 and was knighted in 1966.[citation needed][1] He gave the British Academy's 1974 Master-Mind Lecture.[10][11]

In 2017, Oxford Brookes University named a newly rebuilt lecture hall after Wheare.[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Poynter, J. R. "Wheare, Sir Kenneth Clinton (1907–1979)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  2. ^ Beloff, Max (2004). "Wheare, Sir Kenneth Clinton (1907–1979) (subscription required)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31822. Retrieved 9 January 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ Markwell, Donald (2016). Constitutional Conventions and the Headship of State: Australian Experience. Connor Court. ISBN 978-1925501155. Appendix 3: Two Constitutional Scholars: Sir Kenneth Wheare and Dr Eugene Forsey.
  4. ^ Getachew, Adom (2019). Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination. Princeton University Press. p. 122. doi:10.2307/j.ctv3znwvg. ISBN 978-0-691-17915-5. JSTOR j.ctv3znwvg.
  5. ^ "Joan Wheare: Rebel with many causes". Oxford Mail. 7 November 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  6. ^ a b "Wheare Report, The (1950)". Screenonline. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  7. ^ Roberts, Andrew (9 September 2010). "How the Children's Film Foundation once dominated Saturday morning cinema". The Guardian.
  8. ^ "Previous Vice-Chancellors". UK: University of Oxford. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  9. ^ Kelly, Paul (2015). The Dismissal: A Groundbreaking New History. Melbourne: Penguin Random House Australia. p. 69. ISBN 9781760142032.
  10. ^ "Master-Mind Lectures". The British Academy.
  11. ^ Wheare, K. C. (1975). "Walter Bagehot" (PDF). Proceedings of the British Academy. 60: 173–197.
  12. ^ "New hall named in honour of Sir Kenneth Wheare". UK: Oxford Brookes University. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
Academic offices
Preceded by Rector of Exeter College, Oxford
1956–1972
Succeeded by
Preceded by Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University
1964–1966
Succeeded by