Awards and Medals

John and Ruth Kerr Medal for Distinction

The Royal Historical Society of Queensland and the Professional Historians Association (Queensland) have renamed the John Douglas Kerr Medal for Distinction as the John and Ruth Kerr Medal for Distinction as from 27 November 2019. This is in recognition of their combined contribution: John as an historian and statistician, Councillor and Honorary Librarian of The Royal Historical Society of Queensland, and as a founder and Honorary Treasurer of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland). Ruth’s recognition is in historiography, her contribution to community and academic history in Australia, and the major role that she has played in The Royal Historical Society of Queensland for over 50 years.

The John and Ruth Kerr Medal for Distinction in historiography, historical research and writing Australian history may be awarded each year by the Society in conjunction with the Professional Historians’ Association (Queensland). The award ceremony coincides with the RHSQ’s annual Queensland Day Dinner. A joint committee formed between The Royal Historical Society of Queensland and the Professional Historians’ Association (Queensland) oversees the rules and criteria for the award and selects the recipient, if any.

The criteria for the award are:

• Demonstrated excellence in historical research in any one or more fields of Queensland or Australian history
• Demonstrated and identified use of wide-spread appropriate source material in the context of the nominee’s research field or fields
• Demonstrated objective analysis, distillation and interpretation of historical source material leading to the formation of historical arguments arising out of the research
• Demonstrated acceptance of the highest standards of scholarship as judged by the Queensland community of professional historians, assessing the work of written contributions of the nominee
• Is currently practicing as a historian at a professional standard

Nominations open 1 September each year and close the following 31 March each year.

Fellowship

A Fellowship is awarded for conspicuous scholarly service to the Society by a member of not less than ten years standing. A Fellow may thereafter be designated a “Fellow of The Royal Historical Society of Queensland” (F.R. Hist. S.Q.)

A Fellowship is awarded under Clause 35(d) of the Society’s Constitution. Recipients of a Fellowship are presented with a certificate signed by the President and the Honorary Secretary and executed under the Common Seal.

Honorary Fellowship

An Honorary Fellowship is awarded for conspicuous scholarly service to the objects of the Society by an eminent person who is either not a member of the Society or has less than ten years standing. An Honorary Fellow may thereafter be designated an “Honorary Fellow of The Royal Historical Society of Queensland” (Hon. F.R. Hist. S.Q.)

An Honorary Fellowship is awarded under Clause 35(e) of the Society’s Constitution. Recipients of an Honorary Fellowship are presented with a certificate signed by the President and the Honorary Secretary and executed under the Common Seal.

MacGregor Medal

A MacGregor Medal shall only be awarded for conspicuous service, other than of a scholarly nature, to the Society by a member of not less than ten years standing.

A MacGregor Medal is awarded under Clause 35(f) of the Society’s Constitution. Recipients of a MacGregor Medal are presented with an inscribed medal.

Honorary MacGregor Medal

An Honorary MacGregor Medal shall only be awarded for conspicuous service, other than of a scholarly nature, to the Society by a person not being a member of the Society or who has been a member for less than 10 years.

An Honorary MacGregor Medal is awarded under Clause 35(g) of the Society’s Constitution. Recipients of an Honorary MacGregor Medal are presented with an inscribed medal.

The Centenary Medal

The Centenary Medal is awarded to those who, in the opinion of the Council of the Society, have contributed exceptionally to the history and heritage of Queensland. The medal was designed and commissioned by Emeritus Professor John Pearn AO and was struck by National Medals. The medal is in the gift of John Pearn, a Councillor of the Society and of Mr Greg Faux of National Medals. It was first bestowed in the Centenary Year of the Society in 2013.

The obverse of the medal portrays, in stylised format, the Commissariat Store, completed in 1829. It is enfolded by an expanding wreath, symbolising the outreach of the Society and its dynamic promotion of history and heritage into the future.

The reverse portrays, at its centrum, two stylised quills, symbolising research, scholarship and education. On the dexter side is a stylised tjuringa. The image is stylised because each physical tjuringa is a sacred object portraying knowledge and history of the Aboriginal Peoples of Australia. Many tjuringa record the history and symbolise the heritage of the Dreamtime. It is portrayed here to acknowledge the primacy of millennia of preserved oral history by the Indigenous men and women in what today is the State of Queensland. Portrayed on the left is a stylised image of the worldwide web. Within its strands, spelt in digital code are the words “influence, collaboration, information, impact”. The electronic web comprises a major tool of research, outreach and the promotion of history by the Society and its Members. The three images are encircled by the Latin exhortation “Colantur Annales ut Futurum Ditetur” – freely translated as “May the history and heritage of the past be preserved in the order that the future might be enriched”.

Honorary Life Members

The RHSQ Council may, under Clause 5(c) of the Society’s Constitution, with at least seven Councillors voting in support, recommend and an Annual General Meeting may approve the election as an Honorary Life Member of any member who has rendered long or outstanding service to the Society. Such Honorary Life Member shall have all the privileges of an Ordinary Member and may hold office if duly elected but shall not be required to pay any membership fee. Not more than one Honorary Life Member may be appointed in any one financial year.