Helen Plummer Phillips (1850–1929)The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; General Register Office: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths Surrendered to the Non-Parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857; Class Number: RG 8; Piece Number: 8FreeBMD. England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office. was an educator, missionary, and philanthropist. She was the first missionary sent from Australia by the newly formed Church Missionary Association NSW (now CMS Australia) in 1892. She was the first tutor for women students at the University of Sydney and formed the University of Sydney Women's Society in 1891 and established its settlement work, mentoring the women students until the Women's College was built and the first principal arrived. Phillips was a principal of St. Catherine's School, Waverley NSW, an advocate for women's full education, and a benefactor of St Luke's Anglican Community Church, Medlow Bath, NSW.Woolston, H. (1999) Helen Plummer Phillips 1851-1929. Headmistress and Missionary. Church of England Historical Society Journal, 44(3, September): 36-40
Life and ministry
Early life Helen Phillips was born on 19 November 1850 to a relatively well-off family in Shaugh Prior, Devon, England and grew up in Lee Moor House.1861 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Operations Inc, 2005, Class: RG 9; Piece: 1433; Folio: 30; Page: 1; GSU roll: 542812 She was baptised in the Plymouth circuit Ebenezer Wesleyan Methodist chapel in 1850 by James Mowat. Her father was William Phillips and mother Mary Ann Phillips (née James). Her father owned the Lee Moor Porcelain Clay Company, and the rights to use the Morley Clay works in partnership with his son, John (Helen's older brother).Hemming, George Wirgman. The Law Reports: Equity cases before the Master of the Rolls and the vice-chancellors. United Kingdom, Council of Law Reporting, 1866. pp318-335. William died in 1861 when Helen was ten years old, and the occupation of both her mother Mary and older brother John was listed on the census of that year as "China Clay Merchant and Brick Manufacturer employing 89 men". John Phillips had to sell the company and mining leases after his father's death but went on to establish Aller Vale pottery.
Phillips graduated from Bedford College, London and became a teacher, a senior assistant mistress at Sheffield Girls' High, England.Galettis, Evangeline History of St Catherine's School Her younger brother Richard Henry Phillips emigrated to Australia in 1884 and became Rector of the Anglican parish of Taree NSW then Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle. Helen was invited to be headmistress of St. Catherine's School, Waverley by Bishop Alfred Barry, third bishop of Sydney so she also sailed to Australia later in 1884.
Educator
St. Catherine’s School, Waverley
From September 1884 to 1890, she was the principal of St. Catherine's School, Waverley. The school was initially for the daughters of clergy but expanded to accept other girls as pupils. A later archivist of the school described Phillips as: "Affectionately known as ‘Phill’, she was an inspiring headmistress who was well ahead of her time."
She was known as a strong supporter of education for women, a progressive headmistress, and expanded the curriculum, encouraging the students to undertake public service and university entrance examinations.Lane, Pamela, August 2017, Eirene Mort: Artist, Artisan, and New Woman, a thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy of The Australian National University In 1884 she donated an art studio, "The Studio", to the school so that future artist Eirene Mort made good use of it when she attended St Catherine's from 1889 to 1897. The studio is now the school's museum. Later in 1914 Phillips asked Mort to illustrate her memoir.Phillips, Helen P. and Mort, Eirene. and Cave & Co. From Sydney to Delhi with Cook's coupons breaking the journey for a fortnight in Ceylon / by Helen P. Phillips; illustrated by Messrs. Cave & Co., Colombo and Irene Mort, Sydney Industrial School Dodanduwa [Sri Lanka] 1914 p63. She introduced the school's motto In Christo Thesauri Sapientiae at ScientiaI, "In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge". She fostered her students' interest in the arts bringing in music (Phillips played the pianoforte), drawing and language teachers as well as science teachers such as Fanny Hunt, the first woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Sydney in 1888. In 1890, Phillips wrote to a newspaper asking for an afternoon recital of the Halle-Neruda concert rather than the crowded evening concerts so she could take more of her students."THE HALLE-NERUDA CONCERTS." Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931) 21 June 1890: 3. Web. 7 Jun 2022
