Edith Holt Whetham (27 December 1911 – 28 January 2001) was an English lecturer and agricultural economist.

Early life

Edith Holt Whetham was born on 27 December 1911, the daughter of William Cecil Dampier Whetham, a Cambridge-educated scientist and agricultural academic, and his wife Catherine Durning Holt, a daughter of Liverpool merchant Robert Durning Holt who had also pursued an education at Cambridge. She had one brother and four sisters, including Margaret Anderson (indexer). Whetham's family owned a small

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, and also inherited a small estate in Hilfield,

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where they spent family vacations. Whetham suffered from hearing loss after a fall when she was an infant. She was educated at home and later at Downe House School near Newbury. In 1930, she enrolled in Newnham College, where her mother had studied. She took classes in economics, attending the lectures of

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist and philosopher whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originall ...

. Although she passed her degree examinations, it was not until 1998 that she was conferred with her full degree because she had studied at a time when Cambridge did not permit women to participate in graduation ceremonies.

Career

Whetham began work as a resident scholar at the Ministry of Agriculture, where she was an agricultural economist. Three years later, she moved to the journal, ''

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''. During World War II, she worked in the Ministry of Food and the Cabinet Office's civil history department. Following the war, Whetham returned to

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.. She was a Fellow of Newnham College and held the Gilbey lecturership in History and Economics of Agriculture until 1963. In 1952, Whetham published the book, ''British Farming 1939–1949'', a major study of the change in farming practices in England. She resigned from Cambridge in 1963 and took up a position at

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, Nigeria, as a visiting Professor of Economics, later becoming a full professor there. Her interests had moved to the agricultural needs and economies of the developing world. Whetham's later publications, sometimes co-authored, included ''London Milk Trade 1900–1930'' (1960), ''A History of British Agriculture (1846–1914)'' (1964), ''Cooperation, Land Reform, and Land Settlement: Report on a Survey in Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria and Iran'' (1968), ''The Economics of African Countries'' (1969), ''Agricultural Marketing in Africa'' (1972) ''and Beef, Cattle and Sheep 1910–1940'' (1976). She single-handedly wrote the eighth volume of the

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series '' The Agrarian History of England and Wales'' (1978). In 1966, Whetham was appointed to the executive of the Agricultural Economics Society and in 1971 she was elected as its president. She also held various posts with the British Agricultural History Society and served as its president for a period until 1979. Whetham died on 28 January 2001 in Cambridge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whetham, Edith Holt 1911 births 2001 deaths Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge British writers English women historians Women in agriculture Holt family The Economist people Academic staff of Ahmadu Bello University Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge People educated at Downe House School British civil servants