George Ainsworth
Encyclopedia
George Frederick Ainsworth (20 June 1878 – 11 October 1950) was an Australia
n meteorologist
, public servant
and businessman who headed one of the component parts of Douglas Mawson
’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition
(1911–1914).
, a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales
. At the age of 15 he joined the NSW Department of Public Instruction as an assistant teacher, but transferred to the Meteorological Branch of the Department of Home Affairs in the Australian Public Service
in 1910. He was then seconded to Mawson’s Antarctic Expedition in the course of which he was in charge of the subantarctic
Macquarie Island
party for nearly two years – from December 1911 to November 1913. His responsibilities on Macquarie included the establishment of a weather station
, as well as a radio
relay station
on Wireless Hill
which pioneered the first radio communications between Antarctica and the outside world.
. In 1917 he joined the Counter Espionage Bureau
and was made an honorary captain. In the same year he married Mary Catherine Statham at Murwillumbah
. Following demobilisation
in 1918 he became an inspector in the Commonwealth Police
in Queensland
. Transferring to the Prime Minister’s Department
in 1921, he served as foreign-affairs officer with the Australian delegation to the Imperial Economic Conference in London in 1923, as well as being the sole Australian delegate attending the International Labour Organization
meeting at Geneva
the same year.
, who was Prime Minister of Australia
from 1915 to 1923, and whom he greatly admired. He resigned from the public service at the end of 1924 to enter the private sector
as a business manager, first with the Melbourne
-based motor-parts company
Kellow-Falkiner, then as general manager with the Chrysler Corporation
in New Zealand
, and finally as general manager with Barnet Glass Rubber in Queensland, from which he resigned in 1935. He subsequently became State organiser for the United Australia Party
, of which Billy Hughes was one of the founders.
After incurring considerable financial losses through gambling
on horse races
, Ainsworth moved to Sydney
in about 1937. There he lived in Vaucluse
, ran a delicatessen
in Leichhardt
, and gave radio talks about his Antarctic experiences. During the Second World War
he was briefly employed in meteorology again.
of pyelonephritis
and uraemia
. He was survived by his wife and a daughter; a son had predeceased him. He died intestate
with his estate having a probate
value of £2450.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n meteorologist
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
, public servant
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
and businessman who headed one of the component parts of Douglas Mawson
Douglas Mawson
Sir Douglas Mawson, OBE, FRS, FAA was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer and Academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton, Mawson was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.-Early work:He was appointed geologist to an...
’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition
Australasian Antarctic Expedition
The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was an Australasian scientific team that explored part of Antarctica between 1911 and 1914. It was led by the Australian geologist Douglas Mawson, who was knighted for his achievements in leading the expedition. In 1910 he began to plan an expedition to chart...
(1911–1914).
Early years
Ainsworth was born in LambtonLambton, New South Wales
Lambton is a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, located from Newcastle's central business district.- Early days :Originally a coal-mining township, Lambton was incorporated as a Municipality , on 24 June 1871. The 1891 Census gave the population as 3,434...
, a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
. At the age of 15 he joined the NSW Department of Public Instruction as an assistant teacher, but transferred to the Meteorological Branch of the Department of Home Affairs in the Australian Public Service
Australian Public Service
The Australian Public Service is the Australian federal civil service, the group of people employed by federal departments, agencies and courts under the Government of Australia, to administer the working of the public administration of the Commonwealth of Australia...
in 1910. He was then seconded to Mawson’s Antarctic Expedition in the course of which he was in charge of the subantarctic
Subantarctic
The Subantarctic is a region in the southern hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° – 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands in the southern parts of the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and...
Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica, at 54°30S, 158°57E. Politically, it has formed part of the Australian state of Tasmania since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a world heritage...
party for nearly two years – from December 1911 to November 1913. His responsibilities on Macquarie included the establishment of a weather station
Weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for observing atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind...