University of Sydney In July 1890, she wrote a letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald in response to an article written by a man saying that women had not achieved anything great, especially in poetry, drama and music."WOMAN'S COLUMN." The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) 12 July 1890: 4. Web. 7 Jun 2022 . In her letter, she mentioned that Phillipa Fawcett had earned the highest marks in mathematics at Cambridge University after gaining a scholarship to Newnham College."Miss Fawcett." The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947) 26 July 1890: 3. Web. 7 Jun 2022 Phillips supported the establishment of the proposed Women's College at Sydney University to similarly support women's education and wrote to both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Bulletin."T HE WOMEN'S COLLEGE." The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) 19 July 1890: 11. Web. 7 Jun 2022"ALL ABOUT WOMEN ." The W.A. Bulletin (Fremantle, WA : 1888 - 1890) 19 July 1890: 7. Web. 7 Jun 2022 A history of the Women's College states that generally, the Sydney Morning Herald was supportive of the proposed Women's College and reported favourably on the progress of fundraising for it while The Bulletin was generally derisive of the need for a Women's College.Hole, W. V. and Treweeke, Anne H. The history of the women's college within the University of Sydney / W. Vere Hole and Anne H. Treweeke [Angus and Robertson] Sydney 1953
In 1890, she was visited by two university professors who asked her to become the first tutor to women students at the University of Sydney. She made a short visit of a few months in 1891 to England to visit family and old friends at Oxford and Cambridge Universities including "Katie" (Catherine Sharpe Parker who married W.H. Gaskell)Silverman, M. E., & Upshaw, C. B. (2002). Walter Gaskell and the understanding of atrioventricular conduction and block. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 39(10), 1574–1580. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0735-1097(02)01839-9 who had been a fellow student at Bedford College, and Phillippa Fawcett. With the Gaskells, Phillips sat at the head table of Newnham College and inquired how the college supported women students at university. She also visited another younger brother, William Inchbold Phillips, Priest in Charge, St John's College Mission (Lady Margaret Church) WalworthAlumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2011. p115The Eagle, 1909 Lent edition, St John's College Cambridge University "The Lady Margaret Mission" p182 where she learned more about the work of the college mission. The mission involved university students in charitable works and educating poorer people in the area in the settlement movement tradition.
From 1891 to 1892, she became the first tutor to women students at Sydney University. In accepting the offer of this position, she resigned as principal of St Catherine's and postponed her intention to travel to northern India to help a missionary friend, Elizabeth Clay. In most official university sources she is listed as "Tutor to the Women Students–Helen P. Phillips (Bedford College)"Moore's Australian almanac and country directory for the year 1892, J. Moore, Sydney viewed 27 May 2022 under the Faculty of Medicine while in a few other sources she is described as the first acting principal of Women's College, University of Sydney"PERSONAL." The Northern Champion (Taree, NSW : 1913 - 1954) 29 May 1929: 2. Web. 7 Jun 2022 but she was not the first principal who was Louisa Macdonald."THE WOMEN'S COLLEGE AT SYDNEY". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 23 December 1891. p. 5. Retrieved 14 March 2013. Phillips herself corrected that in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald in 1911. The statement of duties given to Phillips by the university said that she was to be "a guardian and friend" to the women students.University of Sydney. Australia's first: a history of the University of Sydney University of Sydney in association with Hale & Iremonger Sydney 1991Bygott, Ursula M. L. and Cable, K. J. and University of Sydney. Pioneer women graduates of the University of Sydney 1881-1921 / by Ursula Bygott and K.J. Cable University of Sydney Sydney 1985 While she was a tutor at the university, Phillips instigated the formation of its Women's Society which helped disadvantaged people in Sydney, visited patients in hospitals and set up night schools particularly focussing on a night school for girls at Millers Point, North Sydney.Woolston, H. (1999) "Helen Plummer Phillips 1851-1929, Headmistress and Missionary". Church of England Historical Society Journal, 44(3, September): 36-40 Lady Jersey, the governor's wife, supported her in setting up the society and its committee presidents and vice-presidents were other women of status in Sydney such as Lady Manning (wife of the Chancellor) and Mrs CB Fairfax. Phillips was succeeded as tutor by Jane Foss Russell (later Barff) in 1892.
Educator and missionary
From 1892 to 1905 Phillips spent 13 years in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) as a missionary where she founded industrial schools for boys and girls and established the Sinhalese Women Teachers Vernacular Training School in Colombo after she returned from her second furlough in 1904. Phillips mostly used her own funds to pay for her travel and the missionary work. In 1897 and 1900 she was described as an "honorary" missionary who bought the land for the first mission compound at Dodanduwa then gave the title deeds to the Church Missionary Society."RELIGIOUS." Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954) 10 April 1897: 11. Web. 6 Jun 2022 The Ceylonese government, under British rule, also paid the schools a grant for every student successful in their examinations. Meanwhile, in Australia, toys, useful articles and funds were collected in Anglican churches to send to "Miss Helen Phillips' Mission Station in Ceylon"."RYDE GENERAL NEWS" The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 - 1950) 24 October 1896: 10. Web. 6 Jun 2022 .