Person
Wadham, Samuel MacMahon (1891 - 1972)
Kt
- 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 - 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
- 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
Gavan McCarthy [P004098]; Ken McInnes
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 19 December 2023
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