, as well as a radio
Wireless telegraphy
Wireless telegraphy is a historical term used today to apply to early radio telegraph communications techniques and practices, particularly those used during the first three decades of radio before the term radio came into use....
relay station
Radio relay
Radio stations that cannot communicate directly due to distance, terrain or other difficulties sometimes use an intermediate radio relay station to relay the signals. Examples include airborne radio relay, microwave radio relay, and communications satellite...
on Wireless Hill
Wireless Hill
Wireless Hill is a steep-sided hill with a summit plateau that takes up most of the North Head promontory at the northern end of Australia’s subantarctic Macquarie Island, lying in the Southern Ocean about halfway between Australia and Antarctica...
which pioneered the first radio communications between Antarctica and the outside world.
The public servant
In 1915 Ainsworth was commissioned in the Australian 62nd Infantry Battalion62nd Battalion (Australia)
The 62nd Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. It was first raised in 1917 during World War I but was disbanded before seeing active service. During World War II the battalion was re-raised in 1942 as a unit of the Militia and was tasked with undertaking garrison duty in Dutch...
. In 1917 he joined the Counter Espionage Bureau
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
and was made an honorary captain. In the same year he married Mary Catherine Statham at Murwillumbah
Murwillumbah, New South Wales
Murwillumbah is a town of approximately 7,500 people in far north-eastern New South Wales, Australia in the Tweed Shire. It lies on the Tweed River, 848 km north-east of Sydney, 13 km south of the Queensland border and 132 km south of Brisbane. At the 2006 census, Murwillumbah had a...
. Following demobilisation
Demobilization
Demobilization is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and military force will not be necessary...
in 1918 he became an inspector in the Commonwealth Police
Commonwealth Police
The name Commonwealth Police was used by three separate policing organisations in Australia at various times in the 20th century.-Commonwealth Police Force :...
in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. Transferring to the Prime Minister’s Department
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia)
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is an Australian Government department. The Department was first established in 1911...
in 1921, he served as foreign-affairs officer with the Australian delegation to the Imperial Economic Conference in London in 1923, as well as being the sole Australian delegate attending the International Labour Organization
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
meeting at Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
the same year.
The businessman
Ainsworth’s rapid rise as a public servant was at least partly as a protégé of Billy HughesBilly Hughes
William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....
, who was Prime Minister of Australia
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
from 1915 to 1923, and whom he greatly admired. He resigned from the public service at the end of 1924 to enter the private sector
Private sector
In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...
as a business manager, first with the Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
-based motor-parts company
Automotive industry
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....
Kellow-Falkiner, then as general manager with the Chrysler Corporation
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and finally as general manager with Barnet Glass Rubber in Queensland, from which he resigned in 1935. He subsequently became State organiser for the United Australia Party
United Australia Party
The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...
, of which Billy Hughes was one of the founders.
After incurring considerable financial losses through gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
on horse races
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
, Ainsworth moved to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in about 1937. There he lived in Vaucluse
Vaucluse, New South Wales
Vaucluse is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Vaucluse is located north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Waverley Council and the Municipality of Woollahra....
, ran a delicatessen
Delicatessen
Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods". The word entered English via German,with the old German spelling , plural of Delikatesse "delicacy", ultimately from Latin delicatus....
in Leichhardt
Leichhardt, New South Wales
Leichhardt is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Leichhardt is located 5 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt...
, and gave radio talks about his Antarctic experiences. During the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was briefly employed in meteorology again.
Death
Ainsworth died in Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred HospitalRoyal Prince Alfred Hospital
The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital is a major public teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia, located on Missenden Road in Camperdown...
of pyelonephritis
Pyelonephritis
Pyelonephritis is an ascending urinary tract infection that has reached the pyelum or pelvis of the kidney. It is a form of nephritis that is also referred to as pyelitis...
and uraemia
Uremia
Uremia or uraemia is a term used to loosely describe the illness accompanying kidney failure , in particular the nitrogenous waste products associated with the failure of this organ....
. He was survived by his wife and a daughter; a son had predeceased him. He died intestate
Intestacy
Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies owning property greater than the sum of their enforceable debts and funeral expenses without having made a valid will or other binding declaration; alternatively where such a will or declaration has been made, but only applies to part of...
with his estate having a probate
Probate
Probate is the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person by resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person's property under the valid will. A probate court decides the validity of a testator's will...
value of £2450.