Guide to the Papers of R. Selkirk Panton

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MS 5808

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Collection Summary

Creator
R. Selkirk Panton
Title
Papers of R. Selkirk Panton
Date Range
1901-1991
Collection Number
MS 5808
Extent
2.21 metres (13 boxes + 2 folios)
Language of Materials
English
Repository
National Library of Australia

Introduction

Scope and Contents

The collection contains material from three main stages of Panton's life: 1926-1940, derived from Panton's pre-war life in Europe; 1940-1944, during the period of his internment by the Germans in Denmark; 1945-1951, his return to active reporting, including attendance of the Nuremberg war crime trials and reporting on the Korean War. Other papers concern the journalistic and charity work he undertook following his return to Australia in 1952 and draft materials for planned autobiographical works.

The papers include press collects and cuttings, diaries, correspondence, diaries, draft and manuscript material, notebooks, photographs, tourist maps and guides, and ephemera such as holiday souvenirs.

The file added in 2004 contained further materials for Panton's intended autobiography and was placed with the existing autobiographical materials in File 73.

Conditions Governing Access

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1398825).

Conditions Governing Use

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred Citation

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of R. Selkirk Panton, National Library of Australia, MS 5808, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The papers were donated to the Library in 1977 by Joan Provis, sister of Ronald Panton. A small quantity of material was added in 2004 by Panton's son, Ronald N. Panton.

The Library holds a small biographical file on Ronald Panton containing a photocopy of a biographical article from People magazine (multiple copies are contained in the collection, e.g. in File 74) and an obituary from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Arrangement

With the exception of Series 7 (photographs) and some of the miscellaneous material and notebooks in Series 4 and 5, the papers seem to have been filed by Panton himself. The files were organised into series by the Library. Of the sorted material, most items were ordered by type and chronology; the few individual items out of date sequence have been left in their original position within the files.

The arrangement also appears to have been made to facilitate the writing of an autobiography and a book concerning Panton's experiences of the war and immediate post-war period. For instance, the file entitled ‘Book' (File 74) contains a one-page handwritten life chronology for Panton which includes some descriptive titles which also appear as titles of subject files.

Similarly, File 73 contains a much lengthier, typewritten chronology of significant personal, historical and news events on which Panton reported in his letters and Daily Express articles. The chronology covers the period 1907-1950 with a lacuna from 1947-1949 and the years 1939-1945 dealt with very briefly. Copies have been placed with the appropriate year's correspondence/cuttings files, although the originals include handwritten annotations and minor corrections. Some parts of the chronology for the years 1928-1939 draw heavily on the Panton's letters to his parents, and were typed-up separately with the handwritten heading ‘Letters'. Many of the Series 2 correspondence/cuttings files for the years 1927-1940, and a few other files, include small, handwritten notes, which likewise constitute rubrics of interesting, colourful and noteworthy events.

Biographical Note

Ronald Selkirk Panton was born in Pymble, New South Wales, on 11 May 1907, the son of Charles S. Panton, a journalist and newspaper editor in Sydney and Melbourne and later General Secretary of the Federal Viticultural Council.

Panton left school at 14 with the ambition of following his father to become a journalist, although his first jobs were as an office boy and initial attempts at freelance journalism resulted in limited success. He considered working his passage to England, but was pre-empted when his father offered his two sons a return fare to England and ?100 for expenses.

Panton used the money to fund a bicycle tour of Britain and the Continent, then in September 1927 joined the Berlitz Language School in Berlin where he taught English to, among others, senior members of the Reichsbank and Reichspost. In 1929 he was commissioned to open a Berlitz School in Breslau. In Berlin he met Sefton (‘Tom') Delmer, soon to become Berlin correspondent for the London Daily Express, who helped Panton gain his first full-time journalistic position as the assistant Berlin correspondent, commencing in September 1929. The same year he met his first wife, Natalia Snessarev (also known as Natasha), a White Russian and daughter of the editor of Novo Vreme; they married the following year. In 1933 Panton became the Express' correspondent in Vienna, returning to Berlin in 1935 when he was made Bureau Chief. Throughout the 1930s he gained many front-page leaders and ‘scoops', reporting the rise of the Nazis, the Greek anti-monarchic coup of 1935, the surprise marriage of Prince George and Princess Marina, and the murder of Austrian Chancellor Dr Engelbert Dollfuss. He attended all three meetings between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler, and met Hitler, Hermann Göring and other senior Nazi officials socially.

