Marie Victoria Williams (7 September 1882 – 13 May 1955) was a South African classicist.

Academic career

Williams was born in

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capita ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1882, emigrating to the

South African Republic The South African Republic ( nl, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, abbreviated ZAR; af, Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer Republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it ...

with her parents at the age of 11. She matriculated at

St Mary's School, Waverley , motto_translation = Honest and upright , established = , type = Private & Boarding , religion = Christianity , sister_school = St John's College, Johannesburg , locale = Suburban , district ...

in Johannesburg – gaining first place in the entire country. From St Mary's she proceeded, to

Huguenot College The Huguenot College in Wellington, South Africa, is a private institute focused on training social and church service workers. Historical overview The Huguenot College has its origins in three educational institutions which previously existed ...

in Wellington, where she completed her BA Honours degree in Classics in 1901. From Huguenot she went to

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sid ...

, completing the Classical Tripos in 1906. She stayed on at Cambridge for another year on a Marion Kennedy Scholarship, where she completed research towards her monograph, ''Six Essays on the Platonic Theory of Knowledge as Expounded in the Latter Dialogues and Reviewed by Aristotle'' (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 1908). She returned to South Africa, and Huguenot College, eventually taking up the position of Chair of Greek. Resigning from Huguenot College, she relocated to Johannesburg, and in 1923 took up the position of Senior Lecturer in Greek at the

University of Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

, where she remained until retirement. She died in Johannesburg in 1955, aged 72. Apart from her monograph, she also published articles in a number of scholarly periodicals, such as ''

The Classical Review ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' and the ''Proceedings and Selected Papers of the Classical Association of South Africa''.

References

# Jeffrey Murray, '"These are our Jewels": Women and Classical Education at Huguenot College' ''

Acta Classica ''Acta Classica: Proceedings of the Classical Association of South Africa'' is an annual academic journal that covers all aspects of classical studies, including studies in ancient literature and history, as well as Patristic and Byzantine themes. ...

'' 57 (2014), 105–126. {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Marie Victoria 1882 births 1955 deaths Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge South African classical scholars Women classical scholars Alumni of St Mary's School, Waverley Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand People from New Westminster Immigrants to the South African Republic Canadian emigrants