Mabel Palmer papers

Mabel Palmer was born in Northumberland, England on 22 May 1876, the daughter of J.B. Atkinson, an inspector of mines, and his wife Jane, a militant suffragette. She entered Glasgow University soon after it was opened to women, and obtained her M.A. in 1900. From 1904-1908 she lectured at Armstrong College, U.S.A. and from 1908-1915 at King's College for Women, London. In 1920 Mabel Palmer left England and came to South Africa. In 1921 she took a teaching post at the Natal Technical College, Durban and was one of several members of staff involved in the development of university work in Durban and was later appointed lecturer in economic history at the new Natal University College (now University of Natal) in 1931. It was following her official retirement in 1936 that Mabel Palmer undertook what was to be her greatest work - the founding of university education for Non-Whites in Natal. Mabel Palmer was active in numerous organisations including the South African Institute of Race Relations, the National Council of Women of South Africa, (on which she was adviser on Indian affairs for four years), the South African Association of University Women, the Association for the Educational Advancement of Non-European Women and Girls, the Durban and District Adult Education Association and the Durban International Club. She also served on the senate of the University of South Africa and was active in the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Mabel Palmer married Andrew Robert Barrett Palmer in 1914 but was soon separated from her husband who died in Australia in 1948. Mabel died in Durban on 16 November 1958.