Charles Duguid

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Duguid (born April 6, 1884 in Saltcoats , Ayrshire , Great Britain, † December 5, 1986 in Adelaide , Australia) was a doctor who campaigned for Aboriginal rights and was instrumental in founding the Ernabella Mission .

Early life

He was the son of Charles Duguid and his wife Jane Snodgrass Kinnier. Duguid studied arts at Ardrossan Academy and High School in Glasgow and later medicine at Glasgow University . When he was studying at Glasgow University, he worked as a doctor in the slums of Glasgow. In 1911 he went on a ship voyage as a surgeon to Australia and because of his experiences in Australia he emigrated there in 1912.

Life in australia

After 1912 Duguid worked as a general practitioner in Nhill , Victoria , where he married his first wife, Irene Young. They had a son who they also named Charles. In February 1917, Duguid sailed to Egypt as a medical officer. He then went back to Scotland in 1919 to subsequently acquire a degree as a surgeon.

After his first wife died in 1927, he married Phyllis Lade and had two children, Andrew and Rosemary.

Aboriginal rights

The murder of a white man at Landers Creek by an Aborigine resulted in the police shooting 17 Aborigines in the so-called Coniston massacre while hunting for the murderer. This incident marked a turning point in his life for Aboriginal rights. With his wife he founded the South Australian Aboriginal Advancement League in 1935, in which Duguid was elected president in 1935 and again later from 1951 to 1961.

In 1937, Duguid helped establish the Ernabella Mission in the Musgrave Mountains of South Australia. He wrote and spoke in England and also in Australia and New Zealand about the living conditions of the Australian Aborigines. He has been active for other organizations working for Aboriginal rights, such as the Council for Aboriginal Rights and the Association for the Protection of Native Races . In 1947 he led the campaign against the British-Australian missile test program in central Australia . Duguid was President of the Nursing Society of South Australia from 1944 to 1960 .

In connection with his work with the Aborigines, Duguid helped found the English Speaking Union , which he became chairman in 1931. In 1935 he was elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia . Because of his stance, it was dubbed FCAA's left-wing leadership , the left leader of the movement for the rights of the Aborigines.

In 1958, Duguid attended the Adelaide meeting that led to the formation of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA) and became its first president.

Honors

In 1970 Duguid was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his work with Aborigines and in 1974 he received the Anisfield-Wolf Award for his autobiography Doctor and the Aborigines . In honor of him and his wife Phyllis, an organization was founded in 2002 to support Aboriginal students.

Age

The Ernabella Choir sang in Adelaide for his 100th birthday. Duguid died in Adelaide at the age of 102 and was buried at the Ernabella Mission in Australia.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charles Duguid was the nephew of Captain Douglas Reid Kinnier, who became famous in England in the first months of the First World War because he managed to escape with his slow ship Ortega from the faster German battleship SMS Dresden in South American waters. Kinnier received a high war medal for this, the Distinguished Service Cross .
  2. ^ Statement on indigenousright.net , accessed on December 20, 2009
  3. ^ Duguid Aboriginal Travel Scholarship , accessed December 20, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Duguid, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian politician for aboriginal rights
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Saltcoats , Ayrshire , UK
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1986
Place of death Adelaide , Australia