The families of the New England University College

Workmen, Booloominbah 1938. There was great pressure to get the College open quickly. Alterations were still underway as the first staff and students arrived.  

This year marks the eightieth anniversary of the foundation of the New England University College in 1938, the first university institution in Australia outside the capital cities. As part of the anniversary, over October 2018 I ran a short series of columns on the families of the College.

Institutional histories focus on the institution. That's understandable. However, the NEUC could not have survived without the sacrifices made by the wives. For most, they were far removed from family support and had to manage with uncertainty and sometimes primitive conditions. The children of the NEUC families, the siblings, grew up in an amalgam world that was intensely local while also being global. Sydney was remote, more remote in fact than Oxford or Cambridge or Manchester.

This post gathers the family columns together so that you can follow the story through. Many things are left out, suppressed in order to fit within tight newspaper word limits, but they will give you a taste of a small but unique part of Australia's history. I have also included some links to earlier pieces that tell a little of the history of the NEUC, as well as a short UNE video made to celebrate the College's anniversary.

The family series is:

• New England University College: building an academic institution 
• Armidale's university family grows 
• Dedicated beginnings to New England's college
• University college 'siblings' experience a rich life

Earlier in 2018, I completed the first part of a series of columns on the Pacific Belshaws. This includes a number of columns on the early days of the NEUC.

• The Pacific Belshaws 5 - Belshaw appointed to Armidale 
• The Pacific Belshaws 6 - Brothers immersed in Depression economics
• The Pacific Belshaws 7: Fast-paced start for uni college
• Intense first days for new College
• New England University College fights to stay open.
• University college ‘starved'
• Building university into a regional power house
• 1954: University of New England finally achieves autonomy

On 1 November 2018, the University held a morning tea for the alumni of the NEUC This is the short video prepared for the occasion. I note one error. In redoing a short grab I said that my mother, Edna Belshaw, was David Drummond's grandaughter. She was, in fact, his daughter. Felt a bit silly when I spotted it later!

University college 'siblings' experience a rich life

Overseas Students' Week 1960: The Columbo Plan brought many international students. By the early 1960s, they formed a significant part of the student body.This is the fourth and final of a short series telling you a little of the story of the wives and children of the New England University College. 

This last column in my present series focuses on the siblings, the children of the early University College academic staff.. I don’t know when this word first emerged, but it does capture one element of life, the interaction between children linked though their parents. There weren’t a lot of us; we were of differing ages and of different interests; but many of the links created survive to this day.

Life wasn’t always easy for the siblings. This was an intensely local world. We were new fish in a still small pond, the children of academics. This sometimes created expectations at school that we would, somehow, be brighter than average, expectations that I resented.

We also had to navigate our way through the social structures of life in Armidale and the broader New England beyond. This was a complex stratified world with varying interests and connections. How were we to fit in? What did we talk about to people whose backgrounds were so different to ours?

We managed as best we could, with varying degrees of success.

Our immediate world may have been intensely local, but it was also international in a way that is less true today, despite easier travel and greater media coverage. Sydney seemed and was remote. Our connections were more global.

In some ways, it was a remarkably privileged world, one that I have struggled many times to explain.

We had access to very good education for the time, with many of us following the same route from the Misses Coopers’ Kindergarten through Armidale Demonstration School or Ben Venue, both demonstration schools, to Armidale High or sometimes TAS for the boys and then to university. Many of us met people and had access to experiences that were not available to most Australians. 

In my own little world, I sat and listened to the political and economic arguments about decentralisation, about state and national politics. I listened to intellectual debates on academic and cultural topics. I listened to discussions about the events in the University College or young University. There were books, papers and current periodicals everywhere..

Then there were the visitors who had to be entertained at home in the absence of local restaurants. I was allowed to sit in on the early parts of dinner and to ask questions. I met people such as Spanish intellectual Salvador de Madariaga or the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal who was a particular favourite of my father’s.

We also mixed with students and staff, including the growing number of overseas students and young staff who came to Australia with the Columbo Plan. This introduced many of us to new foods and cultures.

In all, it was a remarkably rich if sometimes difficult experience, one unique to a particular place at a particular time. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 24 October 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018 . 

Dedicated beginnings to New England's college

 Beginnings: This now faded 1939 photo shows the first directors of the newly formed New England University College Union.To mark the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the New England University College in 1938, this is the third of a short series telling you a little of the story of the wives and children of the new College. 

