Phebe Naomi Watson (23 May 1876 – 19 September 1964) was a South Australian teacher and educator, active in securing better conditions for women teachers.
History
Phebe Watson was born in Princess Street, near
Angas Street, Adelaide
Angas Street is a main street in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia.Map of the
Quorn
Quorn is a brand of meat substitute products, or the company that makes them. Quorn originated in the UK and is sold primarily in Europe, but is available in 14 countries. The brand is owned by parent company Monde Nissin.
Quorn is sold as b ...
under A. T. Darke, when her health broke down and she was forced temporarily to abandon her career. She resumed work at Mitcham, then Woodville School, where R. Miethke was the longtime headmaster. Then began a lifelong professional and personal relationship with his daughter
Adelaide Miethke
Adelaide Laetitia "Addie" Miethke, (8 June 1881 – 4 February 1962), was a South Australian educator and teacher who was pivotal in the formation of the School of the Air using the existing Royal Flying Doctor Service radio network.
Parents ...
.
In February 1901 she was appointed a teacher's assistant under A. H. Neale. at Grote Street School, which specialised in training of pupil-teachers. In 1908 she became assistant at the Currie Street Observation School under J. Fairweather, with special responsibilities as Supervisor of Lodgings, then in 1916 head teacher of its model country school. She became mistress of method in 1921 and assumed full charge of training country teachers. In 1923 the whole of the Currie Street school was dedicated to training of country teachers with Phebe as head lecturer. She also served as warden of women teachers, giving practical advice on deportment, dress, manners and personal relationships, in which she, by example, set high standards. This position was formalized at the Teachers' College in 1926.
She retired from the Education Department in December 1936, and in 1946 moved to
Brighton, Victoria
Brighton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Bayside local government area. Brighton recorded a population of 23,252 at the 2021 census.
...
, where she lived at 6 Stewart Street, Brighton Beach, returning to South Australia shortly before her death.
Union activity
Phebe Watson was General Secretary from 1913 of the Women Teachers' Association, which became the Women Teachers' Progressive League in 1915; she continued in this role until 1923, when she received her transfer to the Teachers' College staff, and was appointed the League's Press Secretary.
She was elected vice-president of the Public Teachers' Union in 1923, In 1937, some six hundred teachers, frustration at the inability of the Union to achieve anything like pay equality for women teachers, broke away from the Union to form the South Australian Women Teachers' Guild, and Phebe was elected its first president.B. K. Hyams, 'Watson, Phebe Naomi (1876–1964)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/watson-phebe-naomi-9004/text15851, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 6 March 2016. (The following year, those women members of the Union who did not join the Guild formed the Women Teachers' Association.) She also edited the Guild's ''Chronicle'', which she continued after her resignation as president in 1940.
Other activities
She was a member of the
Adelaide Lyceum Club
The Lyceum Club, also known as the Australian Association of Lyceum Clubs and formed in 1972 from several smaller clubs, is an Australian arts, literature and social activism group for women only. The aim of the AALC is to promote a spirit of good ...
from 1923 and Hon. Treasurer, National Council of Women in 1924. She served as vice-president of the
Adelaide Women's Club
Adelaide Women's Club was a social club for women which operated from 1922 to 1938 in Adelaide, South Australia.
History
The Adelaide Women's Club was founded in June 1922 by a handful of professional women led by Adelaide Miethke, and incorpora ...
. She was on the executive committee of the National Council of Women and its vice-president from 1936 to 1941. She was active with the Girl Guides, and a Guide Commissioner from 1933 to 1936. She was a temperance advocate and an active member of the Ladies Harbour Lights Guild, an adjunct to Missions to Seamen. She contributed book reviews to the ''Teachers' Journal'' and a regular column dedicated to pupil teachers from the country. She was a foundation member of the Adelaide Repertory Theatre and a fine singer, a light soprano. She was an active organiser with the Women's Centenary Committee in the year leading up to the SA Centenary celebrations of 1936, and was largely responsible for ''A Book of South Australia – Women in the First Hundred Years''.
In many of these activities she served as "right-hand-man" to her friend and mentor Adelaide Miethke. During World War II she served as organiser of Women's Voluntary Services in South Australia, and the Women's Voluntary National Register. She also played an occasional game of golf.
Recognition
She was appointed MBE in January 1937.
Family
Benjamin Watson (c. 1817 – 14 January 1905) arrived in SA around 1850. His children included:
*Phoebe Watson (c. 1841 – 4 July 1893) died at Princess Street, Adelaide
*Joseph Watson (c. 1843 – 24 December 1888) died of heatstroke at
Wilcannia
Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. Located on the Darling River, the town was the third largest inland port in the country during the river boat era of the mid-19th ce ...
*Edward Watson (c. 1846 – 27 February 1884) married Sarah Goldsmith (c. 1852 – 20 June 1927) on 20 March 1871, lived at Princess Street, died at 344 South Terrace; all four of his children spent much of their adult lives at the South Terrace address. Only Walter married.
:*Phebe Naomi Watson (23 May 1876 – 19 September 1964)
:*Nell Watson ( – 8 March 1950)
:*Walter Alan Watson ( – 9 September 1945) married Lavinia Mary "Vinnie" Stenning (c. 1877 – 5 March 1914) on 21 September 1901. She killed herself by drinking
phenol
Phenol (also called carbolic acid) is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a white crystalline solid that is volatile. The molecule consists of a phenyl group () bonded to a hydroxy group (). Mildly acidic, it req ...
disinfectant.
:*Benjamin Clayton "Ben" Watson (c. 1884 – 28 June 1946)
*H. Watson with Waterworks department
*Edith Mary Watson (c. 1859 – 22 July 1927) trained as a nurse, married Frederick James Wamsley (c. 1866 – 13 June 1901) of St. Kilda, Victoria on 12 June 1889, lived in Elwood, Victoria, then
Blackburn, Victoria
Blackburn is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Whitehorse local government area. Blackburn recorded a population of 14,478 at the 2021 census.
The origin o ...
. After his death she returned with her two children to Princess Street, Adelaide.
:*Florence Maude Lucy Wamsley (c. 1893 – 30 August 1973) married John Leonard Eustace (c. 1889 – 16 July 1974) on 8 April 1914. He endowed the University of Adelaide Dental School to fund the J. L. Eustace Travelling Awards.
:*Reginald Allenby Wamsley (c. 1895 – 19 October 1982) married Dorothy Edith (c. 1897 – 28 February 1989) lived in Barmera