Commissariat Store in 1835, detail of painting by Henry Boucher Bowerman

Awards and Medals

To recognise excellence in the pursuit of history and to celebrate success within the Society The Royal Historical Society of Queensland, from time to time, awards various Medals and Awards.

This page highlights the recipients of the various Medals and Awards of The Royal Historical Society of Queensland.

RHSQ Awards

  • Kerr Medal
  • Fellowship
  • Honorary Fellowship
  • MacGregor Medal
  • Honorary MacGregor Medal
  • Centenary Medal
  • Honorary Life Member

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.

Year AwardedRecepient
2022Rod Kirkpatrick
2022Ian Howie-Willis
2021No Award
2020Margaret Cook
2019Margaret Kowald
2018Bill Metcalf
2017Geoffrey Blainey
2016Ann McGrath
2015Clive Moore
2014Kay Cohen
2013Ruth Kerr
2012W. Ross Johnston
2011Geoffrey Bolton
2010Janice Wegner
2009Jennifer Harrison
2009John Steele
2008Judith McKay
2007Lorna L. McDonald
2006Peter Bell
2006Kay Saunders
2005Raymond Evans

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.

RecipientYear
Stephen Sheaffe2021
Rodney Kirkpatrick2020
Denver Beanland2019
Carolyn Nolan2018
Val Donovan2017
Margaret Kowald2016
Ian Hadwen2011
Raymond Whitmore2003
Jean Stewart2003
Judith McKay2003
Kay Cohen1998
Maurice French1998
Bruce McPherson1998
Jean Harslett1994
Sir Walter Campbell1993
Manfred Cross1993
Helen Gregory1992
Jennifer Harrison1992
Captain John Foley1990
Nancy Vera Roberts1990
Michael William Duckett White1990
Owen Maynard Fletcher1990
Sir Clarence Arthur Campbell Leggett1990
Lorna Isabel Church1990
Lyn Alison Love1987
John Hemsley Pearn1986
Garry Robin Ford1986
Arthur Henry Frederick O'Neill1986
Murdoch Alfred Wales1986
Maureen Theresa Lynch1985
Allan McInnes1984
Ruth Sadie Kerr1984
William Robert Francis Love1984
Douglas Alexander Jolly1984
Doris Mary Rollason1984
John Douglas Kerr1983
Keith Alexander Allan1983
Mary O'Keeffe1983
Elizabeth Nesta Marks1983
Ronald Francis James Wood1983
Charles George Drury Clarke1981
Harold James Summers1980
George Roderick Cooper McLeod1980
Sir James Ramsay1980
Glenville Pike1978
Sir Alan Mansfield1971
John Thomas Maher1969
James Connal Howard Gill1969
Louise Marjorie Harris1968
Herbert Albrecht Krause1968
Geoffrey Ward1968
Sir Manuel Hornibrook1968
Thomas Murray Browse Elliott1967
Bertie Bootle Arthur Lascelles Jardine1966
Robert Campbell Hamilton1964
Alexander Hugh Chisholm1964
Allan E Bax1968
Thomas Meek Ramsay1964
Malcolm Henry Ellis1964
Sir Henry Abel Smith1964
John Harold Crozier McClurg1963
Clem Llewellyn Lack1963
James Warren Collinson1963
Kenton Thomas Cameron1963
Colin Gordon Austin1963
Norman Stewart Pixley1963
Arthur Laurie1963
Edwin Oswald Marks1963
Allan Arthur Morrison1963
Sir Raphael West Cilento1963

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.

RecipientYear
Dianne Byrne2017

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.

RecipientYear
Rebecca Ling2021
Dean Prangley2020
Barrie Rollason2019
Graeme Nicholson2018
Jeff O'Mara2017
Elizabeth Johnson2016
Janice Hess2013
Judy Gale Rechner2011
Ian Hadwen2008
Elizabeth Teed2008
Manfred Cross2007
Hilary Fisher2007
Douglas Lochhead2007
Stephen Sheaffe2001
Dorothy Griffiths2000
John Kerr1998
Ruth Kerr1998
Cameron McKee1998
Roderick McLeod1998
Ronald Wood1998
Ronald Glindeman (Posthumous Award)1998
Harmon Price1998

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.

RecipientYear
Colin McFarlane2017
Alf (Bomber) Johnson2012
Allan Bell2010

The Centenary Medal

For Service to the Discipline of History in its many Forms with particular reference to the Research, Preservation and Promotion of the History of Queensland.

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”.

RecipientYear
Audienne Blyth
Woodford Historical Society
2022
Cooktown Historical Society
Charleville Historical Society
Vince Little
Bronwyn McBurnie
Anne Monsour
Ian Bonaccorso
2021
Mick Davis
Merle Heiner
Michael Strong
2020
Edith Cuffe
James Nixon
Dorothy Jeffrey
Dennis Peel
2019
Mary Bolam
Leigh Chamberlain
Marylin England
Lorene Long
Glenda Sheaffe
Les Sim
2018
Janice Flood
Diana Hacker
Cooroy – Noosa Genealogical and Historical Research Group Inc.
2017
Cynthia Berthelsen
Alan Broughton
Pat Broughton
Kay Cohen
Val Donovan
Beth Johnson
Margaret Kowald
Carolyn Nolan
Lyndsay Smith
Jean Stewart
2013

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.

RecipientDate
Ruth Kerr19th August 2010