Sir Edward Charles Stirling (1848-1919)

Disclaimer:

This article contains terms or descriptions of research activities and academic practices that are no longer considered appropriate.

In the 19th and 20th Centuries, it was a practice for researchers to relocate human remains, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestral remains, and significant cultural objects to museums and universities in Australia and overseas. Most likely this occurred without the full knowledge or consent of the Indigenous communities. The University acknowledges the harm caused by these past practices and recognises its obligation to respectfully engage with Indigenous communities and support the repatriation of ancestral remains and cultural artefacts where appropriate.

For more information, please visit the repatriation of Aboriginal Ancestral remains page.

Edward Charles Stirling at St Vigeans, Stirling, South Australia. (Pictured in larger image with Professor Bensly, Lady Bragg, Sir William Bragg and Professor Henderson). Undated.Edward Charles Stirling was born in 1848 in the South Australian town of Strathalbyn to the prominent early South Australian legislator and businessman Edward Stirling Snr.[i] He was educated at Adelaide’s St Peter's College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was conferred degrees in Arts and later Medicine.[ii] In 1882 Stirling was appointed by the University of Adelaide to a lectureship in Human Physiology.[iii] As a member of the University Council Stirling played an important role in the 1885 establishment of the University’s Faculty of Medicine, including provisions allowing the admission of women to medical degrees.[iv] The following year he commenced as lecturer in Clinical Surgery and in 1900 was appointed the University’s inaugural Professor of Physiology, a position he held for almost two decades.[v]

In addition to his academic and administrative roles with the University, Stirling was active in South Australian civic life including as a member of the Legislative Assembly from 1884, a position from which he drafted the state’s Anatomy Act and successfully advocated for women’s suffrage.[vi] He was chairman and honorary director of the South Australian Museum committee during 1884 and 1885 and from 1889 respectively. His many roles and connections made him important to the nexus between the University and South Australia’s political, cultural and health institutions, the latter including the Adelaide Hospital and the Parkside Lunatic Asylum.[vii] During the 1890s he participated in expeditions to central Australia which included the collection of human remains.[viii] University records note his 1905 presidency of the Australasian Medical Congress and longstanding membership of the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee. In 1917 he was knighted and remained on the University Council until his death in 1919. [ix]

References:

[i] Hans Mincham, 'Stirling, Sir Edward Charles (Ted) (1848–1919)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,< http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stirling-sir-edward-charles-ted-939/text7675 >, published first in hardcopy 1976, accessed online 20 September 2020.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Edward Charles Stirling Staff Card, 1882-1919, Series 587, University Retired Staff Records, University of Adelaide Archives.

[iv] Rob Linn, The Spirit of Knowledge: A Social History of the University of Adelaide North Terrace Campus (Adelaide: the University of Adelaide Press, 2011), 41.

[v] Edward Charles Stirling Staff Card, 1882-1919, Series 587, University Retired Staff Records, University of Adelaide Archives.

[vi] Hans Mincham, 'Stirling, Sir Edward Charles (Ted) (1848–1919)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,< http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stirling-sir-edward-charles-ted-939/text7675 >, published first in hardcopy 1976, accessed online 20 September 2020.

[vii] Paul Daley, “The room of the dead: how a museum became a halfway house for bones and spirits”, Guardian Australia, July 5, 2007, < https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/05/the-room-of-the-dead-how-a-museum-became-a-halfway-house-for-bones-and-spirits > (accessed 20 September 2020).

[viii] Walter Marsh, “Why returning 4600 Old People to Country is the duty of all of South Australia”, The Adelaide Review, 27 April 2019, < https://www.adelaidereview.com.au/latest/news/2019/04/27/road-to-repatriation-south-australia/ > (accessed 20 September 2020).

[ix] Edward Charles Stirling Staff Card, 1882-1919, Series 587, University Retired Staff Records, University of Adelaide Archives.