Panton and his wife left Germany for neutral Denmark in November 1939 in order to establish a news service based there, but they were interned in April 1940 following German occupation of the country. Their son, Ronald Nicholas Charles Jens (‘Kolya'), was born shortly afterwards. In either February or March 1945 they were repatriated to Britain and Panton became a war correspondent attached to the US First Army. He was present at the first link-up of American and Russian forces and reported on the Potsdam conference and the surrender of Admiral Dönitz. He was the only Australian journalist present at the Nuremberg war crime trials and one of two British journalists to be present at the executions. He was later present in Berlin throughout the Blockade of 1948-1949.

In December 1950 Panton went to South East Asia to head a team of Daily Express reporters covering the Korean War. He had divorced from Natasha earlier that year. He returned to London the following year and in 1952 returned permanently to Australia, bringing with him his recently-married second wife, Hungarian-born Katalin (‘Kitty') Helena Agnes Pugh (née Eperjesy) and her daughter, Coral. In Sydney Panton became a foreign affairs columnist for the Sun and held a regular commentary program for commercial radio broadcaster 2UE. He also became involved in charity work for such organizations as the Westminster Abbey Appeal, Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust Fund, United Nations Appeal for Children and the Deaf and Blind Children's Appeal. From 1958 until his retirement in 1966 he was the Readers' Digest book editor and worked for the University of Sydney Post-Graduate Medical Foundation. He became public relations officer for the Royal Blind Society in 1971. He died in Sydney on 2 February 1975.

Item Descriptions

Series 1. Nuremberg trials, 1945-1946

All material in this series relates to the Nuremberg war crimes trials and dates from 1945 and 1946, when Panton was present as a member of the press camp. With the exception of Files 1, 4, 10, 11 and 12, all Files contain varying quantities of press cuttings and press collects; File titles describe the other material contained in the File.

Press collects, Daily Express, London, [1946?] (File 1) - Box 1

Nuremberg executions, 1946 (File 2) - Box 1

Biographical sketches. (File 3) - Box 1

Notebooks. (File 4) - Box 1

International Military Tribunal summary of Judgment. (File 5) - Box 1

Closing address of Robert H. Jackson, International Military Tribunal. (File 6) - Box 1

Nuremberg trials matter (File 1), notes. (File 7) - Box 1

Nuremberg trials matter (File 2), notebooks, correspondence. (File 8) - Box 1

International Military Tribunal public relations booklet, acquittals. (File 9) - Box 2

Notebooks. (File 10) - Box 2

Notebooks. (File 11) - Box 2

Notebooks. (File 12) - Box 2

“Nuremberg first phase.” (File 13) - Box 2

Notes, indictment documents. (File 14) - Box 2

Prosecution- and defence-related materials, Opening Statement of Lord Chief Justice Lawrence, Press Camp guide. (File 15) - Box 2

Prosecution-related materials, dissenting Opinion. (File 16) - Box 2

1945 (File 1): proceedings, prosecution-related materials, biographical sketches. (File 17) - Box 2

1945 (File 2): biographical sketches, dissenting Opinion. (File 18) - Box 2

1945 (File 3): proceedings, list of defence counsel. (File 19) - Box 3

Series 2. Correspondence/cuttings files, 1926-1945

Mixed correspondence, postcards, press cuttings and press collects, and some ephemera such as press handbooks. The files for the years 1926-1932 consist almost entirely of letters from Panton to his family. Files for later years include a greater proportion of cuttings and more general correspondence, including some letters from Natasha Panton to her husband's parents. From 1940 onwards there is minimal family correspondence.

