Camilla Hildegarde Wedgwood (25 March 1901 – 17 May 1955) was a British anthropologist and academic administrator. She is best known for her research in the Pacific and her pioneering role as one of the British Commonwealth's first female anthropologists.
Camilla Wedgwood | |
|---|---|
| Born | Camilla Hildegarde Wedgwood 25 March 1901 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England |
| Died | 17 May 1955 (aged 54) Sydney, Australia |
| Education | Orme Girls' School Bedales School |
| Alma mater | Bedford College, London Newnham College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Anthropologist |
| Parent(s) | Josiah Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood and Ethel Bowen Wedgwood |
Early life and education
editWedgwood was born on 25 March 1901 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.[1] Her father was Josiah Wedgwood later the first Baron Wedgwood. Her mother, Ethel Bowen Wedgwood, was the daughter of a Lord Justice of Appeal, Charles Bowen. She was a member of the extensive Wedgwood family.[2] Her parents separated in 1914 and divorced in 1919.[3]
Wedgwood was educated at two private schools: Orme Girls' School in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, and at Bedales School in Steep, Hampshire.[1] She studied at Bedford College, London and at Newnham College, Cambridge.[2] At the University of Cambridge, she studied for both the English and anthropology Tripos.[1] She completed both, leaving with first class honours but no degree (women were not awarded degrees by Cambridge until 1948).[1] She was awarded Master of Arts status by Cambridge in 1927.[2] She studied under Bronisław Malinowski at Bedford College and Alfred Cort Haddon at Cambridge.[1]
Career
editAfter leaving the University of Cambridge, Wedgwood returned to Bedford College as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Social Studies.[1][3] After Arthur Bernard Deacon's death in 1927, she was invited to move to the University of Sydney to replace him as lecturer in anthropology.[1][2] She was also asked by Alfred Radcliffe-Brown to edit Deacon's remaining field notes in preparation for publication.[1] These field notes were published as "Malekula: A Vanishing People in the New Hebrides" in 1934.[4] In 1930, she held a temporary lectureship in the Department of African Life and Languages at the University of Cape Town.[2] From 1930 to 1932, having returned to England, she was a lecturer at the London School of Economics and personal assistant to Bronisław Malinowski.[1][3]
In 1932, Wedgwood was awarded a fellowship by the Australian Research Council to conduct fieldwork on Manam Island off the north coast of Papua New Guinea on the border of modern Madang and East Sepik provinces.[2][3] Also in 1932, she became a Member of Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute.[2] In June 1935, she was appointed principal of The Women's College, University of Sydney.[3] During this time, she became an active member of Sydney high society.[3] She left the appointment in 1944 to join the military.[2]
During World War II, Wedgwood was involved in formulating policy on education and administration in Papua New Guinea.[1] Having renounced her pacifism, she volunteered for the Australian Army Medical Women's Service and was commissioned as a temporary lieutenant colonel in January 1944.[2][3] After two years of service, she was demobilized in 1946.[2]
After the war, Wedgwood took a position at the Australian School of Pacific Administration, which was responsible for training Australian colonial officers and administrators.[3] She continued in this role until her death on 17 May 1955 of lung cancer at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney.[3]
Wedgwood Close in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named in her honor.[5]
Personal life
editWedgwood was a member of the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers) and as such was a pacifist. During the Second World War she was the president of the Federal Pacifist Council.[6] However, she was increasingly attracted to Anglicanism during her time in Australia and particularly to the Anglo-Catholic wing of the church. She was received into the Church of England in Australia in 1944.[1]
Selected works
edit- Deacon, A. Bernard (1934). Wedgwood, Camilla H. (ed.). Malekula: A Vanishing People in the New Hebrides. London: Routledge.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Maddock, Kenneth; Wetherell, David (May 2009). "Wedgwood, Camilla Hildegarde (1901–1955)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/65556. Retrieved 26 February 2017. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "WEDGWOOD, Hon. Camilla Hildegarde". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. April 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Wetherell, David (2002). "Wedgwood, Camilla Hildegarde (1901–1955)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ Marett, Robert Ranulph (2 August 1934). "A Vanishing People". The Times Literary Supplement. No. 1696. p. 536.
- ^ "Schedule 'B' National Memorials Ordinance 1928–1972 Street Nomenclature List of Additional Names with Reference to Origin: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Special (National: 1977–2012) – 8 Feb 1978". Trove. p. 14. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
- ^ "PACIFISM AND PEACE". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 3 June 1943. p. 4. Retrieved 6 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
Further reading
edit- Camilla : C.H. Wedgwood 1901–1955, a Life. 1990. By D. Wetherell and C. Carr-Gregg. Kensington, N.S.W. : New South Wales University Press.
- She was Very Cambridge: Camilla Wedgwood and the History of Women in British Anthropology. 1986. By Nancy Lutkehaus. American Ethnologist 13(4):776-98.
- Finding guide for Wedgwood's Papers in the National Library of Australia
- Australian Dictionary of Biography