Updated on Feb 27th 2010
Otago Daphne Purves Awards
Daphne Helen Purves, D.B.E., M.A.
Daphne was born in Dunedin on 8th November 1908 as the eldest child of Irvine Watson Cowie and Helen Cowie (nee Crawford). Both parents had a high regard for education. Daphne attended Anderson’s Bay Primary School and Otago Girls’ High School and studied at Otago University from 1927 to 1930 graduating in 1931 with 1st class Honours in English and French.
Admired and respected as a teacher all her life, she first taught at Waitaki and Otago Girls’ High Schools. In 1939 she married Herbert Dudley (“Dick”) Purves, an endocrinologist at the Otago Medical School who was destined to have an illustrious career in medical research, achieving international recognition and the award of an honorary degree from the University of Otago and a C.M.G. The birth of children (Hilary in 1941, Elizabeth in 1943 and Robert in 1947) brought Daphne’s teaching career to a temporary close but she became active in broadcasting and the Otago Branch of the Federation of University Women (becoming President in 1951) and was able to return to teaching in 1957 as the only woman staff member at Otago Boys’ High School. This was followed by three years as an advisor to university students on Department of Education bursaries and in 1966 she was appointed senior lecturer in French at Dunedin Teachers’ College where she set up and headed the first language department until her retirement in 1973.
In 1962 she became President of the NZFUW and in 1965 commenced her involvement with the IFUW, first as a member of its Cultural Relation Committee and then as its Convener. From there she moved onto the Board of the IFUW serving as 3rd and 1st Vice-Presidents (1971-1977) and finally becoming President in 1977, the first woman from the Southern Hemisphere to do so. Her work for the IFUW took her to some 40 different countries, attending conferences and encouraging and advising national Federations. She was an indefatigable traveler and a champion of the rights of women everywhere. At the same time she served on the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO for 4 years from 1964 and on its sub-committee for education for a further 10 years. Wishing to be involved as well in a specifically New Zealand project she spent some years (1978-82) working for the New Zealand National Commission for the Year of the Child. In 1979 her achievements were crowned by the award of Dame Commander of the British Empire. The award specified “for services to the community” but it is certain that being President of the IFUW played a major role.
In her retirement from public life, Daphne dedicated her energies to her family, to playing bridge and croquet (becoming an umpire) and attending University Extension classes. She retained her love of travelling well into her nineties and attended an IFUW Conference in Graz in 1998.
She died on October 15th 2008, a few weeks short of her hundredth birthday.
This record of Dame Daphne’s life was written for our website by Daphne’s daughter, Hilary Purves. We thank Hilary and her sister Elizabeth and brother Robert for the support they gave the Branch as it established the Otago Daphne Purves Awards.
For more information and application form, please click here