Files 44-47, deriving from the period of Panton's internment, appear to have been arranged separately from the rest of the files and have been placed at the end of this Series. They include correspondence with a variety of organisations and individuals including the American Legation in Denmark, the Danish Foreign Office and the Danish Red Cross.

1926-1927 (File 20) - Box 3

1927 (File 21) - Box 3

1926-1927 (File 22) - Box 3

1927 (File 23) - Box 3

1928 (File 24) - Box 3

1929 (File 25) - Box 3

1929 (File 26) - Box 3

1930 (File 27) - Box 3

1931 (File 28) - Box 4

1932 (File 29) - Box 4

1933 (File 30) - Box 4

1934, 1935 (File 31) - Box 4

1936, 1937 (File 32) - Box 4

1938 (File 33) - Box 4

1939 (File 34) - Box 4

1939 (File 35) - Box 4

1940 (File 36) - Box 4

1940 (File 37) - Box 4

1942, 1943, 1944 (File 38) - Box 5

1947 (File 39) - Box 5

1948 (File 40) - Box 5

1949 (File 41) - Box 5

1950-1951 (File 42) - Box 5

1952 (File 43) - Box 5

1940-1944: 1940-1941 (File 1) (File 44) - Box 5

1940-1944: 1941-1943 (File 2) (File 45) - Box 5

1940-1944: 1943-1944 (File 3) (File 46) - Box 5

Correspondence with the U.S. Legation and Danish Foreign Office regarding financial matters, 1940-1941 (File 47) - Box 5

Series 3. Subject files, 1934-1968

Most files consist of relevant press collects and cuttings, but also included is a significant proportion of other materials such as correspondence (including some from Natasha Panton to Panton's parents), ephemera, cheque books, telegrams, scripts, photos and postcards.

Berlin Blockade, 1948. “Monty shows white flag”, 1946 (File 48) - Box 6

London, 1945. Hitler - brother of Paula Wolff. Leipzig, 1945 (File 49) - Box 6

Berlin, Big 3, 1945. Store Grundet internment, including post-internment addresses of internees, 1942-1945 (File 50) - Box 6

Before Berlin, [Heinrich] Himmler, 1945 (File 51) - Box 6

[Karl] Doenitz roundup, Lord Haw Haw, 1945 (File 52) - Box 6

Berlin, 1945 (File 53) - Box 6

Link-up, Berlin town plan, 1945 (File 54) - Box 6

Food crisis, 1945-1946 (File 55) - Box 6

Hitler's death, Joachim von Ribbentrop, 1945 (File 56) - Box 6

Germany - pictorial, n.d. Press cuttings on various personalities, 1938-1968 (File 57) - Box 7

“Murder of a myth”, concerning assassination of Austrian Chancellor, Dr Engelbert Dollfuss. (File 58) - Box 7

Royal Romance concerning Prince George and Princess Marina of Greece, 1934-1935 (File 59) - Box 7

Balkan bombshell, 1934. Back to Berlin, 1935 (File 60) - Box 7

“The king who never was” (Edward VIII), 1935-1968 (File 61) - Box 7

Tokyo 1950-1951 (File 1) (File 62) - Box 7

Tokyo 1950-1951 (File 2) (File 63) - Box 7

Series 4. Notebooks and associated materials, 1927-1948

A majority of the items in this Series relate to the Nuremberg trials and the period immediately following Panton's release from internment.

Notebooks, address book, 1945-1948 (File 64) - Box 7

Notebooks, diaries, c.1945 (File 65) - Box 7

Notebooks, diaries, address books, 1927-1946 (File 66) - Box 8

Address book (File 67) - Box 8

Notebooks, diaries, c.1945 (File 68) - Box 8

Notebooks, diaries, c.1945 (File 69) - Box 8

Address books, [c.1945?] (File 70) - Box 8

Berlin telephone directory, 1946 (File 71) - Box 8

Berlin telephone directory, 1946 (File 72) - Box 8

Series 5. Drafts and notes, 1901-1974

Autobiography - chronology; autobiographical materials, n.d. (File 73) - Box 8

Book, n.d.. Biographical interviews, 1952-1957 (File 74) - Box 9

Biographical information, including a Panton biographical “synopsis”(covering 1927-1950), 1930-1971 (File 75) - Box 9

