Jump to content

Mungo Ballardie MacCallum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mungo Ballardie MacCallum
Born
John Mungo Ballardie MacCallum

(1913-12-11)11 December 1913
Died12 July 1999(1999-07-12) (aged 85)
Sydney, Australia
Spouse(s)Diana Wentworth (m. 1939)
Polly MacCallum (m. 1972)
ChildrenMungo Wentworth MacCallum
ParentMungo Lorenz MacCallum (father)
RelativesMungo William MacCallum (grandfather)

John Mungo Ballardie MacCallum (commonly known as Mungo Ballardie MacCallum, 11 December 1913 – 12 July 1999) was an Australian journalist, broadcaster and poet.[1]

Early life

[edit]

MacCallum was born in Point Piper, Sydney on 11 December 1913. His father was Mungo Lorenz MacCallum, a Rhodes Scholar,[2] barrister and journalist, and son of Dorette and Mungo William MacCallum, Chancellor of the University of Sydney. He attended Sydney Grammar School and studied arts at the University of Sydney.[3]

Career

[edit]

MacCallum began as a cadet journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald during his second year at Sydney University, shortly before his father's death in 1934. In 1941 he joined the Army Education Service as the editor of SALT, a journal written by and by Australian troops, with contributions from several well-known Australian writers and from MacCallum himself. SALT was popular throughout the armed forces and was valued also by many Australian officials and war correspondents.[4]

After the end of the War and the closure of SALT (1946), MacCallum worked for several years as a columnist with the Sun, a Sydney tabloid newspaper, before joining the ABC in 1952. After a stint at the BBC, he helped produce the first night of television in Australia in 1956.[5] His books included two novels, Voyage of Love, and Son of Mars, and a memoir, Plankton's Luck.[6] Later, in the 1960s, he wrote for a journal named Nation.[7] He had a son, Mungo Wentworth MacCallum, with his first wife, Diana Wentworth.

Death

[edit]

MacCallum died in Sydney on 12 July 1999.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "MacCallum, Mungo (Mungo Ballardie), 1913-1999". State Library of New South Wales. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  2. ^ Bygott, Ursula, "Dorette Margarethe (Dorothea) MacCallum (1863–1952)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 23 January 2024
  3. ^ "Mungo Ballardie MacCallum". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  4. ^ MacCallum, Mungo (1986). Plankton's Luck: A life in retrospect. Hawthorn: Hutchinson of Australia. ISBN 009157350-5.
  5. ^ "Australian Biography: Mungo MacCallum". National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  6. ^ Arnold, John; Hay, John A., eds. (2001). The Bibliography of Australian Literature: K–O. University of Queensland Press. p. 250.
  7. ^ "Mungo Ballardie MacCullum [sic]". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 19 May 2016.