Brief description
Nancye Enid Kent Perry was born in Killara on 16 December 1918. She graduated in science from Sydney University and did postgraduate entomological research work in England. Perry later concentrated on her painting, working with the Heidelberg Art Group and others. Studied Sydney University 1939-42; worked National Standards Laboratory, Sydney, 1943-4; postgrad. In agricultural economic entomology 1945; DSIR England 1947-50; CSIRO Melb. 1950-51; Walter and Eliza Hall Institute 1951-2; Fisheries and Game 1953-5; C'wealth Dept. of Health, Canberra and Tasmania 1955-7; married Warren Perry 16 November 1957; demonstrator in zoology for medical students at the University of Melbourne, 1958.
Nancye Perry, an entomologist, worked at a number of institutes including the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and the Commonwealth Department of Health Plant Quarantine Division. Prior to her Australian posts, Perry worked in the UK for almost four years with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research's Forest Products Research Laboratory. In 1957 she married and was forced to resign from her Health Department post as at the time married women were not allowed to work for the Australian Government. This is when Perry moved her attention to painting and the arts.
Full description
While undertaking a Bachelor of Science Degree at the University of Sydney, World War II broke out so Nancye Perry's studies were interrupted: she deferred her studies for over a year to work at the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) National Standard Laboratory. Perry eventually graduated in 1945, but as opportunities for female entomologists in Australia were very limited she was forced to go abroad. She moved to the UK in 1946 where she worked as a timber entomologist at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research's Forest Products Research Laboratory in Buckinghamshire (1946-1950). Family pressure made Perry return to Australia in August 1950 where she was only able to find temporary appointments. Her first post was with the CSIRO (1950-1951) where she worked on the Sirex woodwasp - a dangerous pest that was being brought to Australia in the cargo holds of foreign ships. Next Perry spent six months at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute where she studied mosquitoes during the Murray Valley Encephalitis outbreak. Once that tenure was completed she joined the Victorian Fisheries and Game Department as a trout biologist (1951-1954). There she was involved in field work and the analysis of trout guts and scales. Finally in December 1954 Perry found permanent employment with the Commonwealth Health Department's Plant Quarantine Division where she was once again employed in the study of Sirex woodwasps. Much of her work was carried out at the Llanherne pine plantation near Hobart, Tasmania.
Nancye Perry's career at the Commonwealth Health Department was short lived as she had to resign in 1957 after marrying. Not wanting to be idle, she engaged in many part-time jobs including demonstrating zoology at the University of Melbourne, carrying out surveys and Census collection. In 1959 Perry became interested, and highly skilled, in dog training and later volunteered for around six years with Guide Dogs Victoria, chiefly in the puppy training scheme. In 1968 she turned her attention to art and took up panting classes. Perry became competent in both oil and watercolours and had her work exhibited on many occasions. She was a member of the Victorian Artist's Society.
Edited from a 2001 biosketch supplied by Nancye Perry
Nancye Kent graduated in Zoology and Physiology at Sydney University in 1944. She embarked on her post-graduate year in agric. economic entomology and worked in England in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Forests Products Research Lab. Upon her return to Melbourne in 1951, Kent was employed by the CSIRO, as an entomologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, as a trout biologist for the Victorian Government in 1952 and in Canberra as a Senior Research Officer in the Dept. of Health in 1955. After her marriage to Warren Perry in 1957, Nancye Perry has later concentrated on her painting, working with the Heidelberg Art Group and others. Born Killara 16 December 1918; studied Sydney University 1939-42; worked National Standards Laboratory, Sydney, 1943-4; postgrad. in agricultural économic entomology 1945; DSIR England 1947-50; CSIRO Melb. 1950-51; Walter and Eliza Hall Institute 1951-2; Fisheries and Game 1953-5; C'wealth Dept. of Health, Canberra and Tasmania 1955-7 Nancye Perry ceased work in scientific research and became a demonstrator in zoology for medical students at Melb. Univ.
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Identifiers
- AU-AuCNL : 887495
- AU-VSL : 1567923
- AU-AuCNLKIN : 49865348
- Handle : 11343/61472
- AuCNLKIN : nla.gov.au/anbd.aut-an49865348
- AU-VU:EOAS : www.eoas.info/biogs/P000708b.htm
- AU-VU:AWR : www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE1142b.htm
- NLA : nla.party-714066
