Memorial
to a Great Man:
Kenneth Gordon McIntyre, from Australia
By Manuel Luciano da
Silva, Medical Doctor
June 2004
On the other side of the world, in Australia, someone read my article about the discovery of Australia by the Portuguese, 248 years before James Cook, and decided to send me an update information about Kenneth Gordon McIntyre who died last month. He was the author the great book entitled "The Secrecy of the Discovery of Australia by the Portuguese”. I did not know that Kenneth McIntyre was a lawyer. He became an excellent research historian. He proves the point, once again, that the most original discoveries in history and anthropology are made my Amateurs!
Here is the e-mail I received from Australia, for which I am most grateful. The writer does not wish to be identified.
Dear Dr. Da Silva:
On your website you refer to Andrea Corsali and in doing so mention K G McIntyre of Geelong, Australia.
Mr McIntyre died last month. He would have been 94 next August.
He lived at his home in Geelong where he was well cared for until he died of complications following surgery, made necessary by certain physical consequences flowing from his diabetes.
He was, until the end, alert and remained interested in the history of the exploration of the Pacific. He was not an academic historian, but a lawyer. He had a very distinguished career in the law. He retired from his Melbourne legal practice in 1971, and thereafter devoted himself to his other interests, principally history.
Towards the end of his life he was troubled by poor eyesight, and this meant that he could not keep up with his correspondence.
His wife pre-deceased him. As he told you in his letter of February, 1990, he had no children. He is survived by the younger of his two sisters. Through his sisters he had seven nephews and nieces, and many great-nephews great-nieces, most of whom live in the Geelong area.
The Portuguese Government were represented at his funeral by members of the Portuguese Consulate in Melbourne. His funeral was held at the Wesley Church in Yarra Street Geelong (he was a lifelong Methodist) and he was buried at the East Geelong cemetery.
Kenneth Gordon McIntyre was a researcher for the historical truth. I hope that his memory will be respected for many generations to come, not only by Australians but by the citizens of the world.
God bless his soul!