Piddington, Albert Bathurst (1862 - 1945)

Summary

Albert Piddington was active in the Advisory Council of Science and Industry and the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry. He insisted (against Hughes) that the institute's scientists must be free from political control. (from his ADB entry). Along with his wife, Marion Louise Piddington (1869 - 1950), he was a supporter of eugenics as a means to support bith control and the reform of child welfare practices of the time.

Details

Also from his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry:

"In 1913 he was appointed K.C. That year the State government appointed Piddington royal commissioner again, to advise on industrial arbitration; he argued for an expanded role for specialist judges. Then (Sir) Joseph Cook's Federal government invited him to become chairman of the newly established Inter-State Commission, sitting with George Swinburne and (Sir) Nicholas Lockyer. In prospect the commission seemed capable of ranking with (or even beyond) parliament and the High Court as an instrument of effective federalism: probably Piddington saw it as a remedy for the defects of the original Constitution. Between 1913 and 1920 the commission reported on various issues with erudition and a sense of social justice. Especially interesting were its calls for government initiatives in applying science in aid of economic development, and its proposals for Australia to assert itself in the commerce and politics of the South Pacific."

Related entries

Archival resources

Wellcome Collection

• Eugenics Education Society in New South Wales, 1912 - 1930, SA/EUG/E.2; Eugenics Society [SA/EUG]; Wellcome Collection. Details

Published resources

Book Sections

• Roe, Michael, 'Piddington, Albert Bathurst (1862 - 1945), judge and reformer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 11: 1891 - 1939 Nes-Smi, Geoffrey Serle, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1988), pp. 224-226, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/piddington-albert-bathurst-8043. Details