- Charles Duguid
-
Charles Duguid (6 April 1884 – 5 December 1986) was a Scottish-born medical practitioner and Aboriginal rights campaigner who recorded his experience working among the Australian Aborigines in a number of books.[1]
Contents
Early career
Charles Duguid was born in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, the son of Charles Duguid and Jane Snodgrass Kinnier. He was the nephew of Captain Douglas Reid Kinnier, D.S.C. Duguid attended the Ardrossan Academy and the High School in Glasgow, before studying medicine at Glasgow University.
Whilst teaching at Glasgow University, Duguid worked as a doctor in the slums of Glasgow, but in 1911 he signed on as ship's surgeon for a voyage to and from Australia. This experience led him to emigrate to Australia in 1912. In February 1917, Duguid sailed for Egypt as a volunteer medical officer with the Australian Light Horse Brigade. He returned to Scotland in 1919 for post-graduate study and to sit the examinations for surgical fellowship.
Life in Australia
Duguid practised as a General Practitioner in Nhill, Victoria where he married Irene Young, with whom he had one son, also called Charles. After his wife died in 1927, Duguid married Phyllis Lade. They had two children, Andrew and Rosemary. In 1941 Duguid moved to Adelaide to practise as a gynaecologist and obstetrician.
Aboriginal rights
The murder of a white man by Aboriginals at Landers Creek, Northern Territory, sparked Duguid's interest in Aboriginal rights. The police shot 17 Aboriginals during the course of the hunt for the murderer.[2] His wife founded the Aboriginal Advancement League in 1935 and Duguid served as President in 1935 and later between 1951 and 1961.
In 1937, Duguid helped to found Ernabella Mission in the Musgrave Ranges of South Australia. He lectured and spoke in the United Kingdom as well as Australia and New Zealand about the conditions of the Australian Aborigines.[3]
He was active in other organisations concerned with the advancement of Aboriginal rights such as the Council for Aboriginal Rights and the Association for the Protection of Native Races.[4] He also led the 1947 campaign against the establishment of a British-Australian rocket testing program at Woomera in the Central Australian Desert. He worked closely with Donald Thomson to inform the public of the harmful effect that this program would have on those people still living traditionally, nearby.[5]
In 1970, Duguid was awarded the OBE for his work with Aborigines and four years later, in 1974 he received the Anisfield-Wolf Award in Race Relations for his autobiography Doctor and the Aborigines.
Other interests
In addition to his work with Australian Aborigines, Duguid helped to found the Australian branch of the English-Speaking Union, of which he was Chairman in 1932.
In 1935, he was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia.
Duiguid died in Adelaide on 5 December 1986 at the age of 102. He was buried at Ernabella.
List of works
- Duguid, Charles (1963). No Dying Race. Rigby, Adelaide.
- Duguid, Charles (1972). Doctor and the Aborigines. Rigby, Adelaide.
- Duguid, Charles (1972). Doctor Goes Walkabout. Rigby, Adelaide.
External links
See also
- Australian outback literature of the 20th century
Sources
- ^ W. H. Edwards, 'Duguid, Charles (1884 - 1986)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 17, Melbourne University Press, Year unknown, pp 338-340 (See: http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A170335b.htm )
- ^ National Library of Australia, MS 5068 - Papers of Charles Duguid (1884-1986) (See: http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/findaids/5068.html )
- ^ Duguid, Charles, The Aborigines of Australia: broadcasts and an address, Published by permission of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (South Australian Branch), Adelaide, 1946 (See: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2433120 )
- ^ Duguid, Charles, The Aborigines of Darwin and the tropic North: an investigation, Aborigines Advancement League, Adelaide, 1951 (See: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2234750 )
- ^ http://www.nma.gov.au/indigenousrights/person77d6.html?pID=964
Categories:- Australian people of Scottish descent
- Australian medical doctors
- 1884 births
- 1986 deaths
- Australian centenarians
- Jubilee 150 Walkway
- People from Saltcoats
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
