Finlay Crisp

Finlay Crisp
Secretary of the Department of Post-War Reconstruction
In office
25 August 1949 – 16 March 1950
Personal details
Born
Leslie Finlay Crisp

19 January 1917
Sandringham, Victoria
Died21 December 1984(1984-12-21) (aged 67)
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
NationalityAustralian
SpouseHelen Crisp (née Wighton)
Education
OccupationAcademic, political scientist and public servant

Leslie Finlay Crisp (19 January 1917 – 21 December 1984) was an Australian academic and political scientist.

The son of Leslie Walter Crisp (1884–1965), and Ruby Elizabeth Crisp (1896–1951), née Duff,[1] Leslie Finlay Crisp was born in Sandringham, Victoria on 19 January 1917.[2] He married Helen Craven Wighton (1916–2002), whom he had met at university in Adelaide, on 22 June 1940 in Oxford, U.K. He suffered a heart attack on 19 December 1984, and died, in Canberra, on 21 December 1984.[3][4]

Educated at Black Rock State School, Caulfield Grammar School and St Peter's College, Adelaide, where he graduated in 1934, Crisp earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and history from the University of Adelaide. While at university, he and his, later, wife Helen (then Helen Wighton) formed the National Union of Australian University Students.

In 1938, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and went on to study at Balliol College in Oxford University, although his studies were disrupted while he worked for the Australian Public Service during World War II. In 1945, he was a member of the Australian Delegation to form the United Nations. He earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Oxford in 1948.

His work included positions with the Short-wave Broadcasting Service (later Radio Australia) and the Department of Labour and National Service, and he became head of the Department of Post-War Reconstruction in 1949.[5][6]

In 1949, Crisp published his MA thesis from the University of Adelaide as The Parliamentary Government of the Commonwealth of Australia. Widely prescribed as a politics textbook, it was expanded and renamed Australian National Government in 1965.[7] From 1950, he was a professor of political science at the Canberra University College and then at the Australian National University in Canberra, serving as head of the department from 1950 to 1970. Although increasingly disillusioned with changes in Australian universities, he continued teaching until retirement in 1977.[7] He was appointed a director of the Commonwealth Banking Corporation in 1974, and served as chairman of the board from 1975 to 1984.

In 2005, Crisp and his wife were two of the first 17 inductees in the Australian Capital Territory Honour Walk, recognising their contribution to the development of Canberra.[8]

Crisp Circuit in the Canberra suburb of Bruce was dedicated in his name.[9]

  1. ^ Deaths: Crisp, The (Adelaide) Advertiser, (Tuesday, 13 February 1951), p.16.
  2. ^ Births: Crisp, The Argus, (Saturday, 27 January 1917), p.1.
  3. ^ Deaths: Crisp, The Canberra Times, (Saturday, 22 December 1984), p.20.
  4. ^ 'Fin' Crisp dies, 67, The Canberra Times, (Saturday, 22 December 1984), p.1; Obituary: 'Fin' Crisp — academic, public servant, The Canberra Times, (Saturday, 22 December 1984), p.7.
  5. ^ MS 5243: Papers of Leslie Finlay Crisp, National Library of Australia, retrieved 1 March 2014
  6. ^ CA 49: Department of Post-War Reconstruction, Central Office, National Archives of Australia, archived from the original on 4 August 2019, retrieved 1 March 2014
  7. ^ a b Bennett, Scott. "Crisp, Leslie Finlay (Fin) (1917–1984)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  8. ^ Chief Minister, Australian Capital Territory. New ACT Honour Walk. Retrieved 19 December 2007.
  9. ^ ACT Planning and Land Authority. "Street and Suburb Names - Crisp Circuit, Bruce". Retrieved 8 July 2013.