| 1905 |
Frances Elizabeth "Betty" Allan born on
11 July in St Kilda, Melbourne. Third daughter of Edwin Frank Allan
and Stella May Allan (nee Henderson), both university graduates and
journalists.
|
| 1919-22 |
Attended
Melbourne Church of England
Girls Grammar School (MGGS), as did her CSIR compatriot Mildred Macfarlan Barnard. Taught by very talented maths teacher, Winifred Waddell.
|
| 1923-6 |
Won a Senior Government Scholarship to
attend University of Melbourne. Lived at
Janet Clarke Hall, Trinity
College. Awarded a BA degree in ‘pure and mixed’
mathematics, with honours in all subjects. Shared the Dixson and
Wyselaskie scholarships in Mathematics during her final year.
|
| 1926 |
Completed a Diploma of Education.
|
| 1928 |
Awarded an MA degree from University of
Melbourne. Postgraduate studies focussed on solitary waves at the
common boundary of two liquids – for which she won her the Nanson Prize
for Postgraduate Research and a
Fred Knight Research Scholarship, which gave her a fare to England.
|
| 1928-30 |
Took up a CSIR studentship for ‘the study
of statistical methods applied to agriculture’, studying for a year at
Newnham College, Cambridge and then working at
Rothamsted Experimental
Station with prominent statistician
RA Fisher. He described her as
‘helpful and congenial in co-operative work’ and having ‘a rare gift
for first-class mathematics’. Her best known paper, written with John
Wishart, concerned the estimation of the yield of a missing plot in
field experiments.
|
| 1930 |
Returned to Australia and, on 29
September, joined CSIR as its first biometrician, at the
division of Plant Industry. Soon was providing mathematical and
statistical advice to all six CSIRO divisions as well as outside
organisations.
|
| 1932 |
Lectured in statistical theory at Canberra
University College (which amalgamated with the
Australian National
University in 1960).
|
| 1933 |
CSIR chief executive, Sir David Rivett,
commented "we need more people of her type" and expressed concern to
her supervisor, Dickson (then chief of Plant Industry) that she wasn’t being given
enough opportunity “to do the best type of research work of which she
is capable”. Dickson found her existing work too valuable to spare her
for research.
|
| 1935 |
Reclassified as a Research Officer, one of
the few women scientific officers at CSIR. Became a foundation member
of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science.
|
| 1935-7 |
Lectured in pure mathematics at Canberra
University College.
|
| 1936 |
Wrote a set of four instructional papers for
the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science on the application of
statistical methods to agriculture. Delivered 16 lectures on
statistical methods to
Canberra-based CSIR officers. Trained the first of two students from
the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock.
|
| 1936 & 1938-52 |
Lectured part-time in biometrics at the
Australian Forestry School in Canberra
|
| 1940 |
On 22 April, married fellow CSIR officer
Dr Patrick Joseph Calvert at Trinity College chapel, Parkville,
Melbourne. Was given ministerial approval to work until end of the
year despite government regulations requiring resignation on marriage.
|
| 1943-4 |
Secretary of Canberra Nursery
Kindergarten Society
|
| 1945-6 |
President of Canberra Mothercraft Society
|
| 1952 |
Died on 6 August. Buried in Canberra
cemetery, with students of the Australian Forestry School acting as
pallbearers at her funeral. |
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