Catherine Helen Spence Memorial Scholarship

Catherine Helen Spence Memorial Scholarships are travelling scholarships founded by the South Australian Government in 1911 in recognition of the pioneering social worker and feminist Catherine Helen Spence.

The scholarships are administered by the Catherine Helen Spence Memorial Scholarship Committee, and granted to selected applicants, who must be female and between the ages of 20 and 46. Membership of the scholarship committee is voluntary and appointed by the Minister of Education and Child Development on recommendation by the committee.[1]

Previous recipients were:[2]

• 1912 Dorothea Proud

• 1921 Constance Davey (1882–1963), psychologist. To undertake a doctorate at the University of London; her main area of research was 'mental efficiency and deficiency' in children.

• 1925 Daisy Curtis, female police officer. To examine the 'methods of protecting women and children'.[3] This included travels to the jurisdictions of Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Nederlands, the United States of America, and New Zealand. (New Zealand did not get its first female officer until 1941.)

• 1929 G. Vera Gaetjens

• 1933 Agnes Dorsch

• 1938 Doris Beeston

• 1946 Mary Smith (1909–1989). To study 'modern trends in child psychology and work with adolescents', travelling to the Victoria University of Manchester, England.

• 1953 Diana Lorking

• 1962 Marie Mune

• 1971 Fay Gale (1932–2008), cultural geographer. Enabled to be a visiting lecturer in the Geography School at Oxford University, England.

• 1976 Alwyn Dolling

• 1983 Anne Killen

• 1989 Fran Baum, social scientist. Investigated healthy cities in Europe and Canada.

• 1993 Ronda Schultz

• 1997 Megan Warin

• 2001 Janette Young

• 2005 Melanie Jones (SA police)

• 2009 Sarah Paddick

• 2013 Joanne Kaeding

• 2018 Dr. Prudence Flowers