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Wedgwood, Camilla Hildegarde (1901 - 1955)

MA, FRAI

Born
25 March 1901
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
Died
17 May 1955
St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Anthropologist and Educator

Summary

Camilla Wedgwood, the fifth of seven children of Josiah and Ethel (née Bowen) Wedgwood, came to Australia in 1928 to lecture in anthropology at the University of Sydney. She then lectured at the University of Capetown, South Africa and at the London School of Economics and Political Science before being granted a fellowship to study the lives of women and children on Manam Island, New Guinea by the Australian National Research Council. Later Wedgwood became principal of Women's College at the University of Sydney and held this position until her appointment in the Australian Army Medical Women's Service, at the express wish of General Sir Thomas Blamey. She developed policies for postwar educational resconstruction in Papua New Guinea. Following her discharge Wedgwood returned to lecturing. A member of the Australian Student Christian Movement she was also involved with the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children, the Anthropological Society of New South Wales, the Australian Federation of University Women and the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

Details

Events

1920
Studied anthropology at Newnham College, Cambridge, under W E Armstrong and A C Haddon
1922
Passed with first-class honours the English tripos
1923
Held the Arthur Hugh Clough scholarship
1924
Held the Bathurst scholarship
1924
Passed anthropology tripos
1924
Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
1925
Joined the Society of Friends
1926 - 1927
Assistant lecturer in the Department of Social Studies at Bedford College, London
1927
Qualified as Master of Arts (MA)
1928 - 1929
Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology with the University of Sydney
1930
Temporary lecturer in the Department of African Life and Languages with the University of Cape Town
1931 - 1932
Member of the British Social Hygiene Council
1931 - 1932
Assistant lecturer with the London School of Economics
1931 - 1932
Council member of the Royal Anthropological Institute
1932 - 1934
Granted a fellowship by the Australian National Research Council for research work in Manam Island, New Guinea
1935
Carried out research work in Nauru Island
1935 - 1944
Principal of the Women's College at the University of Sydney
1936 - 1944
Honorary lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Sydney
1944 - 1945
Service in New Guinea
11 January 1944 - 16 January 1946
Lieutenant-colonel, in the Australian Army Medical Women's Service, attached to the Army Directorate of Research and Land Headquarters School of Civil Affairs
1947 - 1948
Taught at the Institute of Education at the University of London
1949
Senior lecturer in native administration at the Australian School of Pacific Administration (now ITI, International Training Institute)

Sources used to compile this entry: Alexander, Joseph A (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1950, 14th edn, The Herald, Melbourne, 1950, 816 pp; Howard, Ann, You'll be sorry!, Tarka, Sydney, 1990, 193 pp; Wetherell, David, 'Wedgwood, Camilla Hildegarde', in Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, Australian National University, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160613b.htm.

Related entries

Related Organisations

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Olive Pink - Correspondence, 1897 - 1971, MS 766; Papers of E. W. Pearson (Ernest William Pearson) Chinnery, 1887-1972.; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
  • Papers of Camilla Wedgwood, 1928 - 1954, MS 483; Wedgwood, Camilla Hildegarde (1901 - 1955); National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

National Library of Australia, Pictorial Collection

  • Manam Island, Territory of New Guinea, [and] Nauru, 1932 - 1935; Wedgwood, Camilla Hildegarde (1901 - 1955); National Library of Australia, Pictorial Collection. Details

University of Sydney, Archives

Published resources

The Australian Women's Register Exhibitions

Books

  • Wedgwood, Camilla H, The Hiri, Longmans Green and Co, London, 1955. Details
  • Wedgwood, Camilla H, Plays for young pupils, Longmans, Green, Melbourne, 1956, 54 pp. Details
  • Wedgwood, Camilla H. (compiled by), Education in the Pacific Islands : a selective bibliography, South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia, 1956, 80 pp. Details

Online Resources

See also

  • Alexander, Joseph A (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1950, 14th edn, The Herald, Melbourne, 1950, 816 pp. Details
  • Deacon, A. Bernard and Wedgwood, Camilla H (edited by), Malekula : a vanishing people in the New Hebrides, G. Routledge & Sons, London, 1934, 789 pp. Details
  • Hogbin, H. Ian and Wedgwood, C., Development and welfare in the Western Pacific, Australian Institute of International Affairs, Sydney, 1943, 31 pp. Details
  • Howard, Ann, You'll be sorry!, Tarka, Sydney, 1990, 193 pp. Details

Anne Heywood

Created: 19 November 2003, Last modified: 24 April 2009

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