Person

Wadham, Samuel MacMahon (1891 - 1972)

Kt

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    Wadham, Samuel MacMahon Portrait
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Born
31 October 1891
Ealing, London, England
Died
18 September 1972
Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Agricultural scientist and University Administrator

Summary

Sir Samuel Wadham was Professor of Agriculture, University of Melbourne, 1926-1956. President of the Royal Society of Victoria 1937-1938. He wrote and broadcast on aspects of farming and was a well-known and popular figure in farming communities. Wadham had a long record of service for Victorian and Commonwealth Government bodies, having a significant influence on Australian rural and agricultural policies. Among his publications was the pioneering Land utilization in Australia (1939, 4th edition 1964) with G. L. Wood.

Details

Interviewed at Cambridge, for Chair of Agriculture, University of Melbourne [Interviewed by George Swinburne and John Henry MacFarland]

Chronology

1913
Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), Christ's College, Cambridge
1913
Education - Diploma of Agriculture (Agr.Dip), Christ's College, Cambridge
1914 - 1918
Military service - Captain, British Army [Signals Officer]
1917
Education - Master of Arts (MA), Christ's College, Cambridge
1919?
Career position - Researcher, British Ministry of Agriculture [Mycology; ecology of the Fens; yield variation in cereals]
1919 - 1925
Career position - Senior demonstrator, Botany Department, Cambridge
1926
Life event - Settled in Victoria
1926 - 1931
Career position - Professor of Agriculture, University of Melbourne
1926 - 1949
Career position - Member of Council, Council for Scientific and Insustrial Research
1929
Career event - Member, Federal Dairy Investigation Committee
1930
Career position - President, Section K (Agriculture and Forestry), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
1932
Education - Master of Arts (MA), ad eundem, University of Melbourne
1932 - 1957
Career position - Professor of Agriculture, University of Melbourne [Secured tenure after resigning]
1934
Career position - Member, Royal Commission on the Wheat Industry
1935
Career event - Elected to Council, University of Melbourne
1936 - 1937
Career position - Member, Nutrition Advisory Council, Commonwealth Government
1937 - 1938
Career position - President, Royal Society of Victoria
1939
Career event - Book published Land Utilization in Australia with Gordon Leslie Wood
1943 - 1946
Career position - Member, Rural Reconstruction Commission
1947
Award - Farrer Memorial Medal, Farrer Memorial Trust
1948
Award - Inaugural Australian Medal of Agricultural Science, Australian Institute of Agricultural Science - in recognition of his work on the Rural Reconstruction Commission
1949 - 1956
Career position - Member of Council, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
1949 - 1960
Career position - Member, Commonwealth Migration Planning Council
1956
Life event - Retired
1956
Award - Doctor of Laws (LLD), honoris causa, University of Melbourne
1956
Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt)
1958 - 1972
Award - Life Member, Australian Institute of Agricultural Sciences
1961
Career position - President, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)
1963 - 1965
Career position - Member, Commonwealth Committee for Tertiary Education

Related Awards

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

The University of Melbourne Archives

  • Samuel MacMahon Wadham - Records, 1925 - 1972; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Humphreys, L.R., Wadham: Scientist for Land and People (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000), 240 pp. Details
  • Wadham, S. M., Australian Farming 1788-1965 (Melbourne: F. W. Cheshire, 1967), 156 pp. Details
  • Wadham, S. M. and Wood, G. L., Land utilization in Australia (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press in association with Oxford University Press, 1939), 360 pp. Details
  • Wadham, Sir Samuel, Selected addresses / with a biographical study by G. Blainey (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1956), 91 pp. Details
  • Wadham, Sir Samuel MacMahon, Science (Melbourne; Ithaca: Oxford University Press; Cornell University Press, 1963). Details

Book Sections

  • Humphreys, L. R., 'Wadham, Sir Samuel McMahon (1891-1972), Professor of Agriculture' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie and Diane Langmore, eds, vol. 16 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), pp. 456-459. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160549b.htm. Details

Edited Books

  • Leeper, G. W. ed., Sir Samuel Wadham (Melbourne: 1956). Details

Journal Articles

  • Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, '150 Years, 150 Stories: Samuel McMahon Wadham', Uni News, 12 (14) (2003), 4. Details
  • Wadham, Sir Samuel, 'The Extension to the Agricultural School. [Historical Review of the University of Melbourne School.]', Melbourne University Gazette, 11 (1955), 82-83. Details

Resources

Resource Sections

See also

  • Ashton, D. H.; Ducker, S. C., 'John Stewart Turner 1908-1991', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (3) (1993), 278-290. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9930930278. Details
  • Birch, L.C.; Browning, T. O., 'Herbert George Andrewartha 1907-1992', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (3) (1993), 258-268. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9930930259. Details
  • Clarebrough, L. M.; Head, A. K., 'Walter Boas 1904-1982', Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (4) (1987), 507-517. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9870640507. Details
  • Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, 150 years, 150 stories: brief biographies of one hundred and fifty remarkable people associated with the University of Melbourne (Melbourne: Department of History, University of Melbourne, 2003), 168 pp. Details
  • Stephens, C.G.; and Quirk, J.P., 'James Arthur Prescott 1890-1987', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (3) (1988), 299-313. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9880730299. Details

Digital resources

Title
Wadham, Samuel MacMahon Portrait
Type
Image

Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098]; Ken McInnes

EOAS ID: biogs/P000854b.htm

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