Lloyd, Gwendolen (Gwenda) K.

Description

Agent TypePersonPlace of BirthSouth Yarra, Melbourne, Victoria, AustraliaPlace of DeathKew, Melbourne, Victoria, AustraliaActivities & OccupationsEducationalistsGenderFemaleHistoryGwendolen Kent Lloyd (1899-1965), educationist, was born on 16 July 1899 at South Yarra, Melbourne. Gwenda was educated (1909-15) at Melbourne Church of England Girls' Grammar School, where she was captain. For two years she cared for her terminally ill mother, then worked as a member of a Voluntary Aid Detachment at the repatriation hospital, Macleod. In 1919 she enrolled at the University of Melbourne (B.A., 1922; Dip.Ed., 1923); after graduating, she travelled abroad.
In 1925 Miss Kent Hughes joined the staff of the middle school at M.C.E.G.G.S. as assistant house mistress to Dorothy Ross. She participated in an early attempt-by means of the Howard Plan-to solve the problems of a school with non-selective entry, taught history at the middle and senior levels, and in 1928 wrote a history of the school for its silver jubilee.
Having suspended her teaching career in 1934 to care for her two children, Gwenda returned to M.C.E.G.G.S. in 1940 to begin a creative working relationship with Dorothy Ross, the recently appointed headmistress who, like Lloyd, was a member of the New Education Fellowship. Their objective was to ensure that all pupils, academic and non-academic, received an education which equipped them to be thoughtful, concerned citizens. The administration of the school became an education in democratic habits and values. With the students, Gwenda played a part in drawing up a constitution for the school's executive-council in 1948. From 1940 she had fought for social studies as a matriculation subject, seeing it as preparation for citizenship in a democracy.
When the school returned to South Yarra in 1945 after its wartime evacuation, Gwenda entered a flowering period of her career. That year the young Aboriginal singer Harold Blair entered the Lloyds' life. Providing him with a home when he was in Melbourne was an example of the communal conscience that Gwenda strove to create in her professional work. John became Blair's official manager and organized his 1949 Australian tour; Gwenda tutored him at night. She also trained teachers at the Kindergarten Training College (1948-49 and 1959) and at the Associated Teachers' Training College (Mercer House) in 1948-62. Mrs Lloyd became joint chief of staff of M.C.E.G.G.S. in 1951 and in the following year served as a consultant to the Australian Broadcasting Commission's youth-education course in social studies. In 1953 she wrote the school's golden jubilee history and encouraged pupils to write and perform a play, 'The Building of the House'. In 1955 she was involved in making the school film, 'Learning and Living Together'. When Edith Mountain succeeded Ross as headmistress, the abrupt change of policy prompted Gwenda's resignation in 1958, with thirty-two other staff. She continued to fight for her principles as federal secretary (1958-60) of the N.E.F.
Colleagues and pupils noted Gwenda's fine profile and upright bearing; her manner of speaking retained something of the bluff, authoritative formality of some Anglican women of her generation. Survived by her daughter and son, she died of a pulmonary embolism on 19 October 1965 at Kew and was cremated. Gwenda Lloyd's life and teaching exemplified the belief, nourished between the wars, that education was the key to the peaceful co-existence of nations and individuals. With her husband, she was commemorated by a trust established for the educational benefit of Aborigines and part-Aborigines.Search records of this agent

Accession

[1967.0009] Papers of Gwendolen (Gwenda) Kent Lloyd

[1965.0008] PAPERS OF GWENDA LLOYD

Dates

Date16 July 1899-19 October 1965

Names

Given NameGwendolen (Gwenda)Middle NameKentFamily NameLloyd

University of Melbourne Archives

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Lloyd, Gwendolen (Gwenda) K.