Ethel Charlotte Pedley (19 June 1859 – 6 August 1898) was an English-Australian

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and musician.

Early life

Ethel Charlotte Pedley was born on 19 June 1859 at Acton, near London. She was the daughter of Frederick Pedley and his wife Eliza, née Dolby. Pedley began piano lessons aged 5. Pedley migrated to Australia with her family in the 1870s but returned to London to study at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

, where she studied with her uncle Prosper Sainton, professor of violin, and won a medal. She was also trained by her aunt, the famous contralto

Charlotte Sainton-Dolby Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby (17 May 182118 February 1885), was an English contralto, singing teacher and composer. Life Charlotte Helen Dolby was born in London to Samuel Dolby and Charlotte Niven. Her father died when she was 10 years old. S ...

, at her Vocal Academy.

Career

Musician and music teacher

Pedley returned to Sydney in 1882, and began teaching singing and the violin. In 1896 Emmeline Woolley and Pedley visited London and persuaded the Associated Board of the

and the Royal College of Music to extend their examinations to the Australian colonies. Pedley was appointed the solo representative of the Royal Academy of Music for New South Wales. The first examiner visited in 1897.

Author

Pedley's only published book is ''

Dot and the Kangaroo ''Dot and the Kangaroo'' is an 1899 Australian children's book written by Ethel C. Pedley about a little girl named Dot who gets lost in the Australian outback and is eventually befriended by a kangaroo and several other marsupials. The book wa ...

'', which featured a little girl named Dot who becomes lost in the

Australian outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

, and is helped to find her way back home by a friendly

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

. The illustrations were drawn by Frank P. Mahony. Pedley was a believer in the conservation of the Australian

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

, and usually wrote from this perspective, singling out 'man' as disconnected from nature and the rest of the animals. It is thought her writing was inspired by her visits to the property owned by her brother Arthur, near

Walgett Walgett is a town in northern New South Wales, Australia, and the seat of Walgett Shire. It is near the junctions of the Barwon and Namoi Rivers and the Kamilaroi and Castlereagh Highways. In 2016, Walgett had a population of 2,145. In the 2 ...

. Ethel's preface to ''Dot and the Kangaroo'' is as follows: ::To the children of Australia ::in the hope of enlisting their sympathies ::for the many beautiful, amiable, and frolicsome creatures ::of their fair land, ::whose extinction, through ruthless destruction, ::is being surely accomplished

Illness and death

Stricken with cancer, Pedley died on 6 August 1898 at the

Darlinghurst Darlinghurst is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district (CBD) and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the City of Sydney. I ...

home of her companion Emmeline Woolley at the age of 39. Her only novel, ''Dot and the Kangaroo'' would be published posthumously the following year. Pedley was buried in the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

section of

Waverley Cemetery The Waverley Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery on top of the cliffs at Bronte in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Opened in 1877 and built by R. Watkins (cemetery lodge, 1878) and P. Beddie (cemetery office, 1915 ...

. Following her death, her brother established the Ethel Pedley memorial travelling scholarship for music students.

Works

* *

References

External links

* * * * * Obituary i
The Sydney Morning Herald 8 August 1898.
Retrieved 6 June 2014.
Ethel Pedley
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pedley, Ethel Charlotte 1859 births 1898 deaths 19th-century Australian women writers 19th-century Australian writers Australian children's writers Australian conservationists Australian nature writers Australian women children's writers Women naturalists English emigrants to Australia British music educators Australian music educators