Fred Schonell

Who was Fred Schonell?

Sir Fred Schonell was an Australian educationist, and vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland from 1960 to 1969.

He wrote two series of books for children. The Happy Venture series, noted for the characters Dick and Dora, and the Wide Range series, were written from the late 1930s till the early '50s. Both were widely used as school books throughout the British Commonwealth for many years. Schonell's wife Eleanor and others contributed to the series, and it has been claimed they were plagiarised by the US based Dick and Jane authors.

He was knighted in 1962.