Hilma Dymphna Clark (née Lodewyckx; 18 December 1916 – 12 May 2000) was an Australian

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and educator. She was married to the historian

Manning Clark Charles Manning Hope Clark, (3 March 1915 – 23 May 1991) was an Australian historian and the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume ''A History of Australia'', published between 1962 and 1987. He has been descri ...

Biography

Born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

of Swedish and Flemish ancestry, Clark was educated at Mont Albert Central School and the Presbyterian Ladies' College in East Melbourne. Her father was Augustin Lodewyckx, the Associate Professor of Germanic languages at Melbourne University, and her mother – Anna Sophia (''née'' Hansen) – also taught Swedish at Melbourne University. Clark finished Presbyterian Ladies' College early (aged 15) and spent time at school in Munich, with her mother, in 1933. Returning to Melbourne, she studied languages to honours level at Melbourne University, where she met Manning Clark. In 1938, she travelled to

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

on a scholarship to undertake doctoral studies in German literature. She was there when

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

occurred, and left soon after with the increasing threat of war. She met with Clark in Oxford and they married there on 31 January 1939. They had six children together. She taught at

Blundell's School Blundell's School is an Private schools in the United Kingdom, independent co-educational boarding school, boarding and Day school, day school in the English Public School (United Kingdom), public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon, T ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

in the first year of her marriage and they returned to Australia in 1940. Clark became a distinguished linguist and translator, fluent in eight languages and able to speak another four. She lectured in German at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in Canberra. Her translations included the botanist Charles von Hugel's ''New Holland Journals'' and, with Peter Sack, the German reports of the Governor of

German New Guinea German New Guinea () consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups, and was part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , became a German protectorate in 188 ...

from 1886 to 1914. She also worked on her husband's projects, undertaking editing and research. She established Manning Clark House (Dympha and Manning's own house from 1953), and was heavily involved in the Aboriginal Treaty Committee (1979–1983); it was she who drafted the Council's preamble for review by

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. Since 2002, the Dymphna Clark Memorial Lecture has been given in her honour.

References

External links

Manning Clark House

NLA: MS 9873
Guide to the Papers of Dymphna Clark {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Dymphna 1916 births 2000 deaths Australian women linguists Australian National University people Australian people of Belgian descent Australian people of Swedish descent Academics from Melbourne People educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne 20th-century Australian linguists