Archibald Cameron Hollis-Hallett (1927 - 2003)

Ancestors

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Biography

HOLLIS-HALLETT, Archibald Cameron (Archie) [UNTD YORK '44] (1927 - 2003) Age: 76 The In Memoriam below was written by his son.

"Archibald Cameron Hollis Hallett, 1927-2003,Archibald Cameron Hollis Hallett was born in Bermuda on 5 February 1927, the son of Rupert Carlyle Hollis Hallett D.C.L., Assistant Chief Justice, and Jessie Wales (Cameron) Hollis Hallett, M.B.E. His early schooling was obtained in Bermuda at the Saltus Grammar School and in 1943 he attended St. Andrew's College in Ontario, Canada for one year to obtain university-entrance standard. In 1944, he entered the University of Toronto from which he took his bachelor's degree in experimental physics in 1948. He obtained a scholarship from the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 with which he enrolled as a Research Student in King's College, University of Cambridge in England, and did research into the properties of liquid Helium for which he received his PhD in 1951.

In 1951, A. Hallett joined the staff of the Department of Physics in the University of Toronto as a Lecturer, and taught physics and supervised graduate students. He progressed through the academic ranks at the University of Toronto, becoming full Professor in 1963. In 1966, he was appointed Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Science in the same university, and in 1970 he accepted a seven-year appointment as Principal of University College there. At the conclusion of this appointment, he accepted the position of President of Bermuda College which position he held until mandatory retirement in 1992. He continued on as a part-time Consultant to Bermuda College.

While Principal of University College in Toronto, he devised and directed the plan for the restoration and renovation of the College building which had been built in 1856, gutted by fire in 1892, and had received designation as a National Historic Building. This plan was in five phases, and he completed the first three before the end of his term there. While President of Bermuda College, he developed and supervised the construction of the campus at Stonington in Paget. His work in education was recognized by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with the award of Officer of the British Empire in the New Year Honours list in 1992.

He was the author, or co-author with his graduate students, of about seventy scientific papers on Solid State and Low Temperature Physics. After his return to Bermuda, he established the Juniperhill Press to publish the works of himself and his wife on Bermudian topics. He compiled Bermuda in Print; A guide to the Printed Literature on Bermuda (1985), Early Bermuda Records 1619-1826; A guide to the Parish and Clergy Registers with some Assessment Lists and Petitions (1991), and was the author of Chronicle of a Colonial Church 1612-1826; Bermuda (1993). In 1950, he married Clara F.E. Gilbert daughter of Rev. C.F.L. Gilbert and Edith E. Gilbert. They had three children: William Langton Hollis Hallett, Mary Frances Hollis Hallett Saunders, and James Archibald Hollis Hallett."

Archie had an older brother, WILLIAM CARDY HOLLIS-HALLETT, who was killed during the Siege of Malta in 1942. He was a RAFVR Hurricane Pilot with 126 SQN.

A native of Pembroke, Bermuda, he entered U of T and was attested into the UNTD in October, 1944. He would have had at least one UNTD summer in 1945, but there is no indication of any subsequent Naval service, or whether he remained in the UNTD post-war. He went on to a very substantial scientific / academic career, including the Presidency of University College, U of T, before returning to Bermuda for additional contributions there. Bill C.

Sources

• http://www.angelfire.com/on2/untd/HOLLIS.pdf