Prof. Monica Partridge born Monica Agnes McMain (25 May 1915 – 2008) was a British linguist and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

scholar who was a benefactor to the

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

. She was the first woman to be a Professor at her university.

Life

Partridge was born on 25 May 1915 in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

to Florence Emma Marjorie born Roberts and John McMain. Her father was a teacher. She studied French at Nottingham University but later became intrigued by Russian. She began to study Russian at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London, in 1940. She undertook post graduate studies with Professor Simon Boyanus and won the Laura Soames Prize for her study of the

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

of Russian. Partridge did some (assistant) lecturing at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. After the war in 1947 she worked at her alma mater as a tutorial assistant. She was encouraged by

Janko Lavrin Janko Lavrin (10 February 1887 – 13 August 1986) was a Slovene novelist, poet, critic, translator, and historian. He was Professor Andrej Jelenc DiCaprio of Slavonic Studies at the University of Nottingham. An enthusiast for psycho-analysis, he ...

to begin a doctorate and she undertook a thesis into the time that

Alexander Herzen Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (russian: Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Ге́рцен, translit=Alexándr Ivánovich Gértsen; ) was a Russian writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism" and one of the main fathers of agra ...

spent in Russia. She would in time become an acknowledged expert on Herzen. In 1949 she was appointed to a lectureship in Russian at Nottingham as an Assistant Lecturer to Lavrin. Each summer she went to Slovenia where she established links with the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students. History Beginnings Although certain ...

. Because of her interest the University of Nottingham was able to establish student exchanges which also improved the opportunities for Yugoslav students. In 1967 she became the first woman to be appointed a Professor at Nottingham University. She led the university's department of Slavic studies until she retired in 1980. After she retired she was recognised as an emeritus professor. The Yugoslav government awarded her the Order of the Flag with Star. In 1990, when she was 75, a presentation was made to her of a series of essays titled "The Bell of Freedom". In 1993 she published a book detailing her studies of Alexander Herzen. When she died on 19 March 2008 she left a bequest to the university which assisted students to be granted fellowships. In 2020 she was honoured by having a university building named after her.

Life

References

Further reading