Alexander George Mitchell (1911-1997), academic, studied English literature and language at the University of Sydney and the University of London before joining the English department of the University of Sydney, where he assumed the McCaughey Chair of Early English Literature and Language in 1947. In 1961 he became deputy vice-chancellor. Mitchell’s research into Australian English was profoundly influential, demonstrating that the speech of Australians had its own history, legitimately distinct from ‘Standard English’ or ‘Received Pronunciation’ of which, until then, it had been deemed an undesirable corruption. His books included The Pronunciation of English in Australia (1946, and revised edition 1957 with Arthur Delbridge), The Use of English (1954) and The Speech of Australian Adolescents (with Delbridge, 1965).A member of the interim council charged with planning a third university for Sydney - Macquarie University - and later vice-chair of that university’s first council, Mitchell became Macquarie’s foundation Vice-Chancellor in 1965.Mitchell saw the university grow exponentially and championed its innovative character, which fostered a broad liberal education through large multidisciplinary schools and engagement with industry, commerce and the community. He oversaw the establishment of the groundbreaking Social Sciences Resource Centre in 1974. Although he was never one of its editors, his interest in Australian English is credited with having informed the development of the Macquarie Dictionary, first published in 1981 and revised for several editions since.
