WILLS, Neville R[eginald]

Foundations of Steel. The BHP Story [an unpublished typescript manuscript]

[No Place, The Author], December 1956.

Foolscap folio, [ii] (title and contents), [224] leaves (rectos only) of processed typescript, comprising nine individually-paginated chapters. There are 12 chapters listed in the table of contents, but the first two are combined, the last two are not present ('The Iron & Steel Industry - Post-War 1945-50 - Problems and Solutions', and 'The BHP Group Today, and the New Round of Steel Expansion'), nor are the Foreword, Introduction, and Epilogue.

Hole-punched contents bound in a plain overlapping manila folder with a metal fastener attached to the rear cover; folder a little marked and creased, with a mild signs of handling; a very good copy (internally excellent).

An explanation for the failure of this work to be published may be found in the following sequence of contemporary events. In 1958, Lady Paquita Mawson published the biography of her father, 'A Vision of Steel. The Life of G.D. Delprat CBE. General Manager of BHP, 1898-1921. With a Foreword by R.G. Menzies CH QC and an Introduction by Essington Lewis CH'. The foreword by the Rt. Hon. R.G. Menzies is dated June 1957, and he signed it as 'Prime Minister, The Commonwealth of Australia'. Essington Lewis succeeded Delprat as general manager of BHP, and went on to even bigger things. Lady Mawson states in her preface that 'I would like to thank my two friends, Neville Wills and Brian Rowe, of BHP's head office, both of whom have helped me in many matters of detail'. His BHP story was essentially being told.