- Entry type: Person
- Entry ID: AWE0244
Blackwood, Margaret
- Dame, DBE, MBE
- Occupation Botanist, Geneticist, Servicewoman
Summary
Margaret Blackwood graduated from the University of Melbourne with a BSc in 1938 and MSc in 1940. During the Second World War she served with the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force and then was granted an ex-service postgraduate scholarship for Cambridge, where she gained a PhD for her work in plant genetics. In 1951 Blackwood returned to Melbourne and was a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne until 1974. She was then elected a member of the University Council and in 1980 became the first female Deputy Chancellor. She held both these positions until her retirement in 1983. She was appointed as a Member of the British Empire in 1964 for work in botany and was appointed a Dame (Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander) for her services to education in 1980.
Events
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2041
Commissioned WAAAF
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1942
Commanding Officer at No 1 WAAAF Training Depot
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1942 - 1944
Officer-in-charge, with rank of Squadran Officer, WAAAF Training
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1932 - 1933
Senior science mistress at Lowther Hall CEGGS
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1934 - 1938
Senior science mistress at Korowa CEGGS
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1938
University of Melbourne demonstrator and Howitt Research Student
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1958 - 1959
Carnegie Scholar for Cambridge University in England
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2041
Joined Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) at inception as airwoman
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2046
Discharged from Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force with the rank of Wing Officer
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1957 - 1958
Australian Chairman of the Soroptimist International Association
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1945
Staff Officer with WAAAF Western Area
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2001
Inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women
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2009
Born daughter of Robert Leslie and Muriel Pearl (née Henry) Blackwood
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1947 - 1948
Dean of Women, Mildura Branch, Melbourne University
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1961 - 1974
Chairman of the Melbourne University Council and Founder Fellow of the Janet Clarke Hall at the University of Melbourne
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1975 - 1986
Member of the Council of the University of Melbourne
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1939 - 1941
Demonstrator and Caroline Kay Research Scholarship Plant Cytology and Genetics at the University of Melbourne
Archival resources
- The University of Melbourne Archives
- The Ian Potter Museum of Art
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Australian War Memorial, Research Centre
- Group portrait of four "original" WAAAF officers with the Director WAAAF Group Officer Clare Stevenson after a WAAAF Staff Officers conference at Air Force Headquarters, Victoria Barracks.
- In the outdoors, the Director WAAAF, Group Officer Clare Stevenson, and a WAAAF Wing Officer conversing with WAAAF officers who conducted a four-day bivouac.
Published resources
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Resource Section
- Blackwood, Dame Margaret (1909 - 1986), Carey, Jane, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A170107b.htm
- BLACKWOOD, MARGARET, Department of Veterans' Affairs, 2002, http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/script/veteran.asp?ServiceID=R&VeteranID=1069562
- Blackwood, Margaret (1909-1986), Biographical Entry, 2002, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P002194b.htm
- Book Section
- Book
- Edited Book
- Newspaper Article
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Resource
- Where are the Women in Australian science?, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 2003, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/wisa/wisa.html
- Trove: Blackwood, Margaret (1909-), http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-756060
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Site Exhibition
- Faith, Hope and Charity Australian Women and Imperial Honours: 1901-1989, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2003, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/honours/honours.html
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