University of Melbourne Archives: Samuel M Wadham

Guide to the Papers of Samuel MacMahon Wadham (1891-1972)

Main Activity: Professor of Agriculture

Date Range: 1926 to 1969

Access: Open

Biographical Note

The Samuel MacMahon Wadham Collection reflects the career of a very public intellectual: someone deeply involved not only in the life and administration of the University but in that of his adopted state and nation. Born in London in 1891, Wadham later studied botany at Cambridge University before volunteering to serve with the Durham Light Infantry and Signal Corps during World War I. After the war he worked as a research student in the British Ministry of Agriculture, eventually returning to Cambridge as a senior demonstrator in the Botany Department. In 1926 he and his wife Dorothy accepted an offer to immigrate to Australia in order for Wadham to take up the position of Professor of Agriculture at the University of Melbourne. To overcome his lack of first-hand knowledge of Australian conditions, he, before assuming his post, made an extensive tour of Victorian rural districts. This was to herald the beginning of a long and productive relationship between the professor and the country people of the state.

Besides his research, teaching and administrative roles within the School of Agriculture, Wadham became an increasingly active and influential figure in the broader context of the University, serving as Chairman of both the Professorial Board and the Extension Committee and, for a time, as Acting Vice-Chancellor. His sphere of influence, though, extended well beyond the grounds of the University and resulted in his becoming a member of the Federal Dairy Investigation Committee (1929), the Royal Commission on the Wheat Industry (1934), the Commonwealth Nutrition Committee (1937), the Rural Reconstruction Committee (1943-6), the Commonwealth Migration Planning Council (1949-60) and the Commonwealth Committee for Tertiary Education (1963-5). He was also a member of the Council of CSIRO and, in 1961, was the President of ANZAAS.

In a less official but no less influential capacity, Wadham involved himself in the media, both as a regular columnist for, among other publications, The Argus and Stock and Land, and as a broadcaster for the ABC (1928-69) and BBC (1939-55). These roles provided him with a high and popular profile in the rural community, resulting in his corresponding with numerous farmers or, more often, their wives, and being invited to speak at a variety of local functions (most of which he accepted). Amidst all this public activity he managed to maintain his research interests in crop development and agricultural economics and to write Land Utilisation in Australia (with Professor GL Wood, 1939) and Farming in Australia 1788-1965 (1967).

Despite retiring as Professor of Agriculture in 1956, Wadham remained a familiar figure around the University of Melbourne. He continued serving on various government committees and, if anything, increased his involvement in scientific and community organisations, some of which included Bemwillock - Asian Student's Fund, the Colonial Services Committee, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, the Citizens Welfare Service of Victoria, the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens and University High School. He also continued to make fortnightly broadcasts for the ABC until 1969, only three years before his death in 1972.

Collection Note

While the Samuel Wadham Collection has long resided at UMA and has often been utilised by researchers, the comprehensive listing of it has greatly increased the ease with which it can now be accessed. Comprising correspondence, articles, transcripts of radio broadcasts, manuscripts and publications, photographs and a large series of subject files, the collection documents most aspects of Wadham's professional career in Australia. The correspondence provides the researcher with a unique insight into his working relationships with University colleagues, fellow agricultural scientists and the many people who wrote to him in response to his broadcasts and articles. These articles and the transcripts of broadcasts are themselves an important resource, combining to record Wadham's opinion on a wide range of rural issues. Similarly, the subject files document his various research interests and involvement in numerous government inquiries, community groups and professional organisations.

Valuable on their own, the Wadham papers become an invaluable resource when seen in the context of their relationship to other important UMA collections. They complement not only the personal papers of many fellow prominent University staff, including: Sir James Barrett, Geoffrey Leeper, John Medley, Raymond Priestley etc., but cross-reference with other, less obviously related collections like, for example, those of 'Strathfieldsaye', Graham Bros. Pty Ltd, the Australian-Asian Association, HV McKay etc. Wadham corresponded with Clive Disher, owner of 'Strathfieldsaye' (who bequeathed the property to the University of Melbourne in 1976), from 1951 to 1967. Many of Disher's letters - Wadham's side of the correspondence is not in the collection - are concerned with organising an annual agricultural 'school', held at the property for members of the Young Farmers' Association. Wadham was an inaugural member of the Australian-Asian Association of Victoria and in 1961 became Vice-President. He remained a member of the Executive Committee until 1964, when ill health forced him to resign. His papers relating to the Australian-Asian Association contain Articles of Association, Constitution and Rules, minutes of Annual General and various committee meetings, bulletins, Annual Reports and correspondence.

Listed by Roger Averill, October 1996.