Born in 1882, George Mackaness was the son of George Mackaness, a printer and lithographer, and his wife Annie Ellen, née Barnett. He was one of eight children in the family. He trained as a teacher and spent many years as English master at
Fort Street Boys' High School, Sydney. His book
Inspirational Teaching was widely acclaimed. He was in charge of the English Department at
Sydney Technical College from 1924 to 1946. He was on the board of the
Commonwealth Literary Fund, and a trustee of the
Public Library of New South Wales. He was longtime member of the
Royal Australian Historical Society, and president in 1948–9. He wrote over 70 books and journal articles, including a life of
William Bligh (1930) and
Arthur Phillip (1937). Between 1935 and 1962, he edited and privately published in limited editions, a series of
Australian Historical Monographs (later reprinted by Review Publications, Dubbo), consisting of valuable original research plus reprints of key but forgotten historical pamphlets. He amassed in his Drummoyne home probably the largest private collection of
Australian books. This huge library was sold via three catalogues issued by
Angus & Robertson in 1966. Mackaness was president of the
Book Collectors Society of Australia for two years (1958–1959). He was awarded the OBE in 1961 and an honorary DSc (Syd) in 1961. ==Personal life==