A progressive traditionalist: Sir Edwin Van-Der-Vord Nixon CMG, Accountant, (1876–1955)

Abstract

This article contributes to remedying the paucity of biographical information about Australian luminary accounting figures in the first half of the twentieth-century, a period of enormous change and development in the accounting profession, particularly in relation to its organisational structure, international links, literature, intellectual base, education and role in relation to government in both peace- and war-time. It is argued that no individual luminary is more neglected by biographers, yet deserving of extended biographical treatment, than Sir Edwin Van-der-Vord Nixon, one of the great figures in Australian accounting, whose eponymous firm was a critical antecedent to the present day EY Australia. Nixon’s career spanned the crucially important ‘coming of age’ period in Australian accounting. The key evolutionary developments in Australian accounting that provided the foundation for the modern profession are the backdrop against which Nixon’s lifelong career in accounting can be observed.