Person

Dornwell, Edith Emily (1865 - 1945)

Born
31 August 1865
New Zealand
Died
18 November 1945
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Teacher
Alternative Names
  • Raymond, Edith Emily (married name)

Summary

Edith Dornwell was the first woman to graduate from the University of Adelaide (in 1885), and the first person to graduate with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Australia. Her undergraduate career was distinguished with several awards, including the Sir Thomas Elder Prize in Physiology in 1883. Upon completing her degree, Dornwell taught for several years at her former secondary school, the Advanced School for Girls. Her subjects were mathematics, physics, Latin and physiology. She then taught at schools in Victoria and New South Wales for eight years. After her marriage in 1895, she moved to Fiji where her husband had a post with Commonwealth Sugar Refineries. The couple returned to Sydney after his retirement where she was active in the Lyceum Club and the National Council of Women.

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Details

Chronology

1870s
Education - Attended primary school at the State Central Model School, Adelaide
1877? - 1882
Education - Attended secondary school at the Advanced School for Girls (now Adelaide High School), Adelaide
1882
Education - Matriculated with honours in French, German, animal physiology and modern history, from Advanced School for Girls, Adelaide
April 1883
Award - Sir Thomas Elder Prize in Physiology, University of Adelaide
1885
Education - BSc (with first class honours in physics and physiology), University of Adelaide
1886
Award - Presented with a special prize of 20 guineas by the Chancellor of the University of Adelaide in 'recognition of the satisfactory manner' in which she passed the examinations
1886 - 1887
Career position - Teacher of mathematics, physics, Latin and physiology, Advanced School for Girls, Adelaide
1890 - 1894
Career position - Headmistress, Riviere Ladies' College, Woollahra, New South Wales
1890s
Career event - Applied unsuccessfully for the position of Principal of Women's College, University of Sydney
13 February 1895
Life event - Married Lionel Charles Raymond, Walkerville, South Australia

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Journal Articles

  • Anon, 'Australia's first female graduate [Edith Dornwell]', Lumen: the University of Adelaide alumni magazine (2014), 5. Details

Resource Sections

See also

  • Creese, Mary R. S.; and Creese, Thomas M., Ladies in the laboratory III: South African, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2010), 258 pp. Details
  • Mackinnon, Alison, The New Women: Adelaide's Early Women Graduates (Netley: Wakefield Press, 1986), 228 pp, p.34. Details
  • Mackinnon, Alison, Love and Freedom: Professional Women and the Reshaping of Personal Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 298 pp, p.81-2. Details

Sara Maroske

Created: 26 September 2024

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