archives
FLORENCE WAY CAMPBELL AN ALUMNA OF FIRSTS
An unexpected phone call first drew my attention to a volume in Ruyton’s large collection of historic book prizes. ‘There’s a gentleman who would like to see a book he donated to Ruyton in 1996,’ I was told. ‘It was his grandmother’s. Could you give him a call?’ A few days, and a phone conversation later, I met John and Rose Downer in Henty House. Between us on the table sat a nineteenthcentury, leather bound book, The Works of William Shakespeare. Carefully opening the cover, we all admired the beautiful deep-red marbled endpapers and the elegant prize plate pasted in the centre. Early Principal Eliza Bromby’s handwritten inscription confirmed that this was indeed the prize presented to John Downer’s paternal grandmother, a boarder at Ruyton, ‘Awarded to Florrie Campbell, Dux Prize … [signed] E.M. Bromby, Xmas 1888.’ We talked for a time about Florence. Ruyton’s records of its earliest years are so scant that initially she seemed simply a name but as John outlined some of her life, she took shape in my mind. The ‘Florrie’ of our inscription was Florence Way Campbell. She came from a prominent family in Adelaide, her father Allan Campbell an eminent doctor and politician and her mother’s brother Samuel Way, the Chief Justice of South Australia for 40 years. In adult life she married Frederick Downer, whose family has produced four generations of South Australian politicians. How had she come to be at Ruyton in 1888, I wondered, given the School was only ten years old at the time, and in another colony from her own? There was a clue in something else John told me about her; Florence Campbell was a gifted pianist and intensely musical. My curiosity caught, I had to find out more about her. 1 C hronicle, (Adelaide, South Australia), 25 December 1897, p20 2 A ustralische Zeitung (Adelaide, South Australia), 17 November 1886, p6
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Later, thanks to the Downers’ visit, I open Miss Daniell’s Book, (the name given to Ruyton’s first enrolment register,) and am able to read the very first entry with new understanding. Begun by Eliza Bromby when she took over as Principal in 1888, it tells me that Florence Campbell, child of ‘Dr Campbell’ in Adelaide attended Ruyton in that year, departing in December. Elsewhere the name Florence Campbell sits among the first names on the Dux of the School honour board. Together with Florence’s book prize, I have now exhausted everything the School Archives have to share on Florence Campbell. Historic newspapers are where I turn next. Family notices and other brief mentions help fill out Florence’s story, but two key articles really bring her to life. My first discovery delights me. It is a short article in Adelaide’s Chronicle, 1897, entitled ‘A Clever Musician.’ 1 ‘Miss F.W. Campbell’, it reports, ‘was the recipient of the degree of Bachelor of Music’ at the University of Adelaide. ‘Miss Campbell whose whole course of study has been marked by conspicuous ability, is the first lady who as attained to this high honor (sic) in Australia.’ I’m gratified to be able to count a trailblazer like Florence among the earliest Ruytonians, and, because there is a line drawing of Miss Campbell sitting above the article, now I even know what she looks like! Calculating that she would have been 27 years old at the time, my glee is somewhat tempered by wondering about the social expectations Florence had to stare down in order to achieve her degree in that time and place. The clue is in the name, in that era Bachelor degrees were meant for men. Images (left to right) 1 Florence Downer, c.1925. (private collection, supplied by the Downer family.) 2 In 1897 Florence Way Campbell was the first woman in Australia to achieve a Bachelor of Music. (University of Adelaide Archives http://hdl.handle.net/2440/89622) 3 Illustration of Florence Campbell 4 Florence Campbell was the first student listed when Eliza Bromby began an Enrolment Register in 1888.
the ruyton reporter
