Sir Douglas Mawson was leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition from 1911-1914 and the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition from 1929-1931. He was Lecturer in Geology, University of Adelaide from 1905-1920 and Professor of Geology and Mineralogy from 1921-1952. In 1914, Mawson married Francisca Adriana (Paquita) Delprat, daughter of Henrietta and Guillaume Delprat, who was general manager of B.H.P. Steel from 1899-1921. They settled in Adelaide where they had two daughters: Patricia (b. 1915) who married Ifor Thomas in 1947, and Jessica (b. 1917), who married Peter McEwin in 1944. Lady Paquita Mawson published biographies of her father, A vision of steel: the life of G.D. Delprat, C.B.E., General Manager of B.H.P. 1898-1921 (Cheshire, 1958), and of her husband, Mawson of the Antarctic: the life of Sir Douglas Mawson F.R.S., O.B.E. (Longmans, 1964).
From the description of Papers of the Mawson family, 1898-1997 [manuscript]. [1898-1997] (Libraries Australia). WorldCat record id: 754617673
