K. G. Tregonning

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K. G. Tregonning
MBE
Born
Kennedy Gordon Phillip Tregonning

13 June 1923
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Died20 July 2015
NationalityBritish, Australian
Education
Alma mater
Parent
Relatives
Military service
AllegianceAustralia
Branch/serviceRoyal Australian Air Force
Years of service1941-1946
Battles/warsWorld War II

Kennedy Gordon Phillip Tregonning MBE (13 June 1923 - 20 July 2015) was a British-Australian officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, journalist and historian of modern Southeast Asia.[1][2] From 1958 to 1966, he was Raffles Professor of History at the University of Singapore.[3]

Early life[edit]

Tregonning was born in Perth, Western Australia on 13 June 1923, the son of a British-Australian army officer and physician Donald R. C. Tregonning and his wife Florence Agar.[4] He was educated at Christ Church Grammar School and at Hale School.[5] In 1941, Tregonning volunteered to join the Second Australian Imperial Force, serving first in the army and then as an officer in the Royal Australian Air Force. Tregonning saw active service as a bomber pilot stationed in England.[6]

After the Second World War, Tregonning returned to Australia for his university studies, graduating with a double first in political science and history from the University of Adelaide in 1949.[7] He then went to New College, Oxford, where he studied the history of the British North Borneo Company, graduating in 1953. As part of his degree at the University of Oxford, Tregonning conducted researcher in Downing Street on a Nuffield Fellowship.[6][8]

Academic career[edit]

Following his studies at Adelaide and Oxford, Tregonning traveled to Singapore, in 1953, to take up a position as a lecturer in the history department of the University of Malaya in Singapore.[9] In 1958, he succeeded C. Northcote Parkinson as the Raffles Chair of History at the University of Singapore, named for Sir Stamford Raffles.[10]

During his time in Singapore, Tregonning established the Journal of Southeast Asian History in 1960,[11] published by Cambridge University Press. He also published several books, including A History of Modern Sabah (North Borneo, 1881-1963) and The British in Malaya: The First Forty Years 1786-1826.[12] Sponsored by the Colonial Office as part of the Corona Library, Tregonning's North Borneo was published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office in 1960 with a foreword by Sir Winston Churchill. Correspondents of Tregonning at the time included Lee Kuan Yew, Jawaharlal Nehru, Habib Bourguiba, and Prince Norodom Sihanouk.[6][9]

In 1967, Tregonning returned to Australia to the position of headmaster at Hale School. His students there included the diplomat John King Atkins, the Australian Army general Daniel McDaniel, and the composer Ash Gibson Greig. After retiring from Hale School in 1988, Tregonning was appointed to the Official Corruption Committee on which he served until 1993.[6][12]

Tregonning also worked in an advisory capacity for the Australian Senate's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence and was a board member of the West Australian Ballet.[6]

Personal life[edit]

The artist Mel Tregonning, was K. G. Tregonning's great-granddaughter and the tennis player Don Tregonning was his second cousin.[5][13]

Works[edit]

  • Tregonning, K.G. (1958). Under Chartered Company Rule: North Borneo, 1881-1946. University of Malaya Press. ISBN 9780196902883.
  • Tregonning, K.G. (1960). North Borneo. Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
  • Tregonning, K.G. (1964). A History of Modern Malaya. University of London Press.
  • Tregonning, K.G. (1965). A History of Modern Sabah: North Borneo, 1881–1963. University of Malaya Press.
  • Tregonning, K.G. (1989). Home Port Singapore: An Australian Historian's Experience. Centre for the Study of Australia-Asia Relations, Griffith University. ISBN 978-0-86857-276-5.
  • Tregonning, K.G. (1993). Young Hearts Run Free: Hale School 1858-1988. Hale School.
  • Tregonning, K.G. (2010). Merdeka and Much More: The Reminiscences of a Raffles Professor, 1953-67. National University of Singapore Press. ISBN 978-9971694227.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Principal and Scholar". The West Australian. 27 August 2015.
  2. ^ "No. 48041". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 1979. pp. 1–16.
  3. ^ "Dr K. G. Tregonning, 1923–2015". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 88 (2): 157–160. 2015. doi:10.1353/ras.2015.0030. JSTOR 26527720.
  4. ^ Tunbridge, Peter; Kamien, Max (2011). The Medical Practice at 328 Sterling Highway, Claremont from 1896–2011. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
  5. ^ a b The K.G.P. Tregonning Private Papers: Biographical Notes. Singapore: ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. 2015. pp. 1–2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)
  6. ^ a b c d e Bogle, Susy (2016). "Kennedy Gordon Phillip Tregonning, MBE". Borneo Research Bulletin. 47 (1): 19–22.
  7. ^ "S.A. Man Awarded £1,150 Fellowship". The Advertiser. 13 March 1952. p. 2.
  8. ^ "Fellowship Winner". The West Australian. 12 February 1952. p. 2.
  9. ^ a b "Perth Man Gets Post in Malaya". The West Australian. 9 April 1953. p. 4. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  10. ^ Meh, née Lum, Choy Chee (1995). "History of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 68 (2): 81–148. JSTOR 41493648.
  11. ^ "Biographical Notes" (PDF).
  12. ^ a b Horton, A.V.M. (2010). "K.G. Tregonning, 2010, Merdeka and Much More: The Reminiscences of a Raffles Professor, 1953-67". Borneo Research Bulletin. 46 (1): 385–387.
  13. ^ "Family say WA woman's death 'preventable'". SBS News. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
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