The remarkable story of the University of New England's Heritage Centre 2 - Cumpston and Madgwick combine to make official records available to regional students

Working in conjunction with History lecturer Mary Cumpston, Sir Robert Madgwick's actions in 1947 established the principle that official records could be held regionally to facilitate local access. This is the second in a short series on the remarkable story of the University of New England's Heritage Centre and Regional Archives. 

1947 marked a critical stage in the evolution of what we now know as the University of New England Heritage Centre and Regional Archives.

Ina Mary Cumpston, normally called Mary, had a problem, one that she was determined to solve.

Mary was an interesting woman, a pioneer in an academic environment still dominated by men.

Both her parents were community activists with a love of learning.

Her father, J H L Cumpston, was Commonwealth Director General of Health. His pioneering history of small pox in Australia (1918) is still a basic text. Her mother,

Mother Gladys Maeva Cumpston nee Walpole, was very interested in gardening, botany and native plants. Later, she would become actively involved in the braille movement.

 In 1936, Mary won a scholarship to study Arts at Sydney University. At university she was a member of the Sydney University ski team.

Upon completion of her studies, Mary came to the New England University College (NEUC) as a lecturer in history. There she found that historical records held in the Armidale Court House could not be accessed locally. Instead, the records would need to be transferred to the Mitchell Library in Sydney to allow access, requiring students and staff to travel to Sydney to see them.

This made no sense to Mary. She wrote to NEUC Warden Robert Madgwick in mid 1947seeking his support to try to fix the problem, 

Madgwick had arrived as Warden earlier that year, replacing Jim Belshaw who had been acting Warden as well as Head of History and Economics since Edgar Booth’s departure in 1945.

Madgwick would prove to be an inspired choice as Warden and later first Vice Chancellor. He was committed to the development of NEUC and saw adult education and community engagement as central to that development. He was also a capable negotiator.

Madgwick wrote to the Under Secretary of Justice of NSW complaining about lack of regional access. “This (the current position) was all very silly,” Madgwick told the Under Secretary. In July 1947, the Armidale Court Records were transferred to NEUC custody.

In that same month, Mary sailed for England to study at Oxford on a postgraduate scholarship and vanishes from our story. However, the episode had established the principle that regional archival records could be held locally for better access.

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. 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, here 2019, here 2020