Person

Butlin, Sydney James Christopher Lyon

• Syd Butlin
• Professor S J Butlin

1910 - 1977

Syd Butlin was born in Sydney on 20 October 1910. He completed a Bachelor of Economics, University of Sydney (1932) and a Bachelor of Arts, Cambridge University (1934). In 1934 he worked as a Research Officer, Government Statistician's Office, Sydney and became Assistant Lecturer, Department of Economics at the University of Sydney in 1935. He completed a Master of Arts, Cambridge University (1939) and was Lecturer, Department of Economics and then Professor of Economics at the University of Sydney. From 1941-1943 he was the Director, Economic Division of the Commonwealth Department of War Organisation, Melbourne. Butlin was Dean, Faculty of Economics, University of Sydney from 1946-1955; a member of the senate (1963-67); chairman of the appointments board (1954-55, 1958-61) and of the Social Science Research Council of Australia (1958-62); president of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand (1953-54); a member of the Round Table group, and a founder and deputy chairman (1962-77) of Sydney University Press. From 1971-1976 Butlin was Professor of Economic History (personal chair), Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. He died in Sydney on 14 December 1977.

Sydney; Melbourne; Canberra

academic, economist, historian

Prepared by volunteer Victor Isaacs, December 2009; revised on 9 September 2011

Schedvin, CB, Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 13, 1993, pp. 320-322, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/butlin-sydney-james-christopher-lyon-syd-9647 (accessed on 9 September 2011)