Clifford Amandus Burmester was the eldest son of Henry Peter Burmester and Ethelena Ann Field (who was a granddaughter of Thomas and Ann Stone) and born on 16 June 1910 in Boulder, Western Australia where his father was an engine-driver in the Water Supply Department.
The family moved to Perth in 1922 and after attending Perth Modern School he proceeded to the University of Western Australia and graduated B.A. (Hons) in 1933. In 1935 he was appointed to a position in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library in Canberra and married Winifred May Lamb at St John’s, Canberra on 30 August 1936.
Northern Territory Library
He enlisted at Paddington, NSW on 20 March 1942 and joined the 2/1st Medium Regiment at Cowra, NSW. This was an artillery regiment which undertook garrison duties in Australia and overseas.
In June 1943 he attended the School of Artillery, N.C.O.’s Wing at Holsworthy, NSW and qualified as a Battery Assistant and subsequently was transferred to the 55 Australian Composite Ant-Aircraft Regiment which moved to the Northern Territory at the end of the year.
He was discharged in Sydney on 27 November 1945 and returned to the Parliamentary Library in Canberra. He was appointed Chief Reference Officer in 1947 and posted to London as the Library Liaison Officer in Australia House. While there he negotiated over the Rex Nan Kivell and the Kashnor collections.
His marriage to Winifred had ended in divorce in June 1947 but while he was in England he married Helen Ruth Southcott at St Columba’s Church of Scotland in Chelsea on 1 January 1948.
He returned to Australia in 1951 and transferred to the National Library in 1960 where he was appointed Assistant National Librarian in 1967. He retired in 1971 and died in Canberra on 18 August 1991.
