Colin Robert Badger (4 December 1906 – 8 August 1993), was an Australian adult education administrator.

Career

Badger was born Robert Colin Badger in Petersburg, South Australia (now

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

), to Australian-born parents Herbert James Badger (c. 1867 – 14 February 1947), and Angelena "Lena" Badger ( –1961), née Nichols, who married at Burra in 1888. Herbert's father was Scots-born Baptist minister David Gibson Jude Badger, important in the development of the Baptist Church in South Australia's

Mid North The Mid North is a region of South Australia, north of the Adelaide Plains and south of the Far North and the outback. It is generally accepted to extend from Spencer Gulf east to the Barrier Highway, including the coastal plain, the souther ...

; Lena was daughter of William Nicholls of Booboorowie. Badger's parents, who ran a haberdashery business, left Petersburg around 1916 and settled in the Adelaide suburb of

Kent Town Kent Town is an inner suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters local government area. History Kent Town was named for Benjamin Archer Kent (1808 – 25 November 1864), a medical practition ...

, around 1918 moving to 6 Fife Avenue Torrens Park. Badger attended North Adelaide Primary School 1911–17, Mitcham Primary 1918–19, and

Unley High School Unley High School is a public coeducational secondary school, located in the Adelaide suburb of Netherby in South Australia. It is administered by the Department of Education, with an enrolment of 1,562 students and a teaching staff of 114, as ...

1920–23, when he was expelled for petty theft, and he found work as a laboratory assistant at the University of Adelaide. As a university employee he was entitled to attend lectures as a non-fee-paying "auditor", which entitled him to no qualifications but he did land a position at the library. He then decided on the ministry and enrolled at the Baptist College, meanwhile undertaking the university's degree course in history and philosophy part-time, winning the Tinline scholarship for history in 1931. He was employed as a lecturer by the

Workers' Educational Association Workers' Educational Associations (WEA) are not-for-profit bodies that deliver further education to adults in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. WEA UK WEA UK, founded in 1903, is the UK's largest voluntary sector provider of adult edu ...

in Adelaide and Perth. He visited Italy 1934–35, studying the breakdown of parliamentary democracy. He graduated BA in 1936 and MA in 1938, following the publication of his thesis ''The Relation of Public Opinion and Law in South Australia''. He was appointed Director of Adult Education at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

and in 1938 Director of Extension at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, succeeding Professor J. A. Gunn.

Family

Badger married nurse Adelaide Estella Slade on 9 November 1929. Their children include: *Phillip David Badger (26 January 1940 – ) Badger's sister Lena Jessie Badger (died 4 March 1949) qualified as a lawyer, married George Ernest Jansen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Badger, Colin 1906 births 1993 deaths Australian educational theorists People educated at Unley High School