Walter Edmund Roth correspondence
Collection
This collection contains letters written from Walter E Roth to "Charles". "Charles" is Charles William Holland (b. 27 Oct 1868), who worked in the Department of Public Lands and became Chief Clerk of that department in 1918. Charles Holland was living in Burns Road, Toowong, Brisbane, at the time he received the letters. The letters were written after Roth had left Australia for British Guiana. Roth writes mainly about current events in his life as well as reminiscing about the times he was living in Queensland. The letters often refer to former friends and colleges known to both Roth and Charles.
Walter Edmund Roth was born on 2 April 1861 in London to Mathias and Anna Maria Roth, nee Collins. He came to Sydney in late 1887. In 1896, he became government surgeon attached to hospitals at Boulia, then at Cloncurry and Normanton. In 1898 he became Queensland's first northern Protector of Aborigines, serving in that position until 1904, when he became Chief Protector. Between 1901 and 1906 Roth, published eighteen bulletins on northern Queensland ethnography. He left Australia in 1906 to work for the British Colonial Service in Guiana [Guyana], holding several positions. He later held the position of Government Archivist and Curator of the Georgetown Museum. Walter Edmund Roth died on 5 April 1933 in Georgetown, Guyana. He is remembered in the naming of the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology in Georgetown.
Out of copyright.