Wadham, Samuel MacMahon (1891 - 1972)

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 - First World War. 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 -

Career event - Member, Australian National Research Council

1937 -

Career event - Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)

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

Award - Doctor of Laws (LLD), honoris causa, University of Melbourne

1956

Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt)

1956

Life event - Retired

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 entries

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, volume 16: 1940 - 1980 Pik-Z, John Ritchie and Diane Langmore, eds (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

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21538214. Details
• 'Wadham, Samuel (1891-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-636604. Details
• 'Awarded honorary LLD, 1956', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details
• 'Awarded honorary MA, 1932', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details

Resource Sections

• University of Melbourne Archives, 'Samuel M Wadham Collection', 1996, http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/collections/wadham/. Details

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
• 'Wadham, Samuel MacMahon (1891 - 1972)', Farrer Memorial Trust Medal recipients and orations, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Sydney, 2023, https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/596205/farrer_oration_1947_prof_sm_wadham.pdf. https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/about-us/who-we-are/interacting_2/farrer-memorial-trust/farrer-memorial-trust-medal-recipients-and-orations. 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