Vale Rob Linn 1953-2022
There is a saying that important events come in threes – in this case it applies to the death of preeminent South Australian historians who have died in the last year. Peter Howell died last year, Jack Cross early this year and most recently Rob Linn on 4 March, 2022.

Robert Wadmore Linn (always known as Rob) was born to Dr Howard Wadmore Linn (died 1975, aged 53) and his wife, Helen Mary nee Dunn (died 2009, aged 91) on 24 February 1953. He received his secondary education at Prince Alfred College from 1964. He received the Bruce Hamilton Prize for English and Essays in 1970. In the same year he gained Full Colours in tennis and played intercollegiate tennis for the College in 1970-71. He was made a School Prefect in 1971. Rob went on to study Arts at the University of Adelaide and received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Degree in 1977, followed by a Master of Arts in History in 1984, with his thesis, The mentalities of early South Australian pastoralists: the Angas, Keynes, McBean and Melrose families in central South Australia.

In 1984 Rob established Historical Consultants Pty Ltd with his wife, Jane, who became his research assistant for most of his historical research. Since then, over 50 historically related books have been written, plus many articles in journals, and hundreds of oral interviews, many of which related to the histories that he had been commissioned to write.

Of the 51 histories that Rob prepared, most of them can be broadly classified as 13 local histories, 12 health/welfare histories, 9 corporate histories, 4 educational histories, 2 biographies, one church history and 8 that aren’t easily classified. Probably the best are his local histories. The problem with corporate histories is that they are being prepared for a customer, who has a significant say in what appears. Rob won many literary awards. In 2011 his history of the University of Adelaide North Terrace Campus won the Mander Jones Award of the Australian Society of Archivists. He won the Australian Water Association Literary Award 2004 for Murray Water is Thicker than Blood: the stories of the families who made the River Murray’s locks and barrages. He won the National Book Council's inaugural Lysbeth Cohen Award for biography for his Nature’s Pilgrim at the National Council’s 1990 Banjo awards. His Bungaree: Land, stock and people won the Genealogy Society Family History of the Year award in 1993. The Judges’ commented: “This is an outstanding work of family history … the reader’s attention is engrossed from beginning to end … As a record to be used by other historians, Bungaree is again exemplary … The research has been impeccable … this is a fine piece of history and one which has been beautifully presented.” Rob also ensured that the large archive relating to Bungaree station was transferred to the State Library of South Australia to ensure its preservation.

Rob joined the SA Genealogy and Heraldry Society in 1987, the same year that he was for a short period the Manager of South Australians 1836-1886. In 2020, he presented to the Society, his almost complete collection of South Australian Parliamentary Papers, Gazettes and Hansard, that he had been given by the Government Printer when it was disbanded.

Rob was an interviewer for the National Library of Australia's oral history program and has been a consultant to ABC Radio National’s Social History Unit, the J.D Somerville Oral History Collection at the State Library of South Australia, the Keith Murdoch Sound Archive, and the Australian War Memorial. Rob undertook the largest oral history project of its type in the world for the Australian wine industry – 213 hours.

Rob Linn was the consummate historian having taught in universities and TAFE, published a multitude of publications, articles and reports, undertaken hundreds of high-quality oral history interviews and won recognition for his excellent work.

Rob was survived by his wife Jane, nee Russell, and their children, Josephine Mary (b.1986), Matthew Wadmore (b.1988), Sarah Jane (b.1989) and Benjamin Robert (b.1991), plus many grand-children.

He believed that history should be active, engaging and entertaining, as well as educational – he accomplished this.

References:
Prince Alfred College Archives
History Council of South Australia
Professor Wilfrid Prest
South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society databases

Andrew Peake