No. 35, December 1995 ISSN 0811-4757

The records of Jock Marshall

Jock Marshall was Foundation Professor of Zoology and Comparative Physiology at Monash University from 1960 until his death from cancer in 1967, at the age of 56. His particular interest was the breeding cycles of birds. He had a checkered career, which included taking part in several scientific expeditions, usually as the leader, before he had any formal qualifications. He obtained his Bsc at the age of 29, then spent 4 years in the army, where he commanded a company, Z Special Unit, known as Jockforce, which went behind enemy lines in New Guinea during the Wewak campaign in 1945. To fully appreciate his army service, it is necessary to know that he had lost his left arm in a shotgun accident when he was 16. After the war, he obtained his PhD from Oxford University and spent 11 years as a Reader in Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at St. Bartholemew's Hospital Medical College, University of London before moving to Monash. In his early years he spent some time as a journalist and wrote regularly for newspapers throughout his career.

Jock had a colourful, larger than life, personality, which comes across clearly in his correspondence. It is possible that his newspaper experience taught him not to waste words; a colleague wrote asking permission to reproduce one of his diagrams and Jock's reply was "Dear X, Yes, of course."

This is quite a large collection of about 9.3 m and covers his entire life. As well as correspondence files, there are files covering World War II; the New Guinea, Spitsbergen and Jan Mayen expeditions; diaries and field notebooks; manuscripts and correspondence relating to books, talks and radio broadcasts and articles and book chapters; The Australian; lecture notes; newspaper clippings; a large collection of photographs, both scientific and personal; and material for and drafts of a biography by his wife, Jane.

This collection will be deposited in the National Library when processing has been completed. Such a complete collection of records of such an interesting character will be extremely valuable.

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