Growing up in Armidale, the interacting rhythms of town, gown and country set the patterns of my early life.

Town patterns included school and church, the shops, the local play, sport, the events such as the show. Country patterns included the rhythms of pastoral and agricultural life, the regular visits to town by country people, lambing and shearing. Gown patterns were set by the rhythms of life in the young College and then University; the three terms still carrying their old English names; the examination cycle; the major academic ceremonies; the various university functions including games and fetes; and the academic visitors who had to be entertained and shown the district

In the University College period in particular, the lives of the wives and growing number of children of the academic staff centered around the College. If you lived in Sydney, you could choose to live away from the University, to create a separation between family and work. That was not possible in Armidale.  

The early academic staff had multiple roles.

They were building a new institution from scratch, creating structures, culture and patterns that mirrored their conception of a university. They were actively engaged in university outreach activities that fitted both their conception of the role of a university and the dreams and aspirations of the College’s founders. They were trying to maintain their own research.

Most of all, they were trying to educate, although not all were good teachers. Here they had a very particular role,

Today, there is a renewed focus in Australia on bringing university education to those who have not had access to it, who are missing out on the university option. When the College was founded, that was the dominant student body.

At Sydney University, most students came from middle class Sydney backgrounds, many were studying part time for career reasons.

At the College, students were drawn from across the North. They were generally young, the first in their family to attend university and had had no contact with university life. In many cases and especially for girls, their parents were actually distrustful of university education.

In these circumstances, teaching at the College involved far more than the delivery of courses, of lectures or seminars. It was a total immersion experience intended to give students the broader skills. attitudes and understandings required to succeed in academic life and beyond.

This made for a remarkably powerful university experience. On average, New England students had lower entry level qualifications than those going to Sydney. On average, they had significantly better examination results. During the period 1938-1953, the life of the University College, 441 students took their degrees. Of these, 88 graduated with honours, 27 with firsts of whom more than half took out university medals.

That's not a bad result. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 17 October 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018 . 

Armidale's university family grows

A Young James Belshaw outside the family home in 1948. Housing was very scarce in Armidale until the 1950s. To mark the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the New England University College in 1938, this is the second of a short series telling you a little of the story of the wives and children of the new College. 

In 1938 Armidale may have been classified as a city because of its bishoprics, it was already a recognized educational centre, the prospective capital of a new Northern state, but its population was only 7,000.

It was also a remote place, especially for those drawn from elsewhere to the new University College. There were no air services, road connections were bad and cars scarce. The night trains to Sydney and Brisbane provided the transport backbone.

With the exception of Isobel Blanch, the academic staff from that early period (1938-1940) were all male. Most were already married, some already children. Only two married local girls.

In 1939 Jack Somerville (Physics) married Muriel Naylor, while in 1944 Jim Belshaw (History and Economics) married Edna Drummond. Edna had been in charge of the new College library, marking the first, but certainly not the last, marriage within the university community.

In 1938 it was normal for women to give up work upon marriage. When Edna became engaged to Jim Belshaw in 1943, she resigned her College position.

Of the early wives, only Gwenda Davis maintained career interests finally becoming a staff member after husband Consett Davis went to war and then died. The University playing fields now carry his name.

The wives who came to Armidale were in a difficult position. Unlike Muriel Somerville or Edna Belshaw, they had no family support locally. They had to fit into a sometimes strangely alien community.

They also struggled with sometimes difficult conditions.

The College was founded on the dawn of war. Between 1938 and 1950, building materials were in very short supply. There were limited properties to  rent or buy, limited materials or labour to modify once purchased.

202 Marsh Street, the home my parents purchased, was a slightly bigger if some what nondescript California bungalow. However, there was no insulation. The howling winter westerlies came through the cracks in the weatherboard. The toilet was outside, as was the laundry.

The wives also had to cope with insecurity and limited financial resources.

The College may have been a college of Sydney University, but the staff were not employed by Sydney University.

As the war deepened, the Army tried to take over the College, Had that happened, the College would have closed and the staff lost their jobs. This created a wearing insecurity as the women worried about their men and the growing number of children in the College family.

The threat was averted, but it helped build links and cohesion among the College family, husbands, wives and the children who became known as the siblings. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 10 October 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018 .

