Camilla Hildegarde Wedgwood: Pioneering academic

In this article, volunteer researcher, Michele Harper details Wedgewood’s career, including her advocacy for social justice and her work with the Australia School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA) – a former tertiary institution on Sydney Harbour that operated on land that is today managed by the Harbour Trust.

Good stock and great feats

Camilla Wedgwood was born in 1901 in Northern England and, as if fated by her family lineage, went on to lead a life of academic excellence. In addition to being a direct descendant of Josiah Wedgwood, a famous potter, abolitionist and entrepreneur, she was also the great-great-niece of renowned naturalist Charles Darwin.

Wedgewood began her academic journey at Bedford College for Women (University of London), aged 17. There, she developed interests in debating, drama, Icelandic Studies, Old Norse and early English sagas. She subsequently enrolled in Newnham College (University of Cambridge), where she achieved first-class Honors in English (1922) and anthropology (1924). Despite these feats, Wedgewood was not granted a degree from Cambridge as, at that time, the university did not issue degrees to women.

A Trailblazer in Academia

In 1928, the University of Sydney appointed Wedgwood as a temporary lecturer in anthropology after which she went on to serve in lecturer roles with both the University of Cape Town in South Africa and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

In 1932, Wedgwood was granted a fellowship by the Australian National Research Council to undertake field work on the lives of women and children on Manam – an island off the north coast of New Guinea. She also spent time in Nauru conducting research work and planning the establishment of a secondary school for girls.

Wedgewood returned to Australia in 1935 upon accepting an offer to become the principal of the University of Sydney’s Women College – a position she would hold until the start of 1944. During this period, Wedgewood maintained a high social profile, owing both to her academic standing and her family connections.

She identified as pacifist and was a member of the Sydney Meeting of Quakers where she developed strong social reformist interests. From 1937, she pleaded the cause of Jewish and minority groups suffering persecution under the Nazi regime and raised money for the passages of refugees to Australia. Towards the end of the Second World War, Wedgwood renounced her unqualified pacifism at the Sydney Meeting of Quakers and became an Anglican. Although she remained a strong advocate for peace, Wedgwood felt able to volunteer for the Women’s Service in the Australian Army because it was an opportunity to further use her Pacific-centric anthropological research for good.

Championing social justice

In January 1944, Wedgwood was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel with the Australian Army and was assigned to the Army Directorate of Research at the express wishes of General Sir Thomas Blamey. Intermittently between 1944 and 1947, Wedgwood conducted research on the condition of education in Papua New Guinea and noted the general indifference towards the education of women. As a result of this research, Wedgwood developed policies for the postwar educational reconstruction in Papua New Guinea.

In 1947, Wedgwood joined the staff of the Australia School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA) at Middle Head in the Sydney suburb of Mosman. A successor to the Army’s Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, ASOPA was originally located at Royal Military College in Duntroon but had been relocated to Middle Head where it was housed in a group of army huts. The former location of ASOPA at Middle Head is now under the guardianship of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust (Harbour Trust).

Wedgwood travelled to England for family reasons between 1947 and 1948 and, during this brief period, she held a position at the Institute of Education, University of London. On her return to Sydney in 1948, she resumed her work at ASOPA as a senior lecturer in anthropology and native education. In 1951, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) invited Wedgewood – as an expert in the South Pacific region – to attend a seminar in Paris on the use of vernacular languages in education. She was actively involved with the organisation’s Social Welfare section.

A remarkable life

Wedgwood made both applied and academic contributions to the field of anthropology. Of note was the male bias she recognised in anthropological research and her efforts to promote and reform Indigenous education in the South Pacific.

Camilla Wedgwood died at the Royal North Shore Hospital on 17 May 1955, after a long battle with lung cancer. In her short life, Wedgwood’s achievements, including her advocacy for social justice, earned her praise and gratitude. Notably, both a secondary school for girls in the Papua New Guinea highlands and a memorial lecture conducted in Port Moresby were named in her memory, and Wedgewood’s close friend, poet James McAuley, dedicated his poem ‘Winter Nightfall’ to her memory.

References:

• Australian Women’s Weekly, Saturday 11 May 1935, page 31
• Campbell I C, The ASOPA controversy. Journal of Pacific History – June 2000 Journal of Pacific History - June 2000 (archive.org) (retrieved 27 February 2024)
• McBride Jennifer, Camilla Hildegarde Wedgwood. 1901-1955. Women’s Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society. Camilla Hildegarde Wedgwood (webster.edu) (retrieved 27 February 2024)
• Papua New Guinea Post Courier, Thursday 20 November 1969, page 5
• The Australian Women’s Register, Wedgwood, Camilla Hildegarde. Wedgwood, Camilla Hildegarde | AWR (womenaustralia.info) (retrieved 27 February 2024)
• Wetherell David, Camilla Hildegarde Wedgwood (1901-1955) Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, 2002 Biography - Camilla Hildegarde Wedgwood - Australian Dictionary of Biography (anu.edu.au) (retrieved 27 February 2024)

Article was originally published on 12 March 2024.