Honorary awards

Essington Lewis, CH

The degree of Doctor of Science (honoris causa) was conferred upon Essington Lewis at the ceremony of conferring of honorary degrees held on 29 August 1952 as part of the University of Sydney's Centenary celebrations.

The Dean of the Faculty of Science Professor T G Room (on left) presenting Mr Lewis to Chancellor Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn for the honorary award, a Sydney Morning Herald photo, with copies held by the University of Sydney Archives.

Citation

Presented to the Chancellor, Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn by the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Professor T G Room:

ESSINGTON LEWIS, C.H., Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited.

Mr. Chancellor, Essington Lewis is for all of us a symbol of the new Australia that has emerged in this century. No longer are we a nation of hewers of wood and tillers of the soil, but a nation capable of producing all that is necessary to support a modern civilization. This change is in large measure due to him. His genius fused into one vast organization: Capital and labour, iron from the west, and coal from the east, to produce steel the equal of any in the world, more cheaply than anywhere in the world, and this on terms in general highly satisfactory to the men who worked for him.

During the War he served as Director-General of Munitions, working miracles of production in all fields. Each successive Government relied on his judgment, honoured him and stood in awe of him.

Mr. Chancellor, I present to you Essington Lewis, Companion of Honour, father of Australian heavy industry, and godfather of all Australian advances in technological science.

From "The University of Sydney Centenary Celebrations August 26 - August 31, 1952" compiled by the Office of Information and Public Relations. Allan Gamble, Information and Public Relations Officer.