Mungo William MacCallum KCMG (1854 - 1942)

Born 26 Feb 1854 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Husband of Dorette Margarethe (Peters) MacCallum — married 28 Jun 1882 in Elbstorf, Winsen, Hanover, Prussia

Descendants

Died 3 Sep 1942 at age 88 in Edgecliff, New South Wales, Australia

Biography

Mungo MacCallum KCMG is Notable.

Mungo MacCallum KCMG was born in Scotland.

Mungo William MacCallum was born on 26th February 1854 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. He was the son of Mungo MacCallum, a merchant, and Isabella Renton.

He studied at the University of Glasgow and at Berlin and Leipzig. In Germany he concentrated on medieval literature. He published several articles in the Cornhill Magazine in 1879-1880 and in 1884 published Studies in Low German and High German Literature.

In 1879 he became Professor of Literature at the seven year-old University College Wales (now known as the University of Wales), Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire. There, he met fellow lecturer, Dorette Peters in 1881. He courted her, prosposed and married her on 28th June 1882 in her hometown Elbstorf, Winsen, Hanover, Prussia. The couple had three children (a fourth died in infancy), daughter, Isabella, and two sons, Mungo Lorenz (c1886-1933) (a Rhodes Scholar who went on to lecture in Roman Law at the University of Sydney) and Walter Paton (1895-1959) (became a decorated Brigadier in the Australian Army and a physician). Their grandson Mungo Ballardie MacCallum (1913-99) and great grandson Mungo Wentworth MacCallum (1941-2020) would both become noted journalists.

Mungo MacCallum KCMG migrated from Wales to New South Wales.

The family, then comprising their elder two children, migrated to New South Wales (Australia) in 1887, following Mungo's appointment as Foundation Professor of Modern Language and Literature at the University of Sydney.

Mungo promptly set about increasing the status of English, French and German in the curriculum; instituting a tradition of prizes, personally funded by him, for undergraduates demonstrating proficiency in English (the prize would from 1920 be known as The MacCallum Prize). In 1894, Mungo published Tennyson's Idylls of the King and Arthurian Story from the 16th Century, in which he traced the Arthurian story from its 'Brythonic' origins through Thomas Malory and up to its final phase in Lord Tennyson. In 1897, he was appointed president of the Sydney University Union and the following year was made Dean of the Faculty of Arts. In April 1928 he MacCallum was elected Deputy Chancellor and became Chancellor of the University in 1934.

Mungo was created Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1926. Dorette, Lady MacCallum, became noted for her work with The Infants' Home Child and Family Services the Sydney Day Nursery and Nursery Schools' Association, the Australian Board of Missions, the New Settlers' League of Australia, the Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies and the Sydney University Women's Society (Settlement).

In the wider community Mungo was first president of the Shakespeare Society of New South Wales which had grown out of his extension lectures. He was a trustee from 1890 of the Public Library of New South Wales (chairman, 1906-12), a member of the advisory committee of the Commonwealth Literary Fund in 1917-29, president of Sydney Repertory Theatre Society and the Turret Theatre Dramatic Club, and chairman of trustees of Sydney Grammar School in 1929-32.

Aged 88 years, Sir Mungo passed away on 3rd September 1942 at home in Edgecliff, in Sydney's eastern suburbs. ^[1] His remains were cremated with Anglican rites after a crowded memorial service in St Andrew's Cathedral, where a memorial tablet was placed. He was survived by his wife, younger son Walter, two daughters-in-law and four grandchildren.

Mungo wrote a number of works of literary criticism on English and German literature, and is most notable for his work on Shakespeare.

The Mungo MacCallum Building at the University of Sydney was named in his honour.

Sources

1. ↑ New South Wales Death Index #23783/1942; registered at Woollahra

See also

• Cable, K J. 'MacCallum, Sir Mungo William (1854–1942)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986; accessed online 15 Sep 2023.
• Wikipedia: Mungo William MacCallum; accessed 15 Sep 2023.