New England University College: building an academic institution

New England University College matriculation ceremony 1939. Behind the work creating a new university lay the families of the academics. To mark the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the New England University College in 1938, this is the first of a short series telling you a little of the story of the wives and children of the new College

It is eighty years this year since the foundation of the New England University College, Australia’s seventh oldest university institution and the first founded outside a capital city.

On 18 April 1998 at a celebration to mark sixty years since the College’s foundation, some of the siblings, the children of the College’s early academic staff, met for the first time in a number of years. We came to be called the siblings because of the intense shared experiences from that early period.

Ten years later, Jenny Browning (Janet Howie) published a social history, Four Wives. This  focused on the experiences of four of the wives – Ella Howie, Gwenda Davis, Phyllis Voisey and Hilda Crossley – who came to Armidale with their husbands.

Later that year, UNE’s Dixson library mounted a special exhibition, Families of NEUC: A Social History as part of the celebration of the College’s 70th anniversary of the College. This examined the early days of the University through the eyes of the families that accompanied the first academics to their teaching posts in Armidale and the families of the staff that supported the running of the College

With the passage of time, those with living memories of NEUC as staff, students or children of the College have necessarily diminished. The College itself has begun to vanish into the mist of the past, becoming a simple addendum to the early history of the University.

That’s a pity. The early staff were all highly qualified and committed to building a new institution. They had to be, for the obstacles were considerable.

Today, the university takes pride in the fact that it has achieved maximum student satisfaction ratings for thirteen consecutive years, something no other Australian university can match.

It should, but we should not forget that it was the during the sixteen College years that the ethos of the place was created, an ethos that has continued despite sometimes turmoil in the later institution.

Under pressure and with limited resources, the College out-performed the mother university in teaching, research and community outreach. Staff knew that they had to be better just to survive, and in many ways they were.

But in all this, what about the wives? Jenny Browning makes a convincing case that without them, the College would have failed. They had to deal with insecurity, loneliness,. financial pressures, with multiple roles as they supported their husbands and families.

Over the next few columns I want to take you back into that now vanishing past, telling you about the wives and children of the College, of what it was like to be there.

I do not pretend that this will objective history. Rather, I want to capture the feel, the taste, of that time. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 3 October 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018 .

New England higher education 1 - Seventh Day Adventists and Avondale College 1897

Avondale College, Cooranbong, NSW, 27 August 1908. Photo Ralph Snowball (1849-1925). University of Newcastle Cultural Collections

The genesis of the Seventh Day Adventist Church can be found in the Millerite Movement of the 1840s in upstate New York, a phase of the Second Great Awakening, a Protestant religious revival that began around 1790 and then peaked around 1850. As part of this revival, Baptist preacher William Miller (1782-1849) formed the view based on his bible studies that Jesus Christ would return to earth between the spring of 1843 and that of 1844 for the biblical Day of Atonement. The failure of this prediction (the Great Disappointment) left Miller and his followers confused and disappointed. A search began for new answers, for an explanation.

In the discussions that followed many Millerites came to believe that Miller’s calculations based on Daniel 8:14-16 were correct, but that his interpretation that Christ would come to cleanse the world was flawed. Daniel foretold Christ’s entry into the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary rather than his Second Coming. This understanding of a sanctuary in heaven developed into the doctrine of the investigative judgment, an eschatological (end of days) process that commenced in 1844 in which every person would be judged to verify their eligibility for salvation and God's justice would be confirmed before the universe.

In parallel, other ideas were being developed or reinforced including the importance  of the Sabbath and the importance of a holistic approach to the person, to diet and lifestyle. I haven’t tried here to discuss Adventist beliefs in detail. At this point, I would simply note that in time they would translate to an emphasis on education, health and food in institution building. In an Australian context, this would include Avondale College and Sanitarium foods.

The Adventist movement had begun as small loosely knit groups from different churches. From 1849, a periodical called The Present Truth now Adventist Review provided a unifying vehicle. It’s editor James White (1821-1881) along with his wife Ellen G White (1827-1915) would now become co-founders of a new church. Ellen White came to occupy a particularly central role; her many visions and spiritual leadership convinced her fellow Adventists (among other things) that she possessed the gift of prophecy. She wrote extensively, providing the new church with an extensive  body of work that remains important today. 

