HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SA MEETING:
1 October 7.30pm Burnside City Uniting Church
Covid lockdown interstate has prevented our next speaker attending so BERNARD WHIMPRESS has stepped up to fill the gap with ‘GEORGE GIFFEN, THE CRICKETER’
Everyone welcome (non members $5 entry).
GEORGE GIFFEN: A BIOGRAPHY
The office of Australian Test cricket captain is sometimes considered the
second-most important position in the nation. Bob Hawke once said something
like if he hadn’t been Bob Hawke he would like to have been Don Bradman.
When George Giffen was at his peak as a cricketer there was no Prime Minister
of Australia so George may have been the best-known person in the country.
Bernard Whimpress will put flesh back on the bones of this outstanding
sporting figure who is largely forgotten today but could still command a place
in any all-time Australian Eleven.
Dr Bernard Whimpress is a writer, editor, niche publisher and former curator
of the Adelaide Oval Museum. The author of more than 40 books (mainly
sports history), his principal works are The Official MCC Story of the Ashes,
Great Ashes Battles (co-authored with Nigel Hart) and Passport to Nowhere:
Aborigines in Australian Cricket 1850-1939. He published and edited the
Australian cricket history journal Baggy Green between 1998 and 2010.
Bernard received a South Australian History Council SA Lifelong History
Achievement Award in 2017 and an Australian Society for Sports History
Service Award in 2021.