DERHAM, Enid (1882-1941)

poet

was born at Hawthorn, Melbourne, Victoria, on 24 March 1882. She was the eldest daughter of Thomas Plumley Derham, solicitor, and was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies College and the university of Melbourne. She graduated M.A. with final honours in classics in 1903, and subsequently studied at Oxford university. In 1912 she published The Mountain Road and Other Verses, and Empire: A Morality Play for Children. She was appointed senior lecturer in English at the university of Melbourne in 1922, and held this position for the rest of her life. She died suddenly on 13 November 1941. A woman of great kindliness and charm with a sense of humour, Miss Derham did not over-estimate her position as an Australian poet. But though The Mountain Road is only a slender book, few volumes of its time contain verse of such a uniformly high quality. Several of the lyrics have been included in Australian anthologies. Much verse written since 1912 has not been published in book form.

The Argus, 15 November 1941; personal knowledge.