On May 21 1863, a meeting formally established the church with its headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan and a membership of 3,500. From the 1870 it turned to missionary work and revivals. Membership increased to 16,000 by 1880 and then 75,000 in 1901. By this time the church operated two colleges, a medical school, a dozen academies, 27 hospitals, and 13 publishing houses.

Mission to Australia

On May 10, 1885, a party of eleven Americans including three pastors, a printer and a bookseller as well as two wives and four children set sail from San Francisco on the Australia with hopes to “open up a mission in Australia”.

The party arrived in Sydney on June 6, 1885. Leaving two pastors in Sydney, the others took the three day coastal steamer to Melbourne which had been chosen as initial headquarters. On 10 January 1886, the first Seventh Day Adventist church was formed with 29 members. Now events occurred that were to give Australia and indeed Northern NSW a place in church history.

James White had died on 6 August 1881, leaving wife Ellen and two surviving boys, James Edison and William Clarence, both of whom had been brought up in the church. Ellen, a powerful preacher, had continued their work. In 1891, she and William received a call to Australia, sailing at the end of the year.

William Clarence White , often known as W C or Willie to his friends, was born in Rochester, New York, August 29, 1854. On 11 February 1876 he married Mary Kelsey. Both were active in the church, with William serving in a number of leadership roles. Mary died from tuberculosis in 1890 at the age of 33 She contacted the disease while the couple were working in Switzerland on church business.

From his father’s death, William had worked closely with his mother. They made a considerable team. Now they left for Australia on what would be a nine year posting, initially leaving William’s daughters behind at Battle Creek.

Once in Australia, William divided his time between helping his mother and establishing the work in the new country. In 1894, he was named to lead the Australian Union. He exercised this responsibility until 1897 when he asked to be released from executive responsibilities to better support his mother’s literary work.

While in Australia William met and in married a Tasmanian woman, Ethel May Lacey. They appear to have had five children together.

Establishment of a new College

With Ellen’s guidance, a small bible college was established in Melbourne in 1892. However, she preferred a rural location and in 1893 a search began for suitable land. The problem was to find a block that the still small church could afford. The sources are silent on the matter, but I imagine the economic crash in the early 90s would not have helped.

Eventually the committee searching for the land found a 1,450-acre (5.9 km2) block of land at Cooranbong near Lake Macquarie 50 kilometres south west of Newcastle. The land was low priced, $3 per acre, because it was "poor, sandy and hungry". Asked to inspect the land, Ellen White gave her approval. The block was purchased in the Spring of 1895, with the Avondale School for Christian Workers opening in 1897. As illustrated in the lead photo, the early buildings at Avondale were built in the American New England architectural style rather than the Australian style.

While work continued on the Avondale buildings, construction began on a house for Ellen White. The Sunnyside Historical Home as it’s now known was completed in 1896 and still stands.

Sanitarium Health Food Company

Two major food companies are associated with the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Kellogs and the Australian/New Zealand Sanitarium health food business. Both reflect the early interest in diet in the church.

Upon his arrival in Australia, William White convinced Seventh-day Adventist Edward Halsey, a baker at John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium to immigrate to Australia. Arriving in November 1897, Halsey rented a small bakery in Melbourne, and produced granola (made of wheat, oats, maize, and rye) and Granose (the unsweetened forerunner to Weet-Bix). The product was sold door to door as an alternative to fat-laden or poor nutritious foods popular at the time.

In 1899, a bigger factory was opened at Cooranbong next door to the college. With further growth, a major new and rather striking factory was built in 1937. The world changes. In 2015 Sanitarium, while still owned by the church, announced that it was closing the plant over three years because the maintenance costs had become just too high!

The Whites return to the US

In September 1900, Ellen, William and his family returned to the United States after their nine years in Australia, terminating the direct connection. 

Evolution of Avondale College

In 1911 its name was changed to Australasian Missionary College, making it’s still limited purpose clear. Courses covered teaching, business, and biblical and mission studies. By the early 1950s students could study, B.Sc through the external program of the University of London, a BA through Pacific Union College, California and an MA through Andrews University Michigan. The 1960s were a time of expansion. In 1964 the institution was renamed Avondale College, while the men’s residence and first year’s women’s residence were completed.

In 1974, Avondale received Government accreditation to offer and its own bachelor degrees. From the 1990s it was allowed to offer its own master’s degrees with doctoral degrees offered from 2006. In 2010,  Council changed the name to Avondale College of Higher Education. as an interim step to achieving full university status. In December 2014, Avondale was granted self-accrediting status by the Australian Tertiary Education Quality & Standards Agency.

