Kenneth Adolph Slessor

Birth Date	1901-03-27
Birth Place	Australia: New South Wales, Orange
Death Date	1971-06-30
Death Place	Australia: New South Wales, Sydney, North Sydney
Places	Orange North Sydney
Conflict/Operation	Second World War, 1939-1945
Gazettes	Biographical information The Oxford companion to Australian military history in 1995

Description

Kenneth Slessor, poet and official correspondent during the Second World War, was born on 27 March 1901 at Orange, New South Wales. Up until he was 13 his family's surname was Schloesser, but his father, Robert, changed it soon after the outbreak of the First World War. In the meantime the Schloesser's had moved to Sydney. Even as a child, Kenneth was a keen reader and had edited his school's magazine.

In 1918 Slessor gained employment as a cadet journalist with the Sun newspaper. Having already discovered a love of poetry, he had his first poems published in the Bulletin in 1919. Three years later, in 1922, he married Noela Myee. He continued to work in journalism, spent time editing several journals and published his first volume of poetry in 1924. In 1927 he began working for Smith's Weekly, becoming its editor in 1935.

After five years in that position, Slessor was appointed as an official war correspondent in February 1940 and he left for England in May that year. He followed the Australian campaigns in the Mediterranean until returning to cover the war in New Guinea in 1943. Having seen and described Australians in combat he developed an admiration for ordinary soldiers but fell foul of the authorities and lost his accreditation. He resigned in February 1944 in a protest against the Army's Public Relations Branch and returned to the world of newspapers as editor of the Sun.

Although his poetic output had slowed dramatically, the publication of his 100 poems in 1944, and subsequent reprints, ensured that this side of his writing would live on in the public mind. In the post-war years he wrote a series of books about aspects of life in Australia. His first wife having died of cancer in 1945, he married Catherine Wallace in 1951. The couple divorced after ten years together.

Slessor's journalistic and literary careers continued in parallel during the 1950s and 1960s. He edited magazines and anthologies as well as the Sun, and later the Daily Telegraph in Sydney. In 1956 he became president of the Journalist's Club in Sydney. A cultured man, whose early ubringing had instilled in him a cosmopolitan outlook and an appreciation of fine food and wine, Slessor was considered witty and urbane by those who knew him. On 30 June 1971 he suffered a myocardial infarction and died in North Sydney.

Collection items

Timeline

Date of birth	27 March 1901	Orange, NSW.
Other	1918	Slessor gained employment as a cadet journalist with the Sun newspaper.
Other	1923 - 1924	Was a joint editor of Vision; a literary quarterly.
Other	1924	Published his first volume of poetry.
Other	1925	Slessor worked in Melbourne as chief sub-editor of Punch.
Other	1926	Returned to Sydney as a special writer for the Sun.
Other	1927	He began working for Smith's Weekly.
Other	1935	Became the editor of Smith's Weekly.
Other	1940-02	Appointed as an official war correspondent.
Other	1940-05	Left for England.
Other	1943	Covered the war in New Guinea.
Other	1944	Published a book of his poetry, 100 poems.
Other	1944	Resigned from position as an official war correspondent in a protest against the Army's Public Relations Branch. He returned to his work at the Sun.
Other	1947	Became literary editor of the Sun newspaper.
Other	1953 - 1971	Appointed a member of the advisory board of the Commonwealth Literary Fund.
Other	1956 - 1951	Editor of the literary journal Southerly.
Other	1956 - 1964	Became president of the Journalist's Club in Sydney.
Other	1957	Slessor left the Sun to become leader writer and book reviewer for the Daily Telegraph.
Date of honour or award	1959	Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Date of death	30 June 1971	North Sydney, NSW.