Vale Errol Lea-Scarlett (1932-2019)

[Re-printed with kind acknowledgement to Queanbeyan Museum and it's Journal 'Quinbean']

It is with sadness that we note the passing of historian Errol Lea-Scarlett. He wrote the authoritative history of our area: Queanbeyan District and People, Queanbeyan Municipal Council, 1968.

His research papers and photographs related to Queanbeyan are deposited at the Queanbeyan-Pallerang Regional Council Library in Queanbeyan.

Errol Lea-Scarlett was born in Sydney in 1932 and graduated in Arts from the University of Sydney in 1953. Through his mother (formerly Constance Tuttell), who was born and reared in Queanbeyan, he is descended from John Breen, host of the Harp of Erin Inn, who arrived in the district in the mid eighteenth thirties, and from John Webb of 'Springbank', who began farming near Canberra in 1841.

He has been a councillor of the Society of Australian Genealogists since 1954 and curator of its important collection of historical manuscripts. He was well known as a lecturer and writer on historical subjects, and in 1963 published a major analysis of the records of St Thomas Cemetery, North Sydney. He was a teacher of history, and for many years was on the staff of St Augustines College Brookvale. Besides history his other main interest was music, and was the organist at of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney for a number of years.

Errol Lea-Scarlett's publications include:

• Queanbeyan. District and People. Queanbeyan Municipal Council, 1968.
• Gundaroo, Errol Lea-Scarlett, Roebuck Society, 1972.
• Roots and Branches: ancestry for Australians tracing your family tree. Errol Lea-Scarlett, Collins, 1978.
• First light on the Limestone Plains: historic photographs of Canberra & Queanbeyan, Errol Lea-Scarlett & Tim Robinson, Hale & Iremonger [for] Canberra & District Historical Society, 1986.