The past decade has seen significant development in staff qualifications and research output. Four research centres and an academic press have been established. There has been increasing interaction, including collaborative research with Australian universities, industry, and the professions. Scholarly activity has been facilitated by policies providing generously for staff research and professional development.

Avondale remains a small college by Australian tertiary standards, but not one without ambition.

Note on sources

As textual analysis would make clear!, this piece is drawn especially from assorted wikipedia entries, edited and consolidated.   

1954: University of New England finally achieves autonomy

NSW Education Minister and later Labor Premier Robert Heffron. His desire to create correspondence courses for teachers finally gave New England the opportunity to achieve autonomy as a university. This  is the thirteenth in the story of the Pacific Belshaws, the eighth on the early days of the University of New England. I am pausing the series here for the present because of length and will resume later.

Despite progress in some areas, at the start of 1953 the New England University College was struggling to some degree The number of students was much the same as it had been in 1948, while the dream of autonomy seemed as far off as ever. Then, as had happened at the time of its establishment, the political stars aligned.

NSW Education Minister Robert Heffron and his Department wanted to create correspondence courses to assist teachers to upgrade their skills. The University of Sydney politely but obdurately refused to cooperate on academic grounds. In the view of the University and its senior academics, standards could not be maintained, a real university education provided, through correspondence education.

Heffron had not previously been a strong supporter of the College. The changes that he had steered through the NSW education system including the establishment of the NSW University of Technology had effectively starved New England of the funds it needed to develop and achieve autonomy. Now Heffron looked to the College as an alternative to Sydney.

Many NEUC academics had similar reservations to their Sydney colleagues. Indeed, those reservations would not really subside until the more mature and motivated external students started to outperform their internal colleagues. However, Robert Madgwick as Warden felt that the proposal fitted his vision of broader education and was in the best interests of the College and therefore pushed the matter.

There were significant practical difficulties in suddenly adding the activity to an already resource constrained College. .In August 1953 Belshaw, again Acting Warden, advised Minister Heffron and Harold Wyndham as Director-General of Education that the new university would lack the resources to introduce external studies courses before 1955.

This created an acute political problem for Minister Heffron. In the discussions that followed, the NEUC Council finally agreed that they had no choice but to accept and also accept the Minister’s request that the new University should provide support to the newly established Newcastle University College, a college of the University of New South Wales.

On 3 November 1953, Belshaw advised that despite his Council’s reservations, “in the circumstances they would make every effort to ensure that the scheme is successful”. In December 1953, legislation was passed creating the University of New England with effect from 1 February 1954. Autonomy had finally been achieved.

I can understand both the practical and academic reservations about the proposal. However, as in 1928 with the Teachers’ College, 1938 with the University College, perfection is not always possible. Sometimes, you just have to grab your chances while you can. In this case, the decision provided a fundamental base for the subsequent growth of the University of New England.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 18 April 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018 

Contributing to Northern Life

Shirley Mckechnie at the UNE dance summer school. Under Peggy Van Praagh and Ms Mckechnie, the summer schools assisted the evolution of Australian dance. This  is the twelth in the story of the Pacific Belshaws, the seventh on the early days of the New England University College, University of New England

At the end of the Second World War, Jim Belshaw as Acting Warden had spoken of the New England University College as the powerhouse of the North. This view was shared by the College’s founders and the new Advisory Council.

This part of the College’s role s was seen in fairly broad terms; one part was the education of the young; a second economic development and especially the role that agriculture might play in that development; a third the contribution that the College might make to broader Northern life

Belshaw took up the regional development cause. In 1944, he combined with geology lecturer Alan Voisey to launch the New England University College Regional Research Bureau. This was more name than substance, the main print output appears to have been a pamphlet based on a series of articles originally published in the Northern Daily Leader, but it provided a platform for a new movement, the regional council movement.

Belshaw travelled the North, arguing for the creation of regional councils with real powers that could facilitate development, a cause taken up by a number of local councils. As it became clear that the Government in Sydney would not grant the new regional councils the power they needed to be effective, the regional councils movement turned into a resurgent New England New State Movement.

In parallel, Belshaw and his colleagues focused their research and writing on different aspects of the North. This output would peak in the early 1980s and then decline sharply as the University changed direction.

