Summary |
(1) Photocopies of letters, newspapers cuttings, biographical material on Geoffrey Syme - originals held at La Trobe Library. (2) Garnett-Syme family history, including photographs, photocopies of page from Geoffrey Syme's notebook, house plans, menus (in folio run). (3) T/S of articles by Veronica Condon. a) an Egyptian temple in the Kew cemetery: the tomb of David Syme; b) another look at David Syme of The Age; c) a schoolboy of the 1880's: Geoffrey Syme at Kew High School; d) In Memoriam: Geoffrey Syme 1873-1942; e) Geoffrey Syme and the weekly paper Every Saturday. (4) Published articles by Veronica Condon: 'The mystery of the provenance of a 14th century missal' (Oxford Bod. Libr. Douce 313) in Scriptorium: International review of manuscript studies, Vol. 35 (1981). (5) Garnett Syme family history which includes material on Geoffrey Syme's participation at the 4th Imperial Press Conference 1930 and a letter from Keith Dixon, archivist of The Age dated 1983. (6) "Blythswood, Kew: the story of a garden, 1882-1952" by Mrs Veronica Condon. (7) Typescript documenting life and work of Sir Geoffrey Syme. (8) Typescript and photographs of David Syme's monument in the Boroondara Cemetery, Kew and genealogical notes on Sir Geoffrey Syme. (9) Clippings and correspondence regarding Syme and Geoffrey Serle's Australian dictionary of biography entry for Syme.
The Acc06/29 instalment comprises an article by Veronica Condon, "Comments on an article on Internet, 'Half a century of obscurity: The Age 1908-1964', written by Sybil Nolan." Also, printouts from the Sir Geoffrey Syme website.
The Acc06/162 instalment comprises a copy of "Blythswood, Kew", written by Veronica Condon. "Blythswood" was Syme's home for most of his life.
The Acc08/188 instalment comprises an article by Elizabeth Morrison, "David Syme's Age business", published in The Age on 9 February 2008.
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Biography/History |
Newspaper executive. Geoffrey Syme was born on 3 March 1873 in South Melbourne, the fourth son of David Syme, newspaper proprietor, and his wife Annabella, née Johnson. He attended the University of Melbourne, 1891-1892, before joining The Age where he was trained in management by his father who had chosen him as his successor. Between 1902 and 1908 Syme edited the weekly Every Saturday, forerunner of The Age's literary supplement. On the death of his father in 1908, Syme became Managing Editor of The Age and was responsible for the editorial policy of the paper. He was assisted in this capacity by his chosen editors Gottlieb Schuler, L.V. Biggs and (Sir) Harold Campbell. Under the management of Syme The Age lost its share of the market to The Argus and The Sun news pictorial. In 1941 Syme was appointed Knight Commander of the British Empire. Syme died in Melbourne, on 30 July 1942.
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Notes |
Manuscript reference no.: MS 7104, MS Acc06.029, MS Acc06.162, MS Acc08.188.
Originals held by La Trobe Library.
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