Newspapers, historic, 1901-1963. War book, c.1965 (File 76) - Box 9

Manuscripts. Includes draft scripts, press collects, list of chapter titles/summaries and typescript drafts for autobiography/war book, 1929-1971 (File 77) - Box 9

Papers relating to appeals organized by Panton, 1955-1958 (File 78) - Box 9

Copies of Outpost internee camp magazine, 1940-1941 (File 79) - Box 9

Miscellaneous unsorted, ‘to be filed', Greek coup of 1935, 1921-1974 (File 80) - Box 9

Series 6. Press cuttings, 1933-1973

The series consists mostly of cuttings of articles written by Panton, consistently following the contemporary style for by-lines and calling himself ‘Selkirk Panton'. There are also some press collects and correspondence.

Biographical, 1969-1971 (File 81) - Box 10

Biographical, war-related, 1965-1973 (File 82) - Box 10

1933 (File 83) - Box 11

1938 (File 84) - Box 11

1939, including notes of Second World War events. (File 85) - Box 11

1945 (File 1) (File 86) - Box 11

1945 (File 2) (File 87) - Box 11

1945 (File 3) (File 88) - Box 11

1945 (File 4) (File 89) - Box 11

1952, topics include Ronald Panton biographical and Nazi Germany. (File 90) - Box 11

Series 7. Photographs, postcards and tourist materials, c.1926-c.1973

A mixture of postcards and photos taken by Panton and his first wife, primarily of holidays on the Continent, in Scandinavia and on a Mediterranean cruise during the 1930s, with a further concentration of photos from the period of their internment. Tourist guide books and (motoring) maps.

Photograph album (1): Berlin, holidays in Europe and the Mediterranean, 1930s (File 91) - Box 11

Photograph album (2): holidays in Europe, the Mediterranean and Scandinavia, 1930s (File 92) - Box 11

Photographs, c.1926-c.1973 (File 93) - Box 11

Press photos for possible book: Bevin etc., c.1938-1940s (File 94) - Box 11

Photographs, postcards, Austria and Italy, c.1939 (File 95) - Box 11

Italy, internment, 1930s-1944 (File 96) - Box 11

1930s-1940s (File 97) - Box 11

1930s (File 98) - Box 11

1930s-1940s (File 99) - Box 12

1930s (File 100) - Box 12

Italy, Morocco, 1930s (File 101) - Box 12

Italy, Morocco, 1930s (File 102) - Box 12

Tourist guides/maps of Norway, France and Sweden, 1947-1948 (File 103) - Box 12

Tourist guides/maps of London and Britain, c.1950 (File 104) - Box 12

Tourist materials, 1932-1952 (File 105) - Box 13

Tourist materials, 1935-1952 (File 106) - Box 13

Photographs, 1927-1940s (File 107) - Box 13

Postcards, guide books, 1930s (File 108) - Box 13

Postcard sets 1930s (1) (File 109) - Box 13

Postcard sets 1930s (2) (File 110) - Box 13

Series 8. Cuttings books, 1937-1940

The majority of the cuttings are of articles written by Panton for the Daily Express.

6 December 1937-31 January 1938 (File 111) - Folio-Box 1

1 February 1938-1 March 1938 (File 112) - Folio-Box 1

2 March 1938-6 June 1938 (File 113) - Folio-Box 1

11 June 1938-29 August 1938 (File 114) - Folio-Box 1

30 August 1938-30 September 1938 (File 115) - Folio-Box 2

1 October 1938-21 November 1938 (File 116) - Folio-Box 2

22 November 1938-6 February 1939 (File 117) - Folio-Box 2

7 February 1939-28 April 1939 (File 118) - Folio-Box 2

29 April 1939-31 July 1939 (File 119) - Folio-Box 2

[1 August 1939-19 August 1939] (File 120) - Folio-Box 2


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