Appointed as Warden in February 1947, Robert Madgwick shared the vision but added to it high level administrative skills along with a profound belief in liberal and adult education.

After founding the Australian Army Education Service,  Madgwick played a major part in establishing the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme. He also sat (1943-46) on two inter-departmental committees which set out the future role of the Commonwealth government in education.

Madgwick constantly championed the cause of adult education. When his claims for a Commonwealth-funded national system were thwarted by lack of political support, he chose to leave Canberra and come to the College as a way of putting his ideas into practice in a direct way.

In June 1948, A W (Arnold) Eberle was appointed to head adult education. Eberle died suddenly in January 1954 and was replaced in 1955 by AJA (Arch) Nelson.

Under Eberle and then Nelson, the role played by the College/University in adult and then external education gave it regional reach and national prestige.

Speaking just of the dance summer schools, the Curator of Dance at the National Library Michelle Potter spoke of the excitement generated where creativity was fostered, where some of Australia’s most prominent artists made contributions, and where the talents of aspiring choreographers, dancers, writers and historians were nurtured.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 11 April 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018 

Building university into a regional power house

Colonel Robert B Madgwick, Director of Army Education at work, Toorak Melbourne.This  is the eleventh in the story of the Pacific Belshaws, the sixth on the early days of the New England University College, University of New England 

In February 1947, Robert Madgwick had been appointed as new Warden of the New England University College, replacing Belshaw as Acting Warden. He proved to be a good choice.

Belshaw had previously articulated a vision for the future university. In this he spoke of the College’s already considerable significance in political, social and economic arenas, of its great future, of its heavy obligation to research and extension work. To Belshaw, a third function of the university would be its role as the “power house” for its region.

Madgwick shared these views. Like Belshaw, he also believed in the role of education as a tool for economic and social advancement. However, he also brought a broader experience that would help form the character of the place.

Robert Bowden Madgwick was born in North Sydney on 10 May 1905, the second of three sons of Richard Charlton Madgwick and Annie Jane Elston. His father was a tram-driver in Sydney, his mother a dressmaker. Both were active members of the Anglican Church.. Madgwick stated later that his parents taught him that, "all men and women were sacred, and poverty and injustice were in some way contrary to God's teaching."

After attending Naremburn Public and North Sydney Boys' High schools, Madgwick entered the University of Sydney on a Teachers' College scholarship, graduating in 1927 with the first university medal in economics, an award shared with (Sir) Herman Black.

After teaching, for a period, Madgwick was appointed in 1929 to a temporary lectureship in economics at the University of Sydney. There he completed his Masters and then in 1933 was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship. This allowed him to complete a D Phil at Balliol College, Oxford, later published as Immigration into Eastern Australia 1788-1851.

Madgwick returned to the University of Sydney in 1936 as a lecturer in economic history. There on .19 May 1937 he married Ailsa Margaret Aspinall. The couple would have three daughters.

At Sydney, Madgwick had become involved in adult education as secretary of the University Extension Board. Now the War gave him an opportunity to put his evolving ideas on adult education into large scale practice when he became involved in planning an army education scheme.

In July 1943 he was appointed temporary colonel and given the title of director of army education, becoming head of what would be known as the Australian Army Education Service (AAES).

The AAES aimed: to build morale, to educate for citizenship, to provide a diversion from forward or staging-area tedium, and to prepare servicemen and women for demobilization. This was a large scale activity, with (among other things) some 10 million attending AAES classes.

I will continue this story in my next column.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 28 March 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018 

University college ‘starved'

College family: January 8, 1945. Edna, first college librarian and eldest daughter of college founder David Drummond, marries first staff member and now acting Warden Jim Belshaw. This  is the tenth in the story of the Pacific Belshaws, the fifth on the early days of the New England University College, University of New England 

The 1940s were a difficult time for the New England University College as it fought to establish itself with limited funds. However, there were some advances.

In January 1943, the Commonwealth Government established the Department of Post-War Reconstruction under the leadership of H C (Nugget) Coombs to plan and coordinate Australia's transition from a war economy with the goal of achieving and maintaining full employment.

One result was the first direct Commonwealth financial support to the university sector via the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme (CRTS). Student numbers increased from 180 in 1945 to 246 in 1948, partly as a consequence of ex-service personnel enrolling under the CRTS.

