Marie Victoria Williams (7 September 1882 – 13 May 1955) was a South African classicist.

Academic career

Williams was born in

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the cap ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in 1882, emigrating to the

South African Republic The South African Republic (, abbreviated ZAR; ), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer republics, Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result ...

with her parents at the age of 11. She matriculated at

St Mary's School, Waverley St Mary's School, Waverly is a Independent school, private English medium, Anglican and boarding school for girls. It is situated in the suburb of Waverley, Johannesburg, Waverley in Johannesburg in the Gauteng province of South Africa, it is o ...

in Johannesburg – gaining first place in the entire country. From St Mary's she proceeded, to Huguenot College in Wellington, where she completed her BA Honours degree in Classics in 1901. From Huguenot she went to

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

, completing the Classical Tripos in 1906. She stayed on at Cambridge for another year on a Marion Kennedy Scholarship, where she completed research towards her monograph, ''Six Essays on the Platonic Theory of Knowledge as Expounded in the Latter Dialogues and Reviewed by Aristotle'' (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1908). She returned to South Africa, and Huguenot College, eventually taking up the position of Chair of Greek. Resigning from Huguenot College, she relocated to Johannesburg, and in 1923 took up the position of Senior Lecturer in Greek at the

University of Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in ...

, where she remained until retirement. She died in Johannesburg in 1955, aged 72. Apart from her monograph, she also published articles in a number of scholarly periodicals, such as ''

The Classical Review ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' and the ''Proceedings and Selected Papers of the Classical Association of South Africa''.

References

# Jeffrey Murray, '"These are our Jewels": Women and Classical Education at Huguenot College' ''

Acta Classica ''Acta Classica: Proceedings of the Classical Association of South Africa'' is an annual academic journal that covers all aspects of classical studies, including studies in ancient literature and history, as well as Patristic and Byzantine themes. ...

'' 57 (2014), 105–126. {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Marie Victoria 1882 births 1955 deaths Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge South African classical scholars Women classical scholars Alumni of St Mary's School, Waverley Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand People from New Westminster Immigrants to the South African Republic Canadian emigrants