In 1946, the University also received a Commonwealth grant of £33,000 under CRTS to build a temporary laboratory block, the Belshaw Block, which finally opened in 1949. The new building may have been, as University librarian Edith Tattersall said, “a bleak, ugly, two-story barn”, but it was still a God send to the Faculty of Science

There were also some new staff appointments, including two ex-students, Paul Barratt (Psychology) and Alwyn Horadam (Mathematics). Barratt had been the first student enrolled at the new University College in 1938 and would later become Professor of Psychology

Despite this growth, the efforts progress the autonomy issue failed completely. Possible Commonwealth funding was drained by the creation of the Australian National University in 1946, an action vigorously promoted by H C Coombs. In New South Wales, the Government transformed the Sydney Technical College into an Institute of Technology and then in 1949, with much fanfare, into the New South Wales University of Technology, now the University of New South Wales.

This was a bitter outcome from a New England perspective: “the University of Sydney is being financially starved”, Drummond said, and “its offspring, the New England University College, is even more starved” Staff bitterness lingered for years.

In February 1947, Jim Belshaw as acting Warden had been replaced by Robert Madgwick. It had been a busy and productive time for Belshaw.

In addition to his duties as acting Warden, he had continued teaching, played a major role in creating the institutions that the College required and had become actively involved in the promotion of Northern development. He had also found the time to marry.

“I wonder”, he had written in his diary in 1938, “whether I shall ever have a wife and children?” Now his new bride was Edna Drummond, David Drummond’s oldest daughter.

Edna’s sisters were a little surprised at the news because she had not always been complimentary about Doctor Belshaw. In fact, it’s not so surprising. Edna had established the College library so they worked together, while Belshaw and Drummond had worked closely on College and Northern Development matters.

In February 1945 their first son, James, was born.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 21 March 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018 

New England University College fights to stay open.

Booloominbah, army convalescent hospital First World War: In 1942, the army's desire to use the mansion in the same way could have closed the New England University College for good. This  is the ninth in the story of the Pacific Belshaws, the fourth on the early days of the New England University College, University of New England 

Those who had fought so hard to establish the New England University College had always seen it as a first step towards the creation of a full university for the North. This view would shared by the newly formed Advisory Council and staff.

The outbreak of war affected students and staff, bringing progress to a standstill. At first it seemed that the College itself might close. In 1942, the Army sought to requisition Booloominbah as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers, a role that it had played during the First World War.

These were difficult hours. Despite opposition from College supporters, Sydney University VC Robert Wallace advised NEUC Warden Edgar Booth in May 1942 that the Army requisition was mandatory and that immediate action was required.

Now desperate, Booth visited Canberra to see the Minister for the Army and Deputy Prime Minister Frank Forde to put the College’s case. He was persuasive. Forde immediately revoked the decision, adding that proposed requisition was “neither essential nor in the best interests of the Commonwealth.”

This was a real-payback for the earlier speed in establishing the College and the subsequent work of the first staff and students. Without it, the College could well have closed, perhaps never to re-open.

By the middle of 1943, the College felt sufficiently settled to again pursue the autonomy question.

In July 1943, the Council submitted a memorandum to the Sydney University Senate suggesting that the time had come to prepare the College for independence. This was followed by a similar petition to NSW Premier William McKell in February 1944. In both cases, the appointment of full professors was seen as a central step.

Booth as College Warden pursued the autonomy cause with vigour. In May 1945, the Sydney University Senate agreed that the College should be prepared for autonomy and that its subsidy should be increased to allow the appointment of professors.

Satisfied that autonomy was in sight, Booth resigned in July 1945. He had played a crucial role in the successful establishment of the College and in the creation of its character and ethos.

Jim Belshaw as Deputy Warden became Acting Warden, a position he would hold until February 1947. when Robert Madwick was appointed Warden.

Belshaw continued to press the autonomy cause with the NSW Government, but to no avail. In late 1946, he was forced to report to the Advisory Council that “the replies being received were still of the same nature – the matter was still under consideration and the Government had not yet determined its final policy in relation to the decentralisation of university education.”

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 14 March 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018 

Intense first days for new College

Creating student life. First New England University College rugby union team, 1939. Back Row: Lewis Border, Consett Davis, Max Hartwell, John Rafferty, Jim Belshaw (Coach), Alf Maiden, Les Titterton, Frank Rickwood, Ken James Middle Row: Ralph Crossley, Paul Barratt, Pat Thompson, Alan Sutherland, Peter Durie Front Row: Ed Scalley, Harry Savage. For more detail on the players see Paul Barrat's New England University Rugby Team 1939

This post is the eighth in the story of the Pacific Belshaws, the third on the early days of the New England University College, University of New England 

The early days of the New England University College have been well described in memoirs including Keith Leopold’s Came to Booloominbah and Paul Barratt’s Psychology at New England.

From the student perspective, two things stand out: the first was the intensity of life in the small College, the second the standard of the education received. The staff perspective is a little different, more concerned with the practical difficulties of institution building and of teaching with limited resources.

The College’s academic staff necessarily came from elsewhere. They saw a university as a collegiate community of scholars, themselves as belonging to an international and especially British and Commonwealth academic tradition. They also saw teaching as a key role.

With the exception of local students who were allowed to live at home, the new institution was to be a fully residential. This was partly a matter of necessity, but it also reflected a belief that a true university was a residential university. Here many contrasted New England with the mother University, Sydney, where some students had little connection with the place apart from attendance at lectures.

During the early periods, limited accommodation on campus meant that many students had to live in town houses, but they were still expected to eat on campus and to be there for the day, to be full time students.

The students who came from across the North were generally young. For most, this was the first family connection with a University. Both the College as an institution and its staff saw part of their role as introducing the students to the academic community, to giving them the knowledge and life skills required to fit into their new world, to contribute and advance.

This was not just the required course knowledge, but a total university immersion. There was also a strong competitive ethos, of pride in institution. The early staff were well aware that their new institution was the subject of suspicion; they had to be better.

Student results were remarkable. On average, New England students had lower entry level qualifications than those going to Sydney. On average, they had better examination results. During the period 1938-1953, the life of the University College, 441 students took their degrees. Of these, 88 graduated with honours, 27 with firsts of whom more than half took out university medals.

In addition to their other duties, staff had to manage the sometimes fractious relations with a remote mother university. This strengthened a growing desire for autonomy, a desire shared by the new College’s Advisory Council whose members had been carefully selected to ensure broad representation from across the North.

This would prove to be a long battle.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 8 March 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018 

The Pacific Belshaws 7: Fast-paced start for uni college

Booloominbah: Early staff and students at the university college lived and studied together in Booloominbah, creating an intense student experience. This post continues the story of the Pacific Belshaws with a shift now to the early days of the New England University College 

The first columns in this series explored the early world of the Pacific Belshaws. Our focus now shifts to the early days of the New England University College.

It was a remarkable period, remarkable in the academic results achieved, remarkable in the way that the College delivered on the objectives of the founders. It was also a period of considerable struggle.

As had happened earlier with the Teachers’ College, the university college was established with remarkable speed.

Legislation to allow the formation of the new college passed Parliament in December 1937. Then all the machinery issues had to be addressed before building work could commence and staff  recruited. There were less than three months between the advertisement for staff and the start of lectures.

There were very particular reasons for this rush. The university college’s main proponents had all been involved in the creation of the Teachers’ College 10 years before. That, too, had been done in a rush and wisely so. Depression hit Australia 12 months after its creation. There were moves to close the college, but the project was too far advanced.

With that lesson in front of them, the university project was pushed hard and again wisely so. Had the opening been delayed even 12 months, the onset of war could well have closed the university college. As it was, it was to be a close fought battle with the army who wanted the site for a convalescent hospital in 1942.

The rush created its own problems. When 30-year-old Jim Belshaw arrived in February 1938, the first of the newly appointed staff, the workmen were still modifying Booloominbah.

There were five in that first academic staff group: Belshaw (economics and history), Duncan Howie (philosophy and psychology), Jack Somerville (mathematics), Ralph Crossley (French and German) and Frank Letters (classics and English).

As the only married staff member, Frank Letters, wife Kathleen and daughters were accommodated in the gatekeeper’s cottage, the Lodge. The four single men joined Warden Edgar Booth, Booth’s secretary Jean Dyce, the matron Sister Green and 15 of 16 full-time students in Booloominbah.

Booloominbah also included administration offices, lecture rooms, a dining room and a common room. The other 12 members of staff including a chef, a laundress, housemaids and gardeners.

The relative isolation and proximity of staff and students created a tight-knit community that studied and lived together. The result was an intense experience reflected in subsequent